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CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio-Former Ohio state representative Barbara Boyd (pictured) of Cleveland Hts, a Democrat and also a former mayor of Cleveland Hts, has died at 80-years-old, passing away on Sat, Nov 5, 2022 surrounded by her beloved husband and other close family members. She is the mother of former state representative Janine Boyd, also of Cleveland Hts.

Funeral arrangements are pending, and this is a developing story.

Barbara Boyd (born April 24, 1942) was an American politician. She served twice as a Democratic member of the Ohio House of Representatives, serving the 9th district from 2007 to 2014, and the same district from 1993 until 2000. Her daughter Janine succeeded her into office in 2015 and served in the Ohio House of Representative until April of 2022.

A product of Cleveland's public schools who graduated from Glenville High School and a former elementary school teacher, Barbara Boyd worked on President Jimmy Carter's campaign as a start to politics. She became the first African American elected to Cleveland Heights City Council in 1983, where she would ultimately serve as mayor. Boyd also worked with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, as well as with the Children's Defense Fund. She was a dedicated member of Saint Andrews Episcopal Church in Cleveland, and a founding member of the Black Women's Political Action Committee of Ohio and Greater Cleveland.

In July of 2018, Cleveland Hts City Council voted to rename Caledonia Park, which straddles the border with neighboring East Cleveland, in her honor.

Cleveland Hts is a middle class Cleveland suburb of some 44,000 people. It is the eighth largest city in greater Cleveland and the 20th largest in Ohio, and is roughly 40 percent Black.

Black Women's PAC President Elaine Gohlstin said that Boyd "was a trailblazer for Black and other women and will be sorely missed."

Dr Mary Rice, a PAC member and a member of the East Cleveland Board Education, agreed.

"Practically every Democratic politician of substance sought her advice and support and as our representative in the state legislature she was a fierce advocate for her constituents." said Rice, a retired principal of John F. Kennedy High School in Cleveland.

East Cleveland School Board President Una H.R. Keenon, also a retired East Cleveland judge and a founding member of the PAC, said that "we love her and are certainly going to miss her [Barbara Boyd], and she taught us a lot."

In addition to her daughter, Janine Boyd, Barbara Boyd is survived by her longtime husband, Robert Boyd, a grandchild, and a host of other relatives, friends, and associates.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief (Coleman is a former biology teacher and a seasoned Black journalist, and an investigative, legal, scientific, and political reporter who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio).

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com the most read Black digital newspaper and blog in Ohio and in the Midwest Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. 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.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com the most read Black digital newspaper and blog in Ohio and in the Midwest Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com

EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio-Voters in East Cleveland will decide  whether to recall Mayor Brandon King at the ballot box on Nov. 8, 2022 with early voting in Cuyahoga County concluding on Mon.,  Nov 7

Community activists seeking to recall the embattled mayor submitted certified 322 valid petition signatures earlier this year to the board of elections for the recall effort,11 more than the 311 needed to put the issue before voters.  Council Vice President Ernest Smith is also the subject of a recall effort.

Also on the ballot in Ohio are statewide races, legislative seats, judgeships, congressional and local offices, some ballot issues, and a controversial U.S. Senate seat. Most notably is a gubernatorial election and the nationally watched fight for a U.S. Senate seat.

Per the city charter, the Black mayor had until Aug. 18 to resign after the board of elections certified the recall petition for the November ballot. If the recall is successful Council President Nathaniel Martin will step up as mayor until a runoff election can be held in early 2023.

Governed by a mayor and city council, East Cleveland is a 99 percent Black and impoverished suburb of Cleveland. It has a population of some 14,000 people and  59 percent of household income is less than $25,000. It is one of the poorest cities in Ohio with a majority of its residents living below the poverty line. Its mayor and members of city council are all Democrats

The city has been under fiscal emergency for the last decade.

William Fambrough, who supported Councilwoman Juanita Gowdy in her unsuccessful effort to unseat King via last year's primary election is spearheading the recall effort as a member of a citizens group that says King has permitted police to abuse their power and that he and police are undermining city council's authority.The mayor is also accused of misappropriating city monies and retaliating against his political rivals with malicious prosecutions at the hands of city law director Simmons.

The mayor's supporters say the recall effort is nothing more than an attempt to get rid of Black leaders in East Cleveland, notwithstanding a string of police indictments of the mayor's embattled police force, including chief of police Scott Gardner, who is White and is out on administrative leave without pay. Gardner has pleaded not guilty and faces several felony charges, including theft in office and grand theft. The indicted patrol officers, also on leave, are accused of pulling over Blacks and harassing them and stealing from them.

Then the vice president of city council, King succeeded former mayor Gary Norton into office in December of 2016 by succession, and after East Cleveland voters recalled Norton and the council president, That recall was effort organized by activists who complained that Norton was fiscally irresponsible and was supporting a now defunct merger proposal with East Cleveland and neighboring Cleveland King has since won election in 2017 and reelection in 2021.

