Euclid community activist Kandace Jones never emphasized race in her run for the city's Ward three council seat, but the historic nature of her victory is unmistakable. Euclid has never had a black elected official --- this despite the fact that a third of the city's population is African American. Last summer, a federal judge ruled that the city's method of drawing ward boundary lines tended to suppress the black vote. Euclid was forced to subdivide it's four wards into eight, creating two with an African American majority. But Jones says her concerns on council will be about issues that face the entire population.
KANDACE JONES: Safety is an issue --- safety is always an issue. The housing stock is another issue --- foreclosed and abandoned homes. And then, the civility for Euclid, as far as the city council and the civil administration. There needs to be a cohesiveness and a teamwork between the two.
In Ward One,--- the city's other predominantly African American ward --- white incumbent Chris Gruber dominated in a field of three other candidates, one of whom was black.
