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Let’s Get Ready To Rumble
By Rev. Donald L.
Perryman, D.Min.
The Truth Contributor
I did not run on the basis of race, but I will not run
away from it. I am proud of who I am and I am proud of this
(Democratic) Party, for we are truly America’s last best
hope to bridge the division of race, region, religion, and
ethnicity.
- Ronald Brown
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Rev. Donald L. Perryman, D.Min. |
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“Silent” Sandy Drabik-Collins
was there with her camel. Carty, accompanied by some of his
best black peeps rocking tee shirts with the Finkbeiner
brand, showed up also. But make no mistake about it, Mayor
Paula Hicks-Hudson possessed the political home field
advantage as she led the African American Festival parade
down historical black Dorr Street a/k/a “The Block,” last
Saturday.
As the Toledo mayoral race
begins to heat up, Hicks-Hudson has also upped her game
significantly. “She’s getting better every week, getting her
feet under her quite a bit. She is stepping around Reinbolt
and showing leadership on a variety of regional items. The
one declared candidate that is out there is Sandy Drabik who
is just starting, but obviously we’ll squash her, She (Drabik-Collins)
is not the issue,” said one political insider.
The one candidate that could
dampen Hicks-Hudson’s bright election hopes is former Mayor
Carty Finkbeiner, whose presence at the African-American
Festival suggested that his brand is still relevant to at
least some in the African-American community.
With the mere placement of
Finkbeiner’s name on the ballot, some electoral consultants
believe that Carty has the political infrastructure and a
base vote across Toledo that will guarantee him eight to 10
thousand votes. If true, that number could be all it takes
for Finkbeiner to win.
Yet the most significant
threat to Hicks-Hudson’s November election is that revealed
by the process to obtain signatures to put ResponsibleOhio’s
proposed constitutional amendment to legalize marijuana on
the statewide ballot. Although the group presented 700,000
signatures to meet the Ohio requirement of 300,000,
Secretary of State Jon Husted indicated that only 276,082
were valid. In Lucas County, approximately 27,000 of the
51,000 signatures were ruled invalid.
Yet this is about more than
marijuana, a veritable canary in the coal mine, which
possibly extends to the 2016 presidential race and even
Toledo’s 2015 mayoral election.
The bigger issue, according
to Sylvester Gould, senior advisor for ResponsibleOhio, the
group behind legalization in Ohio, is that the invalid
signatures came predominately from majority black
communities.
“This is a November 2016
issue and implications that affect the mayor’s race in
Toledo,” said Gould. “The signatures that the collectors
were taking give the address where you last voted. That may
not be where you live now. If you didn’t vote in the last
three years, then they’ve purged you from the rolls. Now
it’s mighty damn funny but it’s not, that this is consistent
around the state. We’re talking about predominately
African-American communities in Franklin, Cuyahoga, Lucas
and Hamilton counties. What we need to be talking about in
terms of Paula Hicks-Hudson is, okay, we’ve got to make sure
that people in those neighborhoods are going to be able to
go to the polls and vote, and not have their names purged
from the voter rolls,” adds Gould.
While ResponsibleOhio
continues working to obtain the additional 30,000 statewide
signatures that the organization needs to successfully put
the marijuana issue on the November ballot, Hicks-Hudson,
continues to invest in expensive data-driven polling. She
has also held head to head strategy