Mayor King, 54, was born and raised in East Cleveland, and he holds an MBA from the Ohio State University.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com the most read Black digital newspaper and blog in Ohio and in the Midwest Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. 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.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com the most read Black digital newspaper and blog in Ohio and in the Midwest Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor

CLEVELAND, Ohio – With the Nov. 8 general election under a week away, including midterm elections relative to seats up for grabs in congress and in the U.S. Senate, some Democrats seeking statewide office in Ohio,including for governor, secretary of state and state attorney general, have made Cleveland and Cuyahoga County a campaign stumping ground, largely because Cuyahoga County, the second largest of Ohio's 88 counties, is a Democratic stronghold, and it is roughly 29 percent Black.

"We have organized canvasses to get out the vote," said state Rep Juanita Brent, a Cleveland Democrat and vice chairwoman of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party.

Also on the ballot in Ohio are state legislative seats, judgeships, congressional and local races, some ballot issues, and even a controversial recall effort of East Cleveland's mayor and its vice president of city council.

A majority Black major American city of some 383,000 people led by new mayor Justin M Bibb, a 35-year-old Black Democrat who won election last year, Cleveland is Ohio's second largest city, behind the capital city of Columbus, which has nearly a million people and sits in Franklin County, the state's largest county and also a Democratic stronghold.

Since Republican John Kasich, now a CNN commentator, ousted then Democratic governor Ted Strickland from the governor's mansion in a contentious 2010 election, Democrats in Ohio have not won a statewide office other than less than a handful of seats on the largely Republican Ohio Supreme Court, and the reelections of Sen Sherrod Brown, a senior member of the U.S. Senate and a former Ohio attorney general. Former Dayton mayor Nan Whaley, the Democratic nominee for governor who hopes to unseat Republican nominee Gov Mike DeWine, a former U.S. senator, has been through greater Cleveland at least eight times in the last few months with stops at abortion rallies in Shaker Hts, Medina and Willoughby, and just this week campaign events in Cleveland, including an event in Little Italy hosted by Cleveland City Council President Blaine Griffin and a gathering for some statewide office candidates on the city's near west side at the Forest City Brewery.

The Forest City Brewery event drew U.S. Sen Sherrod Brown of Cleveland, Ohio's most prominent Democrat and other elect Dems such as state Sen Nickie Antonio of Lakewood, 11th Congressional District Congresswoman Shontel Brown, who is a Warrensville Hts Democrat whose largely Black congressional district includes Cleveland and several of its eastern suburbs of Cuyahoga County, and  Cuyahoga County Councilwoman Cheryl Stephens, a former Cleveland Hts mayor  whom Whaley chose as her lieutenant governor running mate.

State Rep Jeff Crossman of Parma was there too, and is is running as the Democratic nominee for Ohio attorney general and he been all over the county campaigning for office . So was Cincinnati Councilwoman Chelsea Clark, a Black woman and the Democratic nominee for Ohio secretary of state who faces Frank LaRose in November, LaRose a Republican and the current secretary of state.

Ohio has been in the national news in recent months as Congressman Tim Ryan, a Youngtown area Democrat in congress for some two decades and Trump-endorsed Republican candidate J.D. Vance fight it out neck and neck for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by the upcoming retirement of Republican U.S. Sen Rob Portman of Cincinnati. Democrats currently have a razor thin majority in the U.S. Senate as U.S. seat races in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Georgia remain key , and while the Democrats are expected to retain control of the Senate they are simultaneously preparing to hand control of the U.S. House of Representative to Republicans  following expected midterm defeats via next week's election.

Ryan has courted Cuyahoga County voters too, including a rally with union members at the UAW Hall in Cleveland on Oct 27. He will rally in Cleveland next week as former president Donald Trump comes back to Ohio to campaign for J.D. Vance and some other Republican candidates on the November ballot.

The most closely watched race in Ohio is the U.S. Senate race between Ryan and Vance followed by a battle to replace age limited Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor, Justices Sharon  Kennedy, a Republican, and Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, running for that seat.

A Republican and the court's first female chief justice, an elected position, O'Connor's seat is one of three seats up for grabs this year on the seven-member largely Republican and majority female court. The other two seats open on the court are those of Republican Justices Patrick Fischer and Patick DeWine, Gov. DeWine's son, the younger DeWine facing First District Court of Appeals Judge Marilyn Zayas and Fischer facing 10th District Court of Appeals Terri Jamison, both of them Democrats. Tuesday's election will determine if Republicans will continue to dominate Ohio's hugest court.

Judge Jamison is Black, and she, like Justice Brunner, a former Franklin  County 10th District Court of Appeals judge who sat on the bench where Jamison now sits, has courted Cuyahoga County voters, Jamison appearing regularly at area events, including an event earlier this year at Olivet Institutional Baptist Church on the city's largely Black east side that Congressman Ryan also attended and that featured U.S. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey as the keynote speaker.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com the most read Black digital newspaper and blog in Ohio and in the Midwest Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. 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.