Pictured are Cleveland City Councilman Jeff Johnson (in blue shirt) and Councilman Eugene Miller. Johnson won election on Tuesday to the new Ward 10 the two were both battling for and Miller is out of a job, effective in January.  Two city lawmakers lost their seats as a result of a city council redistricting map that drops council from 19 to 17 seats beginning next year. Miller is the east side city councilman to go, and Jay Westbrook, a longtime west side councilman, retired earlier this year, his city council seat also eliminated of the two.

CLEVELAND, Ohio-All of the incumbent Cleveland city councilpersons won reelection Tuesday night, including west side Councilman Brian Cummins, who edged opponent Brian Kazy in Ward 14, and east side Black councilpersons Terrell Pruitt in Ward 1, Zack Reed in Ward 2, Ward 4 Councilman Kenneth Johnson, and Phyllis Cleveland, Mamie Mitchell, T.J. Dow and Kevin Conwell in wards 5, 6, 7 and 9, respectively. And Councilman Jeff Johnson beat Councilman Eugene Miller to win in the new ward 10, a ward as a result of a redistricting map that takes city council from 19 to 17 seats beginning next year, a controversial council reduction plan that resulted in  two city lawmakers losing their jobs. One of them was Miller, who lost to Johnson on Tuesday night, and the other Jay Westbrook, whose council seat was eliminated after he retired, effective next year.

"I want to thank the voters in Ward 10 for their support," said Jeff Johnson at a victory party at his ward office Tuesday night in the Glenville neighborhood.

Johnson beat Miller by only 462 votes and got 2007 votes to Miller's 1545 votes, according to unofficial results from the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.

"The constituents are somewhat satisfied with representation," said state Rep. Bill Patmon (D-10), a Johnson supporter and former city councilman.

Patmon said that "it was a tough campaign between Jeff Johnson and Eugene Miller, two strong African-American city legislators, and it is a shame that one of them had to lose."

All members of Cleveland City Council, 17 of them beginning next year, are Democrats, except Cummins, a member of the Green Party. The terms are four year terms, and the job pays some $74,000 annually.

Like the mayor, city council has no term limits per the city charter .

In spite of coming off of a third DUI conviction this year Councilman Reed trounced Marcus Henley, winning with 83 percent of the vote. Incumbent Councilman T.J. Dow out did opponent Basheer Jones to retain his seat, though Jones was backed by Congresswoman Marcia Fudge and the Call and Post Newspaper. And Councilwoman Mitchell easily kept her seat, beating Ward 6 precinct committeeman and social worker John A. Boyd.

Boyd did, however, make a decent showing with Mitchell getting 1832 votes to his 1093 votes.

"Eight months ago I was facing a third DUI," Reed told Cleveland Urban News.Com, Ohio's most read online Black newspaper." I thank the voters of Ward 2 for having confidence in me."

A voter adopted city council reduction plan that reduced city council from 21 to 19 seats nearly four years ago and will take council from 19 to 17 seats beginning next year allowed city council president Martin  Sweeney to draw the map, and many councilpersons felt this last time Sweeney designed it to pit Councilman Jeff Johnson against Ward 9 Councilman Kevin Conwell. So Johnson took on Sweeney ally Eugene Miller in the new ward 10 and ran against him, rather than his friend and popular colleague Conwell in ward 9, and with help from Conwell and longtime east side White councilman Michael Polensek. All three, Johnson, Polensek and Conwell, were perturbed with Sweeney's new map, and they fought back, and created a trio with Patmon's help. And they out did Sweeney, Jackson and Miller, some said, bringing a victory for Johnson on Tuesday. Polensek could help because he won Tuesday night with the opponent in the new ward 8, and the popular Conwell blew out his opponent.

A city councilperson, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Cleveland Urban News.Com earlier this year that Sweeney allegedly gave Miller an ink pen to suggest how Miller would be impacted by the new map, and that the redistricting process was unfair, and politically motivated, a claim Sweeney denies.

Nonetheless, Johnson pulled off an upset Tuesday night,  in-spite of Miller's campaign help from Mayor Frank Jackson,  a Sweeney ally like Miller who won a third mayoral term Tuesday night against millionaire businessman Ken Lanci.

A former state representative, Miller was predicted by political pundits to be the fall guy, and not Jeff Johnson, a former state senator.

"Jeff is likable  and an experienced campaigner, and he used that experience to win," said Patmon, one of three Black Democratic state lawmakers that represent parts of the city of Cleveland in the Ohio House of Representatives, and a former mayoral candidate who lost a nonpartisan general election runoff to Jackson in 2009.

"Jeff Johnson won because he has an interpersonal relationship with the community and his constituents," said Johnson supporter Brenda Bickerstaff.

Cleveland Urban News.Com, Copyright 2012