Council
president working to resolve petition issue, may have to withdraw
The best-known secret in East Cleveland
has been that City Council President Joy
Jordan would challenge Mayor Gary
Norton for the city’s top job this fall. In fact, some wags were betting
she might be a shoo-in because the mayor’s repeated failure to comply with
campaign finance laws would render him ineligible to run for re-election and
might even force him from office before his term expires at the end of the
year.
Norton and Jordan did file their
mayoral petitions last week, as did two other candidates, Levester Adams and Lateek
Rasheen Shabazz. While all four filed on the deadline day, July 3, only
Norton’s petitions have been confirmed as valid thus far by the Board of
Elections.
A fifth candidate, Vernon Robinson, filed last month. His petitions have also been
validated. He, like the others who filed, all entered the Democratic primary.
The only person who pulled Republican petitions, Robert L. Heflin III, did not
file.
According to the Board of Elections,
East Cleveland law provides for a mayoral primary if two or more candidates
file for mayor from the same party. At this point, Robinson and Norton would be
guaranteed spots on the November ballot unless the petitions of either Jordan,
Adams, or Shabazz are verified.
The Real Deal has learned unofficially that at least
one critical issue with Jordan’s petitions relates to questions about one of
the three electors that each mayoral candidate is required to list as the
candidate’s committee. It seems that this elector signed the petitions of
multiple candidates and listed two different addresses for his voting
residence.
If Jordan is unable to resolve this
issue by Tuesday of next week, she runs the risk of being unable to run for
re-election to her at large council seat if her mayoral petitions are
eventually disqualified.
A call to the Board of Elections for
further clarification had not been returned as of this posting.
Council candidates have until August 7
to file petitions to run in the November 5 general election. There is no
primary for the nonpartisan council races. Council members whose terms expire
December 31 are Jordan, Nathaniel Martin and Chantelle Lewis. Jordan and Martin
are at large councilors while Lewis was elected from Ward 3.
