Richard Starr bolted far ahead of his Cleveland City Council colleague Rebecca Maurer in the first leg of their race for the new Ward 5.
Starr outran Maurer by 44 points in the newly drawn ward, which connects parts of downtown and Slavic Village with the Central and Kinsman neighborhoods.
Turnout was in the single digits. Only about 6% of the ward’s more than 14,000 registered voters cast ballots. Overall turnout in Cleveland was about 7%.
Beneath those numbers was another dynamic that showed Starr’s edge in the contest. He appeared to be more successful at turning out his voters. Turnout tended to be higher in the precincts that Starr won in Central and Kinsman.
Many of Maurer’s best precincts were in and around downtown. But she didn’t bank enough votes there to catch up to Starr. Fewer than 5% of registered voters in those downtown precincts showed up to vote.
The two council members will face one another again in the Nov. 4 general election. In a brief phone interview Wednesday morning, Starr focused on bringing new voters into the race.
“It’s time to make sure all the residents that [are] in Ward 5 who want to vote are registered to vote and got a plan to vote,” he said. “That’s the only thing that matters right now.”
Maurer wrote in a post on Instagram that she was disappointed by the low primary election turnout.
“It’s clear we have some work to do before the General,” the statement read. “Our goal is to continue our work of door knocking and community building so that the vote in the General Election is based on the will of the voters across all of Ward 5.”
Lagging downtown votes, bump in Central
The latest round of redistricting, which cut the number of wards from 17 to 15, set off the game of musical chairs that pitted Maurer and Starr against one another.
Council approved new ward maps this year that drew Maurer’s Slavic Village home into new political territory, much of which Starr already represented. The new Ward 5 boundaries also reached deeper into downtown Cleveland.
Starr ran on his four years as Ward 5’s council member and his lifelong ties to the area. He landed 75% of the votes cast by mail, 69% of the election day vote and 58% of the votes cast early in person.
He won the ward’s highest turnout precinct, 5-O, which includes single-family homes and apartments in Central. More than 15% of registered voters there cast ballots.
Of the six precincts with voter turnout above the ward’s 6% average, Starr won five of them. Maurer won her home precinct, where turnout was 11%.
Starr also won some lower-turnout precincts, including 5-K, which is home to the Rainbow Terrace Apartments. Residents lost their homes after a fire and explosion on the property in July.
The explosion remains an important topic in the neighborhood. As Starr walked the Labor Day parade route before the primary, residents asked him for updates on the fire investigation.
Maurer ran on her work as a council member and said she would be an “independent voice” on council. The other precincts that she won were in the bottom half of the turnout list. Those five precincts line the southern half of downtown and the Midtown area. They’re home to apartment buildings and more than 4,700 registered voters.
Only 180 voters in those downtown precincts cast ballots — a turnout of 3.8%.
