Local 2017 Election Day Results

By Fletcher Word
Sojourner’s Truth Editor

Locally, the 2017 Election Day results brought a few new Democrats into office to replace departing Democrats. Not exactly the sort of upheaval that so many communities around the country witnessed in the midst of a Trump backlash. Locally, Democrats ruled as they so often do.
 

Mayor-elect Wade Kapsukiewicz

Mayor Pula Hicks-Hudson’s bid for re-election was thwarted by fellow Democrat, Lucas County Treasurer Wade Kapsukiewicz, who ran without the endorsement of his party and defeated the incumbent by a double digits margin. Incumbent mayors running for re-election in Toledo have not met much success over the past 12 years. Mayors Jack Ford and Mike Bell, both African-American as well, also lost their re-election bids. Kapszukiewicz, the ultimate political insider having served almost two decades in elected office on the city and council level, ran as an outsider promising change. It was a strategy that proved effective against a mayor who rose to office upon the death of then-Mayor D. Michael Collins.

Kapszukiewicz’s candidacy was based on what he sees as a lack of progress in the city. He spoke during his campaign of indications that urban cores, both regionally and nationally are generally on the rebound – increasing population and job growth at a faster rate over the last decade than their suburban counterparts. Unfortunately, Toledo has not been part of this trend, he noted.

He ran a campaign decrying a declining population; a loss of “four percent of our jobs over the past five years;” “ranked one of the sixth worst for children living in poverty” and a city that was recently named “one of the most distressed” in the nation. Moreover, he spoke of his fears that Toledo was losing the opportunity to catch up with other urban areas – Milwaukee; Grand Rapids, MI; Dayton; Indianapolis, to cite a few examples – if city leaders wait too long to act.
 

There are two new-comers on Toledo City Council – Gary Johnson and Nick Komives – who finished fourth and fifth respectively. Both are endorsed Democrats who will be holding elected office for the first time. Johnson, a business owner, who emphasized the importance of fostering economic growth through small businesses, and Komives, a community organizer and executive director of Equality Toledo, who addressed issues of fairness and equality, will be replacing incumbents Steve Steel, who was term limited from running again, and Kurt Young, who had been appointed to Council in the spring but failed to finish in the top six.
 

Councilmen-elect Nick Komives and Gary Johnson

In the race for Toledo’s Board of Education, incumbents Bob Vasquez, Polly Taylor-Gerken and Chris Varwig, all Democrats, were re-elected. In the Washington Local School Board competition, ousted former Superintendent Patrick Hickey – who had been banned from entering the district’s schools’ premises by the board, was elected to the board. Presumably the ban will be lifted.

Council Members Larry Sykes and Cecelia Adams

Democrat Joe Howe, a prosecutor with the Toledo Municipal Court was elected, in a tight race, to fill the seat of judge of the Toledo Housing Court to replace Judge C. Allen McConnell, who was aged-barred from running for re-election. Howe’s margin of 144 votes – out of over 40,000 cast may yet be subjected to scrutiny via re-count.

Toledo Public Schools and Metroparks won the approval of voters for renewal levies by wide margins, 69 and 75 percent approvals, respectively.

Copyright © 2017 by [The Sojourner's Truth]. All rights reserved.
Revised: 08/16/18 14:12:38 -0700.

More Articles....

Bridging Cultural Differences

SOME THINGS I WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND...

NAACP: Steadfast and Immovable

Bound to the Fire: How Virginia’s Enslaved Cooks Helped Invent American Cuisine by Kelley Fanto Deetz

Murder at the Carver High Reunion

Back to Home Page