Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson Announces He Will NOT Pursue Re-Election

Source: frank jackson wzak z1079 / frank jackson wzak z1079

For the first time since 2005, the City of Cleveland could be looking at an election that will involve a completely different mayor to run Downtown and the surrounding east and west side neighborhoods.

Current Mayor Frank G. Jackson has recently announced that he will not run for a fifth term in a role he has served since 2006, when he defeated then-mayor Jane Campbell after he had become critical of her efforts when she was in office.

From WEWS News 5 Cleveland:

“I’m moving on with understating that this is a relay race, not a sprint. The race is not over and we are not yet a great city. Your job—this is your job—to be to ensure that the runner in the next leg of this race runs hard and he runs true,” Jackson said.

The mayor made his announcement in a sprawling “tele-town hall” that featured recorded audio, the mayor’s live video announcement, a congratulatory retrospective video that most interestingly featured actor Samuel L. Jackson, phone calls from admiring citizens and no questions from the press.

Samuel L. Jackson adds that “it was an honor and a pleasure to meet Mayor Jackson. I really enjoyed spending time with him hanging out in this community, meeting his family and seeing all the work that he’s done…So it’s really an honor and a pleasure to stand here and say, you know, congratulations on all the terms you’ve had there in that city. Man, that’s a record and probably will not be broken. Congratulations.”

Frank is currently the longest-running mayor for Cleveland, having served in office for 15 years.

Before becoming mayor, Frank was a Cleveland City Councilman starting in 1989, in which he would later become Council President in 2001, and even had a stint as “an assistant city prosecutor for Cleveland Municipal Court.”

Since being elected, Frank has faced a lot of opponents who have not been able to defeat him in the next three mayoral elections. He was challenged by former city councilman Bill Patmon in 2009, businessman Ken Lanci in 2013 and former city councilman Zack Reed in 2017.

Out of those three, only Reed is once again running for mayor in the next election. Patmon ran again in 2017, but he came up short in that election with fewer votes than in ’09, but there were more candidated in ’17 than in ’13, when Lanci and Frank were the only candidates running for mayor that year.

Other candidates along with Reed include current city councilman Basheer Jones, current City Council President Kevin Kelley, Ohio Senator Sandra Williams, businessman and community leader Justin Bibb, attorney Dick Knoth and another attorney in Ross DiBello.

The ever-growing list also includes Landry McNord Simmons Jr., Keshawn Dwayne Varnado, Anthony Lee Wilson, LaTorya Jean Witcher, James Jerome Bell, Michael J. Chal and Arthur O. Kostendt.

Former Cleveland mayor and Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich has publicly expressed internet in running for mayor.

Frank has not endorsed a candidate to fill his seat and as of right now, he has refused to do so.

The election to pick the next Mayor of Cleveland will take place on Sept. 14 with a primary election and on Nov. 2 with a general election between the two candidates who would advance from September.

In the meantime, here is video on news of Frank not seeking re-election: