County Reform Ballot Issue 6 Passes, Issue 5 Fails, And Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson Wins A Second Term
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason
Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson
Posted Tuesday, November 3, 2009
(National and Cleveland, Ohio Area News)
By Kathy Wray Coleman
Editor of The Determiner Weekly and The
Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog
and Media Network
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason flexed his muscle election night Tuesday as the county reform measure dubbed Issue 6 that he pushed to the distraction of Black leaders and Cleveland, Ohio's Black press sailed to victory in a landslide fashion. So did Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, who trounced former Cleveland City Council member Bill Patmon to win a second term as mayor of the predominantly Black city with 78 percent of the vote, according to unofficial results from the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections. The state wide initiative that would bring casino gambling to horse racing facilities to major Ohio cities, including Cleveland, passed by a narrow margin.
Jackson said that in his next four years as mayor he will continue to push for community enhancement activities by focusing on what he called challenges as to economic development, job creation and education.
“All of the children in Cleveland deserve a quality education,” said Jackson.
Issue 6, a charter amendment that replaces nine non-judicial elected county offices, including the three-member Board of Commissioners, sheriff and clerk of courts, with a subsequently elected 11 member county council and elected county executive, won with 66 percent of the vote. A competing ballot proposal labeled Issue 5, which would have given a 15-member elected committee authority to study county reform and make revision recommendations to voters in 2010, lost with 72 percent of voters in Cuyahoga County rejecting it.
Black affiliates and leaders such as U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-11), Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Ohio Rep. Barbara Boyd (D-9), the NAACP, and the Call and Post Newspaper, a Cleveland weekly that targets the Black community, opposed issue 6, though not with much venom, voting results revealed. At issue with some was what they claim is gerrymandering detrimental to Blacks of the 11 county districts because only one of the 11 seats upon which candidates will seek election to for representation on the subsequently elected 11 member county council is assured to be won by a Black. Mason has countered the claim saying Blacks can potentially win three or more of the 11 seats. Cuyahoga County is roughly 30 percent Black.
The county reform measures come on the heels of an FBI probe of county leaders including Cuayhoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora, on leave as chairman of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party, and county auditor Frank Russo. Both have denied any wrongdoing and neither has been indicted.
Issue 5 met opposition, also from Blacks, who said that the 29 candidates on the ballot of which 15 were elected to study county reform had Issue 5 passed were put there without community input by a bureaucratic group including Cuyahoga County Commissioners Peter Lawson Jones and Tim Hagan, who also put Issue 5 on the ballot.
“They should have let a 'n-word' know what was going on,” said a voter, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Mason, who some call a clever Democrat with Republican friends, was wise, some said, by simply pushing for voters to adopt Issue 6 without clouding the measure with candidates for the 11-member elected county council and elected county executive on the ballot at the same time. By holding off for a subsequent election of those candidates he escaped the criticism that Issue 5 initiators felt as to allegedly pushing a team of ballot candidates to study reform down the throats of voters, and without their input.
There were no surprises in the races for Cleveland City Council. Aside from Shari Cloud in Ward 8, all of the appointed or incumbent Cleveland City Council members won seats including incumbents Zack Reed and Brian Cummins, both of whom ran in redistricted wards due to a voter-approved measure that reduced city council from 21 to 19. Cloud, who was recently appointed when councilwoman Sabra Pierce Scott resigned to run Jackson's campaign, lost to Jefferey Johnson, a former Cleveland City Councilman and former Ohio State Senator.
Issue 1, a state-wide measure that would give fiscal subsidies to veterans of certain wars, including the Iraq War, passed, as did Issue 2, also a state wide initiative. It calls for an amendment to the Ohio Constitution to appoint a 13-member Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board for the purposes of establishing standards for the care of livestock and poultry. The proposed tax levy for Cleveland's Cuyahoga Community College also passed.
In the judicial race of interest Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Michelle Earley, a former assistant county prosecutor appointed to the seat by Ohio Governor Ted Strickland after Cleveland Municipal Court Administrative Judge Larry Jones won a seat on the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals, out distanced closest opponent Greg Groves to retain her seat.
East Cleveland, Oh. has a new mayor in Gary Norton, who ousted incumbent Democrat Eric Brewer in the primary and had no Republican opponent for the general election. Incumbents Dr. Joy Jordon and Nathaniel Martin won the two at-large city council seats and newcomer Chantelle Lewis won in Ward 3.
University Heights, Oh., a Cleveland suburb, also has a new mayor, following the retirement of long time mayor Beryl Rothchild. Democrat Susan Infeld beat opponents Frank Consolo and Steven Bennett in the non-partisan race to lead the city, which is roughly 18 percent Black.
Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson
Posted Tuesday, November 3, 2009
(National and Cleveland, Ohio Area News)
By Kathy Wray Coleman
Editor of The Determiner Weekly and The
Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog
and Media Network
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason flexed his muscle election night Tuesday as the county reform measure dubbed Issue 6 that he pushed to the distraction of Black leaders and Cleveland, Ohio's Black press sailed to victory in a landslide fashion. So did Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, who trounced former Cleveland City Council member Bill Patmon to win a second term as mayor of the predominantly Black city with 78 percent of the vote, according to unofficial results from the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections. The state wide initiative that would bring casino gambling to horse racing facilities to major Ohio cities, including Cleveland, passed by a narrow margin.
Jackson said that in his next four years as mayor he will continue to push for community enhancement activities by focusing on what he called challenges as to economic development, job creation and education.
“All of the children in Cleveland deserve a quality education,” said Jackson.
Issue 6, a charter amendment that replaces nine non-judicial elected county offices, including the three-member Board of Commissioners, sheriff and clerk of courts, with a subsequently elected 11 member county council and elected county executive, won with 66 percent of the vote. A competing ballot proposal labeled Issue 5, which would have given a 15-member elected committee authority to study county reform and make revision recommendations to voters in 2010, lost with 72 percent of voters in Cuyahoga County rejecting it.
Black affiliates and leaders such as U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-11), Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Ohio Rep. Barbara Boyd (D-9), the NAACP, and the Call and Post Newspaper, a Cleveland weekly that targets the Black community, opposed issue 6, though not with much venom, voting results revealed. At issue with some was what they claim is gerrymandering detrimental to Blacks of the 11 county districts because only one of the 11 seats upon which candidates will seek election to for representation on the subsequently elected 11 member county council is assured to be won by a Black. Mason has countered the claim saying Blacks can potentially win three or more of the 11 seats. Cuyahoga County is roughly 30 percent Black.
The county reform measures come on the heels of an FBI probe of county leaders including Cuayhoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora, on leave as chairman of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party, and county auditor Frank Russo. Both have denied any wrongdoing and neither has been indicted.
Issue 5 met opposition, also from Blacks, who said that the 29 candidates on the ballot of which 15 were elected to study county reform had Issue 5 passed were put there without community input by a bureaucratic group including Cuyahoga County Commissioners Peter Lawson Jones and Tim Hagan, who also put Issue 5 on the ballot.
“They should have let a 'n-word' know what was going on,” said a voter, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Mason, who some call a clever Democrat with Republican friends, was wise, some said, by simply pushing for voters to adopt Issue 6 without clouding the measure with candidates for the 11-member elected county council and elected county executive on the ballot at the same time. By holding off for a subsequent election of those candidates he escaped the criticism that Issue 5 initiators felt as to allegedly pushing a team of ballot candidates to study reform down the throats of voters, and without their input.
There were no surprises in the races for Cleveland City Council. Aside from Shari Cloud in Ward 8, all of the appointed or incumbent Cleveland City Council members won seats including incumbents Zack Reed and Brian Cummins, both of whom ran in redistricted wards due to a voter-approved measure that reduced city council from 21 to 19. Cloud, who was recently appointed when councilwoman Sabra Pierce Scott resigned to run Jackson's campaign, lost to Jefferey Johnson, a former Cleveland City Councilman and former Ohio State Senator.
Issue 1, a state-wide measure that would give fiscal subsidies to veterans of certain wars, including the Iraq War, passed, as did Issue 2, also a state wide initiative. It calls for an amendment to the Ohio Constitution to appoint a 13-member Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board for the purposes of establishing standards for the care of livestock and poultry. The proposed tax levy for Cleveland's Cuyahoga Community College also passed.
In the judicial race of interest Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Michelle Earley, a former assistant county prosecutor appointed to the seat by Ohio Governor Ted Strickland after Cleveland Municipal Court Administrative Judge Larry Jones won a seat on the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals, out distanced closest opponent Greg Groves to retain her seat.
East Cleveland, Oh. has a new mayor in Gary Norton, who ousted incumbent Democrat Eric Brewer in the primary and had no Republican opponent for the general election. Incumbents Dr. Joy Jordon and Nathaniel Martin won the two at-large city council seats and newcomer Chantelle Lewis won in Ward 3.
University Heights, Oh., a Cleveland suburb, also has a new mayor, following the retirement of long time mayor Beryl Rothchild. Democrat Susan Infeld beat opponents Frank Consolo and Steven Bennett in the non-partisan race to lead the city, which is roughly 18 percent Black.
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