Pictured are Cleveland Municipal Court Judges Pauline Tarver and Ed Wade, and Annette Blackwell, who was elected mayor of Maple Heights, a  largely Black Cleveland suburb, in Tuesday's election. Wade ousted Tarver, a former executive director of the Cleveland NAACP, in a  close election, and Blackwell is Maple Height's first Black mayor.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, Cleveland Urban News. Com and the Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper and Newspaper Blog. Tel: 216-659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Coleman is a 22-year political, legal and investigative journalist who trained for 17 years, and under six different editors, including Connie Harper, at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com).

CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM-CLEVELAND, Ohio- Issue 3, a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot in Ohio for the Nov 3 general election that would have legalized marijuana for medical and recreation use did not pass Tuesday night in spite of a multi-million dollar campaign by its sponsor,  ResponsibleOhio, and public support from some Cleveland area Black leaders, including former Cleveland City Council president George Forbes and city council members Mamie Mitchell, Jeff Johnson and Ken Johnson. .

The pot measure lost 65 percent to 35 percent, an indication, said political pundits, that the conservative state of Ohio, a pivotal state for presidential elections, is not yet ready for such drastic changes in its drug laws.

Issue 2, a competing measure placed on the ballot by state legislators upset that Issue 3 was designed for a monopoly that would have given only a cadre of some 10 companies, those that funded the Issue 3 campaign, authority to make the monies from the weed sales, simultaneously passed.

Issue 1, a statewide proposal that reforms the process for redrawing state legislative district that both the Republican and Democratic Party pushed, cruised to a landslide victory, winning with roughly 81 percent of the vote, according to unofficial results announced by Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted.,

In Cuyahoga County, Ohio's largest of 88 counties that includes the city of Cleveland and 58 other municipalities, villages or townships, Issue 8, an extension of the cigarette tax  for the arts that voters initially approved in 2006, passed.

And Blacks were both winners and losers last night in non-partisan contested races for mayor, city council and judge-ships in municipalities across Cuyahoga County, which is 29 percent Black and a Democratic stronghold.

Cleveland Municipal Court Judge James Hewitt, a Republican appointed by Gov. Kaisch to fill the unexpired term left when Anita Laster Mays was elected to the Cuyahoga County Eighth District Court of Appeals, lost to Democrat Susan Marie Sweeney in a four way race that also included Anthony Jordan and Edwin Vargas,   .

Sweeney , who is White and enjoys a popular last name that voters often embrace in Ohio, particularly in Cuyahoga County, won with 47 percent of the vote to Hewitt's 27 percent.

Cleveland Judge Pauline Tarver also lost, but in a close race against sitting judge Ed Wade, who is also Black, with Wade garnering  53 percent of the vote to Tarver's 47 percent.

A former executive director of the Cleveland NAACP, Tarver faced repeated criticism from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest newspaper, for her poor attendance record on the bench over the last year or two years due, in part, to personal and family illnesses.

Tarver, who was endorsed by the county Democratic party and a host of others, has said that she was a target of the establishment for standing up against the purported mistreatment of select Black judges on the 13-member largely Black Cleveland Municipal Court bench.

A Republican and prolific campaigner, Wade said that he who took on his Democratic judicial colleague in the non-partisan race because his current term expires in 2017 and by then he would have turned 70-year, the age limit for judicial candidates seeking judgeship in Ohio.

Beford Heights prosecutor Deborah Turner lost to Michelle Paris in a three-way race for judge of the Bedford Municipal Court that also included Lon Stolarsky, who came in third place. Also endorsed by the Plain Dealer, which gave her and edge,  Paris beat Turner 49 percent to 37 percent.

Annette Blackwell trounced councilman Bill Brownlee, 68 percent to 32 percent, in the  race for mayor of Maple Heights, while Ruth Gray lost badly in South Euclid against incumbent Georgine Welo, Welo winning with 65 percent of the vote to Gray's 35 percent.

A former city councilwoman, Blackwell, who won the Plain Dealer endorsement, is the first Black mayor of Maple  Heights, a Cleveland suburb that is 68 percent Black.

Bedford Heights Mayor  Fletcher Berger easily won reelection election Tuesday night over Kathy Kelso Perez, and got 61 percent of the vote to  Kelso-Perez 's 38 percent.

Warrensville Heights  Mayor Brad Sellers, a former NBA basketball player and political protege of 11th Congressional District Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge, ran unopposed, as did the candidates in three separate city council races in the city, a largely Black middle class Cleveland suburb.

Barbara Thomas was reelected to  East Cleveland City Council and Joie Graham won without opposition to to the city council seat held by Councilman Mansell Baker, who did not seek reelection.

Una Kennon, a retired Cleveland Municipal Court judge and president of the Black Women's Political Action Committee of Greater Cleveland, was reelected to the East Cleveland Board of Education that she currently leads as board president,

Dr Mary Rice of Cleveland Heights, a newcomer who resides in the section of her city that is included as part of the East Cleveland School District, also won one of the three board of education seats up for grabs in East Cleveland, a Black and impoverished Cleveland suburb, and one of the poorest cities in Ohio.

Dr. Patricia Blochowiak, the only White on the five-member East Cleveland school board, also won reelection  (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com).