By Nick Castele
A campaign to recall Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson delivered its petitions this weekend to City Hall. But it’s not yet certain the effort will go to a vote.
Organizers of the recall campaign say they’re dissatisfied with Mayor Frank Jackson’s management of city services, especially the police department. Norman Edwards, a longtime activist in Cleveland, helped organize the campaign.
"The police brutality and the murders—the crime rate," Edwards said, naming issues he said the mayor has not solved. "He has just concentrated on building up downtown Cleveland and forgotten the rest of the city."
Edwards says more than 13,000 people have signed on to a bid to remove the mayor from City Hall. That’s more than the 12,025 petition signatures required by law for the recall to move forward.
The county board of elections is checking the validity of those signatures. In this case, signers must be registered Cleveland voters who cast ballots in November 2013, according to a news release from Cleveland City Council.
If there are enough valid signatures, the mayor would have two choices: resign or face a recall election within 60 days. Were voters to remove Jackson, the law director would serve as mayor in his place, while council schedules a second election to pick a successor.
This is Mayor Jackson’s tenth year in office. Although other mayors have faced recall petition drives, the last time a Cleveland mayor went through a recall vote was in 1978, when Dennis Kucinich held onto office by just 236 votes.
