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By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief
BEDFORD HEIGHTS, Ohio-The Black Women's Political Action Committee of greater Cleveland (BWPAC) held its annual Candidates Meet & Greet Fundraiser luncheon at the Mediterranean Party Center Saturday afternoon in Bedford Heights, Ohio, a 78 percent Black suburb of Cleveland.
"Thanks so much for supporting this annual fundraiser," Elaine Gohlstin, president of the Black Women's PAC and the mistress of ceremonies for Saturday's event, told the audience members in attendance.
Gohlstin has led the organization for several years and replaced former longtime president Una H. R. Keenon, a founding member of the group and a retired East Cleveland judge and current East Cleveland School Board president who is now the vice president of the organization.
Gohlstin said that the monies from fundraisers help the BWPAC with events and any donations it might make to candidates the group of political Black women has endorsed. She said her group also educates women politically and pushes for more Black women to become actively engaged in the political process.
The event comes as the Nov. 2 general election nears for Cleveland mayor, the 17 seats on Cleveland City Council that are all up for grabs, open Cleveland judgeship seats, and some suburban mayor city council and other offices. It drew a host of prominent people, including area judges, Maple Heights Mayor Annette M. Blackwell, Beachwood Mayor Martin H. Horwitz, and Ohio Supreme Court Justice Melody Stewart, the first Black elected to Ohio's highest court.
Cleveland mayoral runoff candidates nonprofit executive Justin Bibb and Council President Kevin Kelley
Cleveland Council President Kevin Kelley, who will face non-profit executive Justin Bibb for runoff for mayor in the fight to replace retiring four-term Black mayor Frank Jackson, was also in attendance and spoke, and former Cleveland councilman Zack Reed, who placed fourth last month's primary for Cleveland mayor, spoke on behalf of Bibb, whom he has endorsed.
Others there include Cleveland Municipal Court Judges Lauren Moore, Pinkey Carr, Jazmin Torres-Lugo, Suzan Marie Sweeney and Sheila Turner McCall, Cleveland Housing Court Judge W. Mona' Scott, Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court Judge Tonya R. Jones, who is the first Black elected to the county domestic relations court, Common Pleas Judges Casandra Collier Williams and Deborah Turner, former Common Pleas Strickland Judge Wanda Jones, Shaker Heights judicial candidates Sydney Saffold and Laura Creed, 11th congressional District Republican Nominee Lavern Gore, Cleveland judicial candidate Andrea Nelson Moore, Asia Jones, the candidate for Cleveland Ward 8 who faces Councilman Michael Polensek for the November election. Also among those there were Euclid City Council President, Rev. Dr. Rebecca Stitt, Lee Weingart, Cuyahoga County Drug and Alcohol Board President Rev. Benjamin Gohlstin, Richmond Heights Councilwoman Cassandra Nelson, Eric Synenberg, who is running for a Beachwood City Council seat, Bedford School Board candidate Danielle Turner Birch, Euclid City Council candidate Lisa Nelson, and Dr. Bennanaye Brooks, president of the League of Women Voters Greater Cleveland Chapter and a candidate for the East Cleveland School Board.
In total, there were 10 judges there, eight of them Black, one Hispanic and one White. And all 10 are Democrats as both the majority Black city of Cleveland and the 29 percent Black county it sits in, Cuyahoga County, are Democratic strongholds.
BWPAC committee members who organized Saturday's fundraising luncheon were Barbara Transportation Parks, Clover Elliot, BWPAC Secretary Patricia Ivey, Je'Nine Nickerson, LonCherie Billingsly, East Cleveland School Board Member Dr. Mary Rice, and Maria Solomon, the organization's treasurer.
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