Cleveland City Council President Kevin Kelley announces run for mayor-Our story from a Black perspective.... By editor Kathy Wray Coleman of Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's Black and alternative digital news leaders

Cleveland City Council President Kevin Kelley

Cleveland City Council President Kevin Kelley with his wife Elizabeth and some of their five daughters

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com  Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. 

By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor in chief. Coleman trained for 17 years as a reporter with the Call and Post Newspaper and is an investigative and political reporter with a background in legal and scientific reporting. She is also a former 15-year public school biology teacher.  

CLEVELAND, Ohio- Standing on the steps of City Hall and flanked by his wife Elizabeth and three of his five daughters, Cleveland City Council President Kevin Kelley, a White west side councilman and ally of four-term Black mayor Frank Jackson, officially  announced on Thursday that he will make a run for mayor this year of the largely Black major American city of some 385,000 people.

Jackson, 74,  has not ruled out seeking an unprecedented fifth term but Kelley's entrance into the race and the mayor's lack of fundraising suggest that he will not seek reelection to the powerful post, sources say. 

“I talked with residents in every ward across Cleveland,” Kelley said in a press release. “They shared their concerns about safety, their desire for strong neighborhoods to call home and the need to have good-paying jobs. They care about Cleveland’s future. They believe, like I do, that Cleveland’s best days are ahead.”

A Democrat and city council president since 2006 when Jackson took office as mayor, Kelley, a practicing lawyer, represents Ward 13, which includes Old Brooklyn and part of the Stockyard neighborhood.

He said his campaign focus areas are  community policing, safe and prosperous neighborhoods, supporting police officers, addressing domestic violence and sex crimes, poverty, and rebuilding the city's infrastructure. 

He is likely a front runner of the announced candidates for mayor, though nothing is guaranteed, particularly since he is White and Cleveland is roughly 60 percent Black. 

And while he enjoys a campaign war chest of more that a half million dollars and backing by corporate entities, he struggles among progressives angry that he has in the past gone against the fight for a $15 minimum wage.

They say he is an establishment politician who will carry on the agendas of Jackson if elected mayor of the impoverished city of Cleveland.

Others say he is safe, and stable during a time of strife and unrest across the country from the still raging pandemic to out-of- control White cops who freely gun down unarmed Blacks with impunity, including in Cleveland. 

His  decision to enter the race for mayor comes after a listening tour this  spring.

"This spring, I held a listening tour in every one of Cleveland’s 17 wards, and I heard from you loud and clear," Kelley said after the tour. 

He said that "Cleveland is in a crisis unlike any time in its 225-year history. People are hurting. People are sick and dying from this pandemic. And this pandemic has exacerbated the existing problems of disparity, poverty, crime, and unemployment.

Though the even-tempered Kelley is likable in the political arena, some Black members of city council say he is not supportive enough of them and that the White council persons get more city resources for their wards from both he and Jackson in comparison to Black east side council persons.


He has also upset Black Cleveland activists after promising to get rid of a police chase policy that Jackson put in place that essentially limits police car chases to instances in which the suspect is suspected of with an OVI or violence felony, a policy the current mayor put in place in 2014 behind a host of unnecessary police car chases that resulted in fatal injuries of innocent people, mainly Black people. 

Kelley's announcement follows an announcement last month by Zack Reed that he will make a second bid for mayor, Reed a former east side councilman who lost a non-partisan mayoral runoff to Jackson in 2017, getting 40 percent of the vote.

He is the fifth person to enter the race for mayor, including Reed, who is Black, and  newcomer Justin Bibb, 34 and a former banker who is also Black and a protege of former mayor Michael R. White,

Bibb has raised more than a quarter of a million dollars for his mayoral bid. 

Elections for mayor and city council are held simultaneously in the same year, which keeps most of the city legislators on the 17- member city council from giving up a  relatively save council seat for a possible, and often unlikely, mayoral win. 

Others purportedly running for mayor include state Sen. Sandra Williams, former congressman Dennis Kucinich, Robert Kilo, and Edwin's entrepreneur Brandon Chrostowski.

