Cincinnati Keeps Its Mayor; Other Cities Seek Change

Voters in this fractured city reelected Mayor Charlie Luken on Tuesday in a race that exposed how divided the black and white communities here remain six months after African Americans’ pent-up rage at their poor prospects exploded into racial riots.

The Cincinnati race was one of several closely watched--and hotly fought--mayoral contests around the country. While incumbents won easily in Boston and Pittsburgh, there were tough races in Detroit, Atlanta, Cleveland and several other cities. In Miami, Mayor Joe Carollo appeared to be losing his fight for another term.

In Minneapolis, the city’s first black mayor, Sharon Sayles Belton, lost her reelection bid to a political newcomer. In Houston, incumbent Lee Brown looked as though he would face a runoff against a conservative Cuban American challenger. And in Detroit, confusion over absentee ballots threatened to delay a final tally in a race that had gone down to the wire, with Michigan House Democratic leader Kwame Kilpatrick pulling ahead on election day.

In Cincinnati, early returns showed Luken capturing 55% of the vote to beat political novice Courtis Fuller in the city’s first direct mayoral election in generations. Luken is white and Fuller is black; to no one’s surprise, the vote split along racial lines.

The division between blacks and whites represents a huge challenge to Luken, who must find a way to persuade African Americans that he is their mayor too. (Cincinnati is 43% black.) For their part, black leaders must fight mounting cynicism to keep their constituents engaged in the political process, pressing for everything from police reform to more jobs for African American contractors on the city’s splashy redevelopment project along the Ohio River.

“The [black] community can’t let up on the pressure,” said Sheila Adams, president of the Urban League of Greater Cincinnati. “Can you get different results with the same people in power? Maybe, if the community continues to demand it.”

The mayoral contenders, both former television news anchors, did not clash much on substantive issues during their polite but intense campaign. “Frankly, the most fundamental thing separating these candidates was not the issues,” said Gene Beaupre, a political scientist at Xavier University. “What it really came down to was how voters perceived their leadership skills.”

And that issue, in turn, came down to race.

Dwight Tillery, a former mayor who now leads the African-American Political Caucus, said Fuller “could have said almost anything and black voters would have supported him” on the grounds that only an African American would truly be able to unite the city. “They are so desperate for change,” Tillery said. “They are so disillusioned with the way this community has been run.”

Luken’s supporters, on the other hand, praised his leadership during three nights of rioting in April, with the help of a dusk-to-dawn curfew. They are also pleased with the aggressive riverfront redevelopment, including new football and baseball stadiums. They applaud Luken’s efforts at racial reconciliation, including “healing dialogues” all over the city. And they point out that Fuller has no experience in governing at a time when Cincinnati desperately needs a steady hand.

“The white community sees Luken as a mayor who will protect the status quo,” Beaupre said.

The value of the status quo also emerged as a key issue in Detroit’s nail-biter of a mayoral race. The contest was billed as a generational clash between a brash, charismatic 31-year-old state legislator and an old-guard, stay-the-course city councilman who turned 70 on election day.

In the end, voters appeared to favor the opportunity--and risk--of a fresh, young voice calling for change. State Rep. Kwame Kilpatrick was poised to pull a narrow victory over City Council President Gil Hill, with early returns giving him 54% of the vote.

As in Cincinnati, local issues took a back burner in the campaign. Though Detroit has more than its share of urban woes, from erratic trash pickup to burned-out street lights to block after block of abandoned, decaying buildings, voters heard instead a barrage of negative ads questioning Hill’s competency and Kilpatrick’s ethics. A dispute over whether to manually count absentee ballots that had rejected by the electronic vote counter was holding up final returns.

“There is something terrifically uninspiring about both these candidates,” said Brad Roth, an associate professor of political science at Wayne State University.

With little in the way of substance to go on, Roth said voters had to choose between two styles of governing: the “quiet reassurance” of Hill’s “go along with the status quo” approach versus Kilpatrick’s more energetic, if somewhat vague, drive to shake things up.

Another of Tuesday’s mayoral contests, in Houston, saw incumbent Lee Brown likely forced into a runoff to try to secure a third two-year term. He will face Orlando Sanchez, a Republican City Council member seeking to become the city’s first Latino mayor.

As in Cincinnati, race played an important role in the Houston contest: The incumbent is black, Sanchez is Cuban American and a third candidate, Councilman Chris Bell, is white. Each drew significant support from voters of similar ethnic backgrounds. As political analyst Richard Murray put it: “Everybody has a dog in the fight.”

But the candidates did get beyond race to debate specific local issues. Brown supports public funding for new stadiums. Sanchez opposes it. Brown supports more rail transit. Sanchez disagrees. Brown, a veteran police officer, told voters that he alone has the experience to keep their city safe in these troubled times. Sanchez countered by attacking the mayor for failing to adequately fund the Fire Department.

Atlanta’s mayoral candidates had similar trouble grabbing voter interest, “but I’m not sure you can lay the blame on the Sept. 11 events,” said William Boone, a political science professor at Clark Atlanta University. “Prior to that it was pretty dull too.”

With all three candidates seeking distance from current Mayor Bill Campbell, whose administration has been plagued with rumors of corruption, ethics became the big issue in Atlanta’s contest. Shirley Franklin, the city’s former chief administrator, beat two opponents, tallying 50% of the vote in early returns. She will face a major financial challenge: the city’s deficit for the upcoming year is estimated at $45 million.