Only three candidates, Councilman Johnson, Brandon Chrostowski, who is White and an east side restaurant owner, and Dyrone Smith have been cleared to run for mayor to date by the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, though others including three- term mayor Jackson, Reed,  and Patmon, all of them Black, will likely make the ballot, sources said yesterday.

In addition to Mayor Jackson, Reed, Jeff Johnson, Patmon, Smith, Brewer and Crostowski, the other two candidates are, like Chrostowski, White, and are Tony Madalone, and Republican Robert Kilo, who ran in 2009 and came in third behind Patmon, who lost to Jackson in the general election that year.

With so many Black candidates against a three-term Black incumbent mayor, a White candidate, either Chostowski, Madalone or Kilo, could win the non-partisan primary, history reveals.

The city charter requires 3,000 good signatures of registerd voters to make the ballot to run for mayor, and 200 for city council.

Cleveland, which is largely Black with a dwindling population of some 385,000 people, is the second most segregated city in the country behind Boston, the city divided by the Cuyahoga River with Blacks dominating the east side and Whites, the west side, the 17-member city council of which currently has nine White and eight Black members with all of the Blacks representing largely Black east side wards.

All 17 coucil membbers are Democrats in highly Democratic Cuyahoga County, the state's second largest county with a 29 percent Black population.

The eight Black council persons represent east side wards 1, 2, 4, 5. 6, 7, 9 and 10

All 15 of the 17 members of city council not running for mayor face opposition and a crowd of people are running for the Ward 2 council seat Reed is giving up to run for mayor.

The Ward 10 seat held by mayoral candidate Jeff Johnsonhas also drew a crowded field of candidates.

Those seeking Reed's council seat are Kevin Bishop, Azel Bolden, William Chris Daniel, Geoff Fitch, Carol Ford, Kenya Gray, Debra Lewis-Curlee and the Rev Tony Minor, with Gray, Ford, Daniel and Fitch certified to run, and others, many of whom filed petitions this week, are expected to make the ballot also.

And former Ward 10 councilman Eugene Miller, a Jackson ally who now works for the city and who lost the race to Jeff Johnson after redistricting reduced city council from 19 members to 17 in 2013, is running in Ward 10, as is Cuyahoga County Councilman Anthony Hairston, whom Jeff Johnson has tapped to replace him on council.

The others seeking the Ward 10 seat are Willie Lewis Britt, Teresa Floyd, Naomi Goolsby, Timothy Henry, Warren Ireland, Rico Dancy, perrenial canidate Freddie Moore, Nicole Wells, Annamaria Cora, and Victoria Trotter.

Of the aforementioned in Ward 10 Britt, Floyd, Goolsby, Hairston and Henry have been cleared to run, though Miller and others will likely make the ballot too, sources said yesterday

Other surprises in the city council races include former Ward 1 councilman Joe Jones, who, along with council candidate Kimberly Brown, hopes to unseat Terrell Pruitt, a Jackson ally.

All three of them have made the ballot.

Ward 6 Councilman Blaine Griffin, the former director of the Community Relations Board under Jackson whom city council appointed last month to replace the retiring Mamie Mitchell has drawn six challengers, excluding John Boyd, who lost to  Mitchell twice in previous elections.

The others seeking the Ward 6 seat are Lavitta Murray, S. Xavier Allen, Joshua Perkins McHamm, Alonzo Mitchell, Gary Sardon, and Dylan Sellers, a member of the Cleveland Community Police Commission, a watchdog group formed per the consent decree between the city and the U.S. Department of Justice for police reforms.

All but Allen and McHamm, who filed their petitions on Wednesday, have been certified for the ballot.

In Ward 7 Councilman T.J. Dow will face Basheer Jones, Mansfield Frazier, Demar Sheffy and Daniel Graves for sure, with Russ Gates the only one waiting for approval on his petitions.

In the less talked about races of Black council persons, Ward 5 Councilwoman Phyllis Cleveland, the majority leader,  longtime Ward 4 councilman Kenneth Johnson. and Ward 9 Councilman Kevin Conwell all face  challengers.

To date only Conwell has been cleared to run in the Ward 9 race for council.

Three others, Anthony Bolden Keith Hatten and Randy Willis, filed their petitions on the June 29 deadline date to run in Ward 9 and are awaiting possible approval for the ballot by the board of elections.

Councilwoman Cleveland filed her petitions June 28 for and is awaiting likely ballot approval, as are potential candidates Frank Kidd and Larry Wanzo, Richard Star of whom is the only one certified in Wardv 5 so far.

Councilman Kenneth Johnson is facing seven possible Ward 4 opposition candidates as well as write -in candidate Dontez Taylor.

They are Nzogi Adigew, Julie Donaldson, Cecil Ekechukwu, Arnold Shurn, Gail Sparks, Roland Mitchell and LaShorn Caldwell, all but Caldwell, who filed petitions June 29,  of whom have been certified to date for the ballot and the Sept 13 primary election.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF THE CUYAHOGA COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS FOR THE LIST OF 2017 CANDIDATES FOR OFFICE

(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.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. Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, and who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. 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.