Will Justin Bibb Be Lori Lightfooted in 2025? by C. Ellen Connally

In February of this year, Mayor Lori Lightfoot lost her seat as the 56^th mayor of Chicago when she failed to come in first or second in the city’s nine-person primary election. She had been elected in 2019 when incumbent Mayor Rahm Emanuel dropped his bid for reelection after questions arose about his administration’s handling of a controversial police shooting.

Fourteen persons entered the primary race to succeed Emanuel. When the primary votes were counted, Lightfoot, a political outsider faced off against Toni Preckwinkle, Cook County Board President — a position tantamount to Cleveland’s president of city council. In the general election Lightfoot came out the victor, winning her first political office.

Cleveland’s Mayor Justin Bibb’s path to victory has striking similarities. When four-term Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson announced that he would not seek an unprecedented fifth term, Bibb, who had never held elective office, joined a slate of candidates to fill the position. At 34 — 25 years younger than Lightfoot — Bibb lacked the experience that she had gained by serving as an assistant U.S. attorney, president of the Chicago Police Board, chair of the Police Accountability Board and several positions in city government. But Bibb’s message of change echoed among voters who were tired of the same old politicians in Cleveland, an argument that apparently outweighed his lack of political experience.

Bibb, who is a law school graduate but is not licensed to practice law, has a background in the private sector in nonprofits. He interned in the Obama administration; had a stint in the administration of County Executive Ed FitzGerald and for a time served as a vice president at Key Bank. A downtown apartment dweller, Bibb hardly followed the tradition of Cleveland mayors who had their roots in a particular neighborhoods or ethnic groups. And even though he is Black, he essentially did not run as a Black candidate — kind of a vanilla new age urbanite.

In addition to Bibb, the primary slate included longtime Cleveland City Council member and council president Kevin Kelley; former councilman, mayor, congressman and presidential candidate Dennis J. Kucinich; former Ward 2 city councilman and former mayoral candidate Zach Reed; Ward 7 councilman Basheer Jones; former state representative Sandra Williams and long-shot candidate, Westpark resident and lawyer Ross DiBello.

Bibb topped the field in the primary amassing just under 11,000 votes with Kelley coming in second with just under 8,000 votes. But consider this _ only 40,050 voters took the time to go to the polls.  The final result was identical to the 2019 Chicago race — a political newcomer versus the city council president.

Kucinich, a perennial candidate, came in third with 6600 votes. First appearing on a Cleveland ballot in 1970, he has maintained a solid voter base that is so loyal that no matter what he runs for, he gets their votes. Had he not been in the race, his generally white, west side voters would likely have gone to Kelley.

The other Black candidates in the race, Reed, Jones and Williams, split up roughly 15,000 votes in the primary drawing voters mainly from Cleveland’s east side. Reed, who challenged Frank Jackson in 2017, was in the opinion of many politicos a better councilman after a few drinks than many who were sober. But he also had a lot of baggage, including two DWI convictions. And taking a job with Republican Frank LaRose after his mayoral defeat in 2017 didn’t sit well with many Democratic loyalists. After the primary, Reed threw his support to Bibb, a move that earned him a position in the Bibb administration.

Jones, who gave up a relatively safe council seat in Ward 7 to run, showed lots of chutzpah when seeking the mayor’s office. After one uneventful term in city council — a seat that he won by 13 votes — he tossed his hat in the ring. And long-term state representative Williams ran a lackluster campaign that never seemed to get off the ground, even though she was the only female in the race. Had the Black community solidified behind one of these three candidates, there would have been a different outcome.

Bibb, concentrated on the youthful downtown yuppie vote. He garnered the endorsement of the Plain Dealer and CoolCleveland and attracted many voters who saw him as a new face in Cleveland politics, after years of Jackson, who was effective in many ways but never exactly Mr. Personality. Many white voters, looking at the demographics of the city and figuring that the winning candidate would be Black, saw Bibb as the most acceptable Black candidate — clean-cut, non-militant, surrounded by white folks, and no baggage or ties to old political machines. With his campaign rhetoric of new and innovative ideas and cries for transparency, he won over a lot of voters. But lots of Black voters stayed home.