The declared candidates thus far are Kelley, Reed, Bibb, Ross DiBello, and Ross Kostendt. 
 
The top two primary winners will advance to the Nov. 2 general election.

Currently, all 17 city council seats, practically half held by Whites and the other half by Blacks, are Democrats.
 
The city's last three mayors,  White, who is Black , former mayor Jane Campbell, the city's first and only female mayor,  and current Mayor Jackson, the city's third Black mayor behind White and former mayor the late Carl B. Stokes, have also been Democrats.  

The brother of the late congressman Louis Stokes, Ohio's first Black congressperson, Carl Stokes became the first Black mayor of Cleveland and of a major American city when he was elected in 1967 when the city was majority White. 

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.comthe most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest, and the most read independent digital news in Ohio. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.

Comments

Unknown said…
I live in his Ward, going on 18 years now. WARD 13. I think he is a great candidate for Mayor of Cleveland.

Popular posts from this blog

Former WOIO 19 Action News Anchor in Cleveland Sharon Reed lands new anchor job, her lawyer says rumors about LeBron James fathering her baby are false, had threatened to sue on her behalf, Reed is famous for posing nude for Spenser Tunick's nude group photo shoot

Corrupt and racist University Heights Mayor Susan Infeld is booted from office by voters following claims of spending irregularities of taxpayers money, racism against Black residents, police abuse of Blacks as city safety director, and of running a theft ring of county residents homes via illegal foreclosure activity led by JPMorgan Chase Bank.....University Heights is a Cleveland suburb....Others involved in the theft ring or retaliation against homeowners who complain include corrupt common pleas judges such as Judges John O'Donnell and Carolyn Friedland, Chief County Foreclosure Magistrate and University Heights Resident Stephen Bucha, and his wife, an attorney with the law firm of Lerner Sampson and Rothfuss, who represents corrupt mortgage companies and banks, including JP Morgan Chase Bank... Others involved include racist and corrupt University Hts Police Sgt Dale Orians, former county prosecutor Bill Mason, who is a partner with Bricker and Eckler, which represents JPMorgan Chase Bank, and current County Prosecutor Mike O'Malley, who was Mason's deputy....Drunken Shaker Heights Judge KJ Montgomery, who also hears criminal cases for University Hts, has Blacks illegally prosecuted who complain of the theft of their homes, as does O'Malley..... Judge Montgomery is top in issuing excessive and illegal warrants against the Black community....All of the aforementioned are corrupt and activists want them indicted and prosecuted....This is Part 1 of a multi-part series on Cuyahoga County public corruption by Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog with some 5 million views on Google Plus alone.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com

Chief and unfair Cuyahoga County Judge John Russo loses authority-Part 2 of a multi-part series on Cuyahoga County public corruption: New Ohio law on seeking possible removal of a municipal court judge in a case for bias or conflict via the filing of an affidavit of prejudice takes authority to decide from chief Cuyahoga County Presiding Judge John Russo, other chief common pleas judges in Ohio, and hands it to the chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, who also determines affidavits of prejudice filed against common pleas, probate, juvenile, domestic relations, and state appellate court judges....Most affidavits of prejudice are denied regardless of the merits and some judges complained of will retaliate, data show... Community activists, led by Cleveland activist Kathy Wray Coleman of the Imperial Women Coalition, lobbied the Cleveland NAACP for support and asked state legislators via state Rep Bill Patmon (D-10) of Cleveland to change the law but wanted a panel of judges and others to decide when a judge in Ohio is disqualified from hearing a case for bias or conflict....Coleman says she has since been further harassed by Chief Cuyahoga County Judge John Russo, who is White and leads a racist and sexist common pleas court fueled with corruption, malicious prosecutions, excessive criminal bonds, ineffective assistance of counsel to poor and Black defendants, and the mass incarceration of the Black community....By www.clevelandurbannews.com and www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspapers....This is part 2 of a multi-part series on Cuyahoga County public corruption