The Cleveland Plain Dealer endorses Justin Bibb for Cleveland mayor as the nonpartisan September 14, 2021 primary election nears....The general election is November 2

 

Cleveland Mayoral Candidate Justin Bibb

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

By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief

CLEVELAND, Ohio- In a slight to Cleveland City Council President Kevin Kelley, who many political insiders believed would be selected, the editorial board of the Cleveland Plain Dealer has endorsed novel candidate Justin Bibb for mayor to replace outgoing four-term Mayor Frank Jackson the city's third Black mayor, and its longest serving mayor. CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL PLAIN DEALER ENDORSEMENT AT CLEVELAND.COM

Jackson announced this summer that he would not seek an unprecedented fifth term.

In a well written editorial published at its online affiliate of Cleveland.com and as a cover story of Sunday's printed edition, Ohio's largest newspaper said that though Bibb, who graces the cover, is young at 34 and has no political experience, he has the vision to lead the largely Black major American city of some 385,000 people.

The endorsement comes as the Sept. 14 nonpartisan primary election for mayor and all 17 city council seats nears, the two top vote winners in each race facing off for a Nov. 2 general election. 

The newspaper said that Bibb, who as mayor would, per state law, control the city's public schools, understands the pertinent issues facing Cleveland, knows how to collaborate and get along with people, and is the best candidate for the mayor's job, an open seat for the first time since Jackson, then a city council president, was first elected in 2005.

"In this pivotal moment for Cleveland.....we believe the candidate with the vision for the successful city we wish to be is Justin Bibb," the editorial reads in part. 

A non profit executive and former banker with a law degree from Case Western Reserve University, Bibb is Black and a product of Cleveland. When he was younger he interned for former president Barack Obama when Obama was a junior senator from Chicago, Illinois.

The editorial  recognizes that Bibb is an underdog like former three-term mayor Michael R. White was when he first ran for mayor of Cleveland but goes on to say that he is in some ways like White, smart, articulate, not too old, and, though not said, attractive and clean cut. 

Then an Ohio senator and former city councilman, White, the city's second Black mayor, upset then council president George Forbes, his former mentor who went on to lead the Cleveland NAACP for 20 years, to win a contentious runoff  election in 1989.

White is allegedly a Bibb sponsor, and so are some of the big money campaign donors who helped to fund his campaign.

Bibb has raised more than a quarter million dollars, behind City Council President Kevin Kelley and Ward 7 Councilman Bashear Jones, who both have roughly a half million dollars.

The newspaper's editorial board chose Bibb to endorse among the seven all Democratic candidates, practically all of them better known that he is, including  Kelley, an attorney and ally of the mayor and a front-funner,  Councilman Jones,  state Sen. Sandra Williams (D-21), former congressman and one-time city mayor Dennis Kucinich,  attorney Ross DiBello, and former Ward 2 Councilman Zack Reed , who lost a mayoral runoff to Jackson in 2017.  

Kuncinich, Kelley and DiBello are the only Whites in the mayoral race in a city that is more than 58 percent Black. Whether the primary will render two Blacks for the November runoff election or a White candidate and a Black candidate remains to be seen. 

Two Whites in this year's runoff, like Kelley and Kucinich, is unlikely, sources said, regardless of the popularity of Kucinich  at 74-years-old, Kucinich also a former congressman who ran for governor in 2018.

Bibb, the editorial said, is better equipped to help grow the economy and address poverty and the city's high infant mortality rate, and he has  "better ideas for fighting crime."

Crime has escalated in Cleveland and in other largely Black major American cities since the pandemic hit in March of 2020, prompting Mayor Jackson to join 27 other big city mayors in sending a letter to President Joe Biden seeking help on the issue.

Cleveland Division of Police Crime Analysis Unit statistics reveal  that homicide cases are up 30% from last year, and incidents of felonious assault shootings are up 56%. Cleveland police officers have confiscated over more than 1,400 guns so far in 2021, a 72% increase in firearms confiscations from this time last year.

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

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the 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.