In the general election when Bibb faced off against Kelley — who seemed to have little or no ground game on the east side — Bibb won with 36,880 to Kelley’s 21,696, with a total of 58,576 votes cast. Eighty-seven percent of Cleveland voters stayed home. Not exactly a mandate.

But in many respects, Bibb didn’t really win. Kelley just lost. The problem is Bibb doesn’t understand the distinction. Maybe he was asleep or missed the class in political science 101 that makes the point that when you don’t win by a landslide you don’t have a mandate and you better start running for re-election the day after that the Board of Election certifies the result.

If the stars align on any given election, you can win or lose. Had the slate of candidates been different in the mayoral primary of 2021 Justin Bibb — no Dennis, only one other major Black candidate, or a bigger turnout, Bibb would still be working in the nonprofit industry or spending  time studying for the Ohio bar exam.

Bibb was swept into office through a combination of luck, being at the right place at the right time and a general feeling among the electorate that it was time for a change. His campaign pledge of transparency struck a positive note. His age and image had tinges of Mike White with a sprinkling of a downtown apartment dwelling that blended in with the new image of Cleveland.

It’s important for Cleveland’s mayor to have a presence at major conferences where Cleveland needs to be seen and heard. But Bibb seems to be making a career of branding himself and creating his own image rather than caring about the concerns of Cleveland. His forthcoming State of the City speech to be given at East Tech High School will not make up for the time he’s spent branding himself rather than Cleveland.

Investigative reporters are already looking at his travel budget and questioning why Bibb needs to so many places and take so many police officers with him. Request for public records request seemingly go unanswered and, recently, Channel 5’s Scott Noll questioned why the mayor needed security guards who stayed at a hotel two miles from where he stayed, and why the mayor travels around the city in a caravan that includes one police car in front, one in back and his SUV in the middle.

People who were Bibb supporters are kind of rolling their eyes and wondering who they elected and who the mayor is listening to. One major snowstorm, one major power outage or a police shooting could put serious nails in the future electability of the current mayor.

And all eyes will be watching when Bibb decides what to do about the Haslams and their ask for big money for the football stadium. Putting big money into a stadium does not sit well with those waiting in line at the Food Bank or residents dealing with problems of poverty, infant mortality and homelessness.

Fox News, not always a credible source, said Lori Lightfoot’s loss was a “wake-up-call” for other mayors or would-be mayors who fail to address the issues of crime in the community. There is some kernel of truth in that statement. In addition to crime, Bibb needs to address the problems of the neighborhoods — like Cleveland’s aging housing stock, especially in east side neighborhoods. The West 25^th Street/Shoreway Neighborhood is a startling contrast to redevelopment on Cleveland’s east side.  And of course, deal with the police department and the many problems that go along with it.

Mayor Bibb has two years and nine months left on his term. He needs to change his peripatetic image and do a better job of connecting with Cleveland’s grass roots. That’s where the voters are and those are the people who will decide whether he will be a one term mayor. He has the ability and hopefully the talent around him to be a good mayor. But if he is not careful, he could go the way of Lori Lightfoot and get his walking papers in the next mayoral primary.

Just like the football adage — any given Sunday. It’s the same in politics. Any given Tuesday in any given election year there can be an upset. Ask Hillary Clinton.

C. Ellen Connally is a retired judge of the Cleveland Municipal Court. From 2010 to 2014 she served as the President of the Cuyahoga County Council. An avid reader and student of American history, she serves on the Board of the Ohio History Connection, is currently vice president of the Cuyahoga County Soldiers and Sailors Monument Commission and president of the Cleveland Civil War Round Table. She holds degrees from BGSU, CSU and is all but dissertation for a PhD from the University of Akron.

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