Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson names Attorney Michael Bowen as his new campaign manager as the November general election nears....Bowen is Black and will take a temporary leave from his law practice to run Jackson's campaign.....He is the son of a late Shaker Heights councilperson, and he assisted with ousted Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty's campaign, and worked formerly for former Lakewood mayor Ed FitzGerald, also a former Cuyahoga County executive and unsuccessful 2014 gubernatorial candidate...Mayor Jackson faces councilman Zack Reed in November for a non-partisan runoff, Reed also choosing a new campaign manager this week....Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog with some 4.5 million views on Google Plus alone.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com
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| Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson (left) and his newly appointed campaign manager, Michael Bowen |
CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM-Cleveland, Ohio - Expanding and enhancing his campaign for the final weeks leading up to the Nov. 7 general election, where he will face Ward 2 Councilman Zack Reed in a non-partisan runoff, Cleveland Mayor Frank G. Jackson has named key additions to his campaign's leadership team, including a new campaign manager.
Michael Bowen, who is Black and 30-years-old, has been named campaign manager and will oversee day-to-day operations Jackson, a three term Black mayor seeking an unprecedented fourth term, announced to staffers at his campaign headquarters on Carnegie Avenue in Cleveland on Thursday morning.
In addition, Mayor Jackson announced that R Strategy Group will lead campaign strategy initiatives, and communications.
Firm vice president Jon Benedict will serve as chief strategist and work with Jeff Rusnak, R Strategy Group's president and CEO, on media and other communication, and with vice president Kathy Berta on field outreach and volunteer activities.
"We are very excited to join this great team and help ensure Mayor Jackson's re-election," Bowen said. "Cleveland has momentum today, and that's thanks in large part to Mayor Jackson's leadership."
Bowen said that "there is so much at stake in this election, and we have to continue the progress achieved under Mayor Jackson."
An attorney with the powerful law firm of Taft, Stettinius & Hollister who will take a temporary leave from his law practice to lead Jackson's campaign, Bowen worked formerly for former Democratic Lakewood mayor Ed FitzGerald, who is also a former Cuyahoga County executive who lost a bid for governor in 2014 to John Kasich, a 2016 unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination for president. And he assisted campaigns for his mother, the late Lynn Ruffner, a Shaker Heights councilwoman who died in 2014, and since ousted Cuyahoga and County Prosecutor Tim McGinty, a former common pleas judge who lost a Dempocratic primary for reelection to current county prosecutor Michael O'Malley in 2016. He was a field director for the May 2015 renewal of the county’s Arts & Cultural Levy, which passed with 73 percent of the vote.
The mayor's former campaign manager, Wayne Clark of the state of Maryland, who is also Black and led Jackson to a 39 percent victory among eight challengers relative to the Sept 12 non-partisan primary, will remain as part of his campaign team as a consultant when needed, Jackson said Thursday.
"I want to thank Mr. Clarke for his efforts to build this campaign and to help win the primary election," Jackson said. "We are expanding our campaign team to ensure that we have the energetic leadership to take the campaign to the next level. I believe that this team will take us to victory in November."
The shake-up in the mayor's campaign team comes with the Nov. 7 general election just five weeks away.
And though Jackson finished the primary with roughly 39 percent of the vote, and Reed with a distant 22 percent, 61 percent of voters chose somebody other than Jackson, and 78 percent chose a candidate other than Reed, who, this week, named Kevin Jones, a senior account executive with Stern advertising, as his new campaign manager to replace Angela Shute Woodson.
Jones is Black, and a key organizer of Reed's annual family Unity in the Park concert and festival at Luke Easter Park on the city's largely Black east side.
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenews
