Cleveland’s new ward map gives City Council hopefuls a chance to battle incumbents on freshly redrawn political ground. There are also two free-for-alls over open seats with no incumbent.
Weekly Chatter took an early look at the candidates in February. Even more contenders have joined the races since then.
The candidates below have all formed campaign committees to raise money for their races. It’s not an exhaustive or final list of the candidates. That won’t be available until after the June 11 filing deadline, when voters will know for certain which candidates have gathered the 200 petition signatures they need to make the ballot.
One race to watch is the contest in the new Ward 7, which includes Detroit-Shoreway, Ohio City, Tremont and a portion of downtown. Incumbent Kerry McCormack won’t seek another term, leaving an open race to replace him.
Mohammad Faraj, a Detroit-Shoreway risk management attorney and the son of Palestinian immigrants, said he is running for the Ward 7 seat on five priorities. They are accessible city services, dependable infrastructure, reliable public safety, flexible economic development and sustainable small business.
Faraj said he wants to hear more from his West Side neighbors as he formulates his campaign platform. One frequently mentioned issue is safety. “Too often the conversation starts and ends with more policing,” he told Signal Cleveland this week. He argued there are other elements to the safety puzzle, such as stable housing, good jobs and thriving block clubs.
Another Ward 7 candidate, Mike Rogalski, described himself as a longtime “fly on the wall” of Cuyahoga County politics. He ran for council four years ago and is back for another run.
Rogalski is taking aim at a hot issue on the West Side: tax abatements. Cleveland offers property tax breaks for new and substantially renovated homes. On his website, Rogalski noted that longtime homeowners are being squeezed by rising taxes.
“The incremental peeling back of the tax abatement program in our ward has not gone far enough,” he said on his website. “Eliminating tax abatements for new construction luxury housing and apartments needs to happen now.”
On Cleveland’s Southeast Side, Aylwin Bridges is making another go at challenging incumbent Joe Jones over the Ward 1 council seat. Bridges won Cleveland.com’s endorsement four years ago, although that didn’t give him the votes to knock Jones out of the ring.
Bridges served in the U.S. Navy and worked as a healthcare consultant. In a recent news release, he pitched himself as “mature and with a professional presence, your voice representing you in City Hall ensuring that we obtain the adequate financial resources to better our entire Ward.”
Another Ward 1 candidate who ran four years ago is Marc Crosby. He said he doesn’t know anything about politics, but he does know about neighbors. He also knows a thing or two about popcorn. Crosby and his wife, Jana, own Crosby’s Corn, a Glenville-based company that boasts 37 popcorn flavors.
Crosby wants to bring more mom-and-pop (no pun intended) businesses to the Ward 1 neighborhood and to encourage young people to pursue college and the trades. “This community has a chance to become really viable,” he said.
The ward that soon will be known as Ward 3 underwent big changes during redistricting last year. The new political territory weaves from Slavic Village to Shaker Square. Candidates are getting ready to challenge incumbent Deborah Gray.
Sharon Spruill said that housing is her main concern as a Ward 3 candidate. The ward’s homes are old and not well suited for aging residents who would like to stay put. Spruill, who worked in community development, said she will advocate for affordable housing and home repairs.
The ward also needs more new businesses — and not just restaurants, she said. Spruill lamented the state of the ward’s leadership under former Council Member Ken Johnson, who went to federal prison after a jury convicted him on corruption charges.
“I lived through the entire Johnson era and just really saw the neighborhood that I grew up in just really be kind of disinvested in,” she said.
LaShorn Caldwell, another Ward 3 hopeful, cast herself as a candidate impatient for results after the fall of Johnson in 2021. “The changes needed are needed now,” she said.
Caldwell worked for more than two decades at the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority, she said. Dilapidated housing in the ward is one concern of hers. More broadly, she wants to make sure that City Hall pays attention to the ward’s neighborhoods. “The reason why we’re being overlooked is because we’ve been overlooked,” she said.
Cleveland State broaches Senate Bill 1 changes with students
Cleveland State University President Laura Bloomberg, like other Ohio higher education leaders, had not said much publicly about Senate Bill 1 — until last week.
The measure does away with diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and requires public university instructors to post their syllabi online.
Bloomberg and other members of CSU’s top brass held two “listening sessions” to debrief students on how the higher education moves may affect them.
The university turned down Signal Cleveland’s request to attend. But Jane Matousek of the Cleveland Stater was in the room and filed an inside account for the student publication.
University officials talked about what students should do if federal immigration officers appeared on campus — “immediately” contact the general counsel’s office, the university’s top lawyer said. Students clubs geared toward students of color may continue as long as they’re open to all students, officials said.
At one point, the Stater reported, Bloomberg offered an apology when asked about all-gender bathrooms and the university using students’ chosen pronouns.
“I’m so sorry that you even need to ask that,” Bloomberg said, per the Stater. “I just want to say that, that’s just from my heart. That’s not from the president of the university, that’s from Laura, saying I’m really damn sorry.”
— Amy Morona
