From The Metro Desk Of Cleveland Urban News.Com and The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com, Ohio's No 1 and No 2 online Black newspapers
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CLEVELAND, Ohio-Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson kicked off his reelection campaign on Saturday afternoon at his campaign headquarters on Prospect Ave flanked by some key Black elected officials including Councilman Jeff Johnson and state Sen. Nina Turner (D-25), who also spoke, and who introduced the Black mayor earlier that day before he won the endorsement from the powerful Cuyahoga County Democratic Party.
The two term mayor says that he has earned four more years.
"Four more years," Jackson said to chants to a crowd of supporters at his campaign headquarters.
Turner is out front lately after agreeing to forgo reelection to her state senate seat to run for Ohio Secretary of State next year against Republican Jon Husted, and on the Democratic ticket with Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald, who announced earlier this year that he will run for Ohio governor in 2014 against incumbent Republican Gov. John Kasich.
Jackson spoke on his political platform and promised to spur economic growth for the largely Black major American city, and he said he would increase safety, retain jobs, enhance educational outcomes for students of the city schools that he controls under state law, and prioritize senior citizens, among other promises.
He is the city's 56th mayor and the third Black behind Carl B. Stokes and Michael R. White, the city's longest serving mayor
White served three terms and bowed out to Jane Campbell, who did one four year term before Jackson, then city council president, ousted her in 2005.
Millionaire businessman Ken Lanci, also a Democrat, is Jackson's only opponent for a non-partisan November general election, and for what would have been a September 10 non-partisan primary had others interested been able to secure the 3,000 petition signatures by Thursday afternoon necessary to make the ballot.
The city charter has no limit on how many terms a mayor or city council member can serve
Both Lanci, 63, and Jackson, 67, vied for the county Democratic Party endorsement and gave speeches at its endorsement meeting on Saturday morning. And few were surprised that Jackson, a seasoned campaigner who was councilman for Ward 5 on the city's majority Black east side before winning the mayor-ship, won by getting more yeas from executive committee members in attendance.
Though a newcomer to politics who lost a 2010 race for county executive, then as an Independent, Lanci is not being taken lightly as community relations board director Blaine Griffin has taken a four months leave of absence from his $87,000 -a -year job until November 18 to run the mayor's campaign.
"I will be running the mayor's campaign and will return to work afterwards," Griffin told supporters at Jackson's campaign kickoff yesterday.
Griffin, the vice chair of the county Democratic party, took about a 3 months leave last year from his City Hall job to run the campaign for the successful 15- mill Cleveland schools tax levy on the November ballot, though he was paid handsomely from campaign funds, records show.
