Democrats Justin Bibb and Kevin Kelley advance in the seven-way Cleveland mayoral primary to the nonpartisan runoff election for mayor, which is November 2, 2021....Dennis Kucinich loses his bid to return as mayor, coming in third relative to Tuesday's primary.... By editor Kathy Wray Coleman of Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

 

Cleveland mayoral candidates Justin Bibb and City Council President Kevin Kelley were the top two vote-getters relative to the seven-way nonpartisan primary for mayor on Tues, Sept. 14, 2021 and will square off for a general election runoff on Tues., Nov. 2

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

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

CLEVELAND, Ohio- With support of a cover page endorsement from the Cleveland Plain Dealer Newspaper and an endorsement from former three-term Black mayor Michael R. White, newcomer Justin Bibb out did six competitors to come out on top in Cleveland's Sept. 14 nonpartisan primary Tuesday night, Council President Kevin Kelley coming in second place for the opportunity to face Bibb in a Nov. 2 runoff for mayor.  

Without ever holding office before, Bibb won with 29 percent of the vote and Kelley trailed with 19 percent, unofficial results from the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections reveal. Former mayor and prior congressman Dennis Kucinich followed in third place with 17 percent, with former councilman Zack Reed, Ward 7 Councilman Bashear Jones, state Sen Sandra Williams (D-21),  and attorney and novel candidate Ross DiBello coming in fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh place, respectively.

"We didn't spend a bunch of money hiring  professional signature gatherers, we went door to door asking voters for change on the ballot this September," said  Bibb during a primary victory speech at  an election night watch party at ThirdSpace Action Lab in Glenville on the city's largely Black east side. " Since I was in junior high school I've had this dream as a kid from Dove to one day be the mayor of this city."

He told his supporters at the watch party that winning the general election in November will require hard work and dedication, and he thanked his campaign manager Ryan Puente, among a host of others.

He described Puente, a former executive director of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party, as "one of the brightest stars in American politics."

A Ward 13 councilman and Council president since 2006 when  Jackson took the reigns as mayor, Kelley, 53 and a married father of five daughters, held his election night watch party at the Harp restaurant on Detroit Avenue on the city's west side. 

There the second place finisher thanked supporters and said that while Cleveland has had its challenges he is prepared to lead the city. 

He said the best days for Clevelanders lie ahead and told reporters that "our community has a lot of challenges, but also a tremendous amount of opportunities."

The winner of the general election will succeed Mayor Jackson, a retiring four-term mayor who has been in office at City Hall for nearly 16 years and the city's third Black mayor behind White, who came out of political seclusion of roughly 20 years to campaign for Bibb, and behind the late Carl B. Stokes, the first Black mayor of Cleveland and of a major American city.

All of the seven candidates who competed in Tuesday's primary are Democrats, and per the city charter only two of them could advance to the general election. 

Voter turnout in the largely Black and impoverished urban city of some 372,000 people was at 16 percent with 57,247 Cleveland voters casting ballots, an embarrassingly low turnout.

If Bibb, 34, wins in November over Kelley he would become the city's fourth Black mayor, and its second youngest mayor behind Kucinich, who was  dubbed "the boy mayor" because he was 31 when Clevelanders elected him mayor 44 years ago.

Williams, Jones and Reed are Black like Bibb, and both Bibb, a non profit executive, and Kelley, who was endorsed by Jackson, the fire fighters union and less than a handful of members of city council, will now fight for their support as losers of Tuesday's primary.

Who Kucinich will endorse, if anybody, remains to be seen as he and Kelley, both White and both westsiders, were at odds with Kelley's campaign resenting the entrance of Kucinich to the primary race to nab votes that might have gone to Kelley. And Kelley's campaign is accused of a campaign smear tactic against Bibb regarding a scathing mailer that went out to westsiders just days before Tuesday's primary. 

The front-runner in the polls leading up to Tuesday's primary, Kucinich, 74, said in response to his disappointing third place loss that he wishes Bibb and Kelley the best

"I love Cleveland and I wish the candidates the best," said Kucinich, a two-time presidential candidate and a congressman when he twice sought to become president. 

Kucinich was the Democratic mayor of Cleveland from 1977-1979 when the city charter set the mayoral term at two years rather than the now four year term, though there are no term limits on the number of times a Cleveland mayor can seek reelection. His short tenure as mayor, however, was tumultuous in which he survived a recall election and was successful in a battle against selling the municipal electric utility before being defeated for reelection by George Voinovich, a Republican who went on to become governor.

Cleveland and Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland, are Democratic strongholds courted by powerful Democrats, including  presidential candidates who rarely, if at all, miss a visit to Cleveland as a presidential nominee. 

Councilman Jones, 37, must say goodbye to city council after opting to run for mayor rather than to seek reelection in Ward 7, which includes the historic Hough community and the St. Clair- Superior and Midtown and Asia Town neighborhoods. Former councilman T.J. Dow, whom Jones ousted in 2017 to become councilman, will face state Rep Stephanie Howse in a November runoff for the ward 7 seat, both of them winning in a crowded primary on Tuesday night. 

Elections for Cleveland mayor and the 17-member city council are held every four years and at the same time, 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.