Posts Tagged Bill Patmon
Mayor Frank Jackson and “What Is Is” Campaign
Posted by Roldo Bartimole in Economic Development, Politicians on October 15, 2009
October 15, 2009… Could this be the dullest, most meaningless mayoral election of all time? Well, it is what it is, ain’t it?
If I were running against Jackson I’d say strongly and often, “What it IS should not BE.”
General election opponent Bill Patmon, who has no money and not enough name recognition city-wide, did attack Jackson for this anemic attitude of acceptance.
You’d think we have a monk, not a mayor.
“The message that the current administration does not care is clear. But the attitude, ‘it is what it is,’ is neither acceptable nor wise in a time when this city, and every other city for that matter, critically counts on its tax base for survival” Patmon told the Plain Dealer. He hit the right tone.
The problem also is that the news media have been turned off on the election. For Patmon that’s a disaster since he has no money to push any agenda into focus.
Patmon, of course, is correct. Mayor Jackson’s oath of acceptance is not good enough, not nearly good enough.
A city with no spirit isn’t going to be helped by some Buddhist-like mind-set. It’s not a brew that offers much hope.
Mayor Jackson seems to be in a go-along mode.
Two million bucks for an aquarium – which likely will be more like a fish tank – for Jeff Jacobs, okay. It is what it is. Hundreds of millions of dollars for a medical mart and convention center, alright. It is what it is.
Tens of millions of dollars for a diluted Wolstein project, why not? It is what it is.
A new port at the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars and one that negates other plans and studies? So? It is what it is.
Monopoly casino? Why not? It is what it is.
That’s not leadership. That is what it is, of course. But it is not what it should be.
Cleveland better start looking for new leaders NOW for the future. It’s already much too late for the city. It needs a leader who will do more than see acceptance as a policy.
Phillip Morris Wrong… Stoke Had No Dull Race
Posted by Roldo Bartimole in Media, Politicians on September 15, 2009
September 15, 2009… Why The Plain Dealer’s Phillip Morris would bring Carl Stokes’ name into a discussion of a dull mayoral race is beyond me. Stokes wasn’t in any dull mayoral elections. Not in 1969. Not ever.
I guess Morris needed a column again but couldn’t stir himself enough to go get one.
Morris tries to equate the coming mayoral election of Mayor Frank Jackson and Bill Patmon to the Stokes-Ralph Perk race in 1969.
“Cleveland was locked in the middle of another fairly noncompetitive mayoral election 40 years ago,” wrote Morris today.
Wrong.
The 1969 election was nothing like this year’s election. Nothing at all.
It was a hard fought election. There were 316,000 eligible voters in 1969. Stokes won 120,464 votes. Perk received 117,013. Stokes won by 3,451 votes. That’s not a runaway by any means.
In this year’s primary the reported vote was some 11 percent. Real exciting stuff. One hopes that a few more will get out in November to vote. In 1969, the voter turnout was 75 percent. That’s an election.
In 1967, Stokes won by a smaller margin 129,396 to Seth Taft’s 127,717 with 325,000 eligible to vote. Less than a 2,000 vote margin. A difference of 1,652.
In 1965, when Stokes lost to Ralph Locher, Locher got 87,967, Stokes got 85,675, losing by another close margin, 2,292, or less than 1 percent. There were two other candidates, Perk and Ralph McAllister, in the race.
Do you think the Jackson-Patmon race this year would be anything like those? I guess Patmon would like to think so.
Yes, Stokes had a large ego. He would have to have to do what he did.
Stokes also ran in a much different city, maybe twice the population of today’s Cleveland. There is no comparison with the Jackson-Patmon race other than there are two candidates again.