The sales taxes on cigarettes, beer,
wine and alcohol cost Cuyahoga County taxpayers
$240,557,722.53. Since September 2005, another
$29,958,760.56 has been collected for the Browns stadium
from the same sales tax. (By the way, the Arts &
Culture tax, solely from cigarette purchase in Cuyahoga
County, has accumulated $12,070,348.35).
The total, though by no means the
entire public funding for these venues, is $282.5-million.
But don’t mention it to the
propagandists at the morning newspaper.
Let’s get Terry Pluto on this right
away!
Mayoral Results Since 1950s
I thought I would share
this information with readers as resource material for
whatever purposes. Most of the figures come from official
Board of Election results, however, the more recent
election, probably starting with Michael White, come from
The Plain Dealer published results, which might not be the
final final. The information follows...
The mayors I have known started with
Ralph Locher.
Locher was named acting mayor in 1962
after President Kennedy choose Mayor Anthony Celebrezze as
education secretary. By the way, Celebrezze easily won
five times in 1953, 1955, 1957, 1959 and l961. In two
of those elections, he was unopposed. The city’s
population during Celebrezze’s term was 808,000. The
number of voters ranged from 234,730 when he first ran to a
low of 145,672 in 1957, when Celebrezze had no opposition.
He also ran in 1955 alone.
Locher ran unopposed in 1963.
By 1965, with Cleveland’s population
at 876,000, Locher won easily with 87,000 votes to his
Republican opponent Ralph McCallister with 22,000 votes.
By 1967, the urban crisis had slammed
Cleveland and Cleveland elected Carl Stokes in a close
election with Stokes winning 129,396 votes and Seth Taft, a
Republican, winning 127,717. A rather amazing 79% of
the 257,113 eligible voters actually voted.
In 1969, Stokes again edged out his
opponent, Ralph Perk, with 120,464 votes to Perk’s 117,013,
with again a high voter turnout of 75%.
In 1971, Stokes decided not to run and
the race became a three-person contest with Ralph Perk
earning 88,664 votes, Arnold Pinkney, who had been Stokes’
choice and former chief of staff, 74,085, with James Carney
getting 65,725 votes. Again, there was a high voter
turnout, 72%.
In 1973, Perk won again with 90,839
votes to Mercedes Cotner, clerk of council, a fill-in
candidate with 57,488. Voter participation dropped to a
measly 38%.
In 1975, Perk once again won defeating
Pinkney with 98,341 votes to 83,155. Voter participation
went up to 70%.
In 1977, Kucinich - who had backed
Perk against Pinkney in the previous election - ran himself
and Perk was defeated in the primary, leaving Kucinich to
oppose Edward Feighan, a state representative with a popular
political name. Kucinich got 93,047 to Feighan’s
90,074. Sixty-four percent of eligible voters cast ballots.
Kucinich lost in 1979 to George
Voinovich. Voinovich got 94,047 votes to Kucinich 73,755
with a 56% voting turnout.
Voinovich defeated Pat Sweeney in
1981. Voinovich got 107,472 votes to Sweeney’s 32,940 with
46% voting. By the way, the population at that time was said
to be 573,811.
In 1985, Voinovich defeated Kucinich
again. Only this time it was younger brother Gary
Kucinich 82,840 to 32,185 with only 37% of voters
participating.
In 1989, Michael White defeated
Council President George Forbes 86,112 to 68,429 in the
first mayoral race with both top candidates being
African-American. Fifty-three percent of voters
participated.
White won in 1993 with 76,633 to
14,131 against a candidate whose name has been lost to me.
Thirty-three percent voted with voter registration down to
90,764. When Stokes won in 1967, there were 325,803
eligible voters, revealing figures that reflect the decline
of Cleveland’s population and citizenship.
In 1997, White defeated Helen Smith
with 67,607 votes to Smith’s 43,393.
White retired as the longest running
mayor because he had been elected for four-year terms.
In 2001, Jane Campbell became the
first woman mayor of Cleveland, winning 49,062 to some
45,000 by Raymond Pierce, a rather unknown.
In 2005, Frank Jackson, former Council
President, defeated Jane Campbell with 53,201 votes to
43,930 votes.
games,
particularly during the playoffs? Former Cleveland Mayor
Michael White for Gateway's benefit signed an agreement that
if baseball games had 35,000 or more fans, a certain number of
police would be provided. As I remember, it was 45
police officers.