Mayor Justin Bibb has joined the Democratic debate over how the party can recover from this year’s loss to Donald Trump.
The mayor visited Florida earlier this month during Miami Arts Week, where eight Cleveland artists took part in the Prizm Art Fair. While there, he appeared on Standpoint, a podcast hosted by Gabe Groisman, the Republican former mayor of the oceanside Miami suburb of Bal Harbour.
Bibb said that Democrats this year were “distracted by these very small cultural issues” and couldn’t communicate with the party’s base. He didn’t have a laundry list of those issues, but he did single out the idea of defunding the police. He said that only a sliver of the party wanted to take money away from the police. The mayor accused the media of painting Democrats with the broad brush of the “defund” movement.
It’s not the first time Bibb has tried to position Democrats as the pro-safety party. He made similar comments – and defended ShotSpotter – in an appearance with New York Mayor Eric Adams in April.
In his conversation with Groisman, Bibb said that Democrats “failed to talk about what working-class people wake up every single day focused on.” According to the mayor, the party should focus on safety, clean air and water, good jobs and a living wage.
“I’m an old-school Bill Clinton Democrat, where I believe in the power of free markets, but I believe in sensible, thoughtful regulation,” said Bibb, who was just 5 years old when Clinton won the presidency in 1992. “I believe in the importance of public safety, but I also believe that we need effective police accountability.”
As Bibb recalled the balanced budget of the Clinton-Newt Gingrich years, Groisman landed a joke.
“By the way, you’re almost a Republican,” he jibed. “I don’t want to ruin your election chances. No, but you do a great job in your city, I’m sure you’ll be reelected.”
The mayor laughed along, though he didn’t shed his party’s mantle. Later in the interview, he defended the idea of affirmative action for people who historically have been marginalized.
In 2021, Bibb endorsed the Issue 24 police oversight amendment but did not run on defunding the police. Progressives — who are just one part of the Cleveland electorate — picked him over Kevin Kelley, even though Bibb’s campaign wasn’t made in the mold of Bernie Sanders. Cleveland voters will decide next year whether they want a self-professed Bill Clinton Democrat in City Hall for another four years.
Cleveland crime trends down
Speaking of Bibb and the police, the mayor’s administration is taking credit for the city’s current decline in violent crime.
City Hall issued a news release last week comparing the 500 days before Bibb announced his RISE anti-crime initiative with the 500 days after. Homicides were down by almost 36%, and vehicle thefts, assaults and more were down, too, the mayor’s office said.
There’s more than one way to slice the apple, so we took a look at year-over-year statistics. To date in 2024, Cleveland police have counted 96 homicides. This time last year, that number stood at 147. In 2020, two years before Bibb took office, there had been 172 homicides by mid-December.
Auto thefts are a somewhat different story. There have been 4,092 car thefts this year, well above 2020 levels. But car thefts have declined from last year, so perhaps the tide is turning on the KIA boys.
Falling crime isn’t just a local phenomenon. Homicides have been dropping nationwide since COVID-era spikes, and Cleveland is part of that trend. Still, the numbers may well play a role in next year’s mayoral race.
Shortly after the news release, Bibb’s reelection campaign sent a fundraising email about the crime numbers.
“We’ve made progress, but there’s still much work to be done,” the email said. “That’s why we’re asking for your support.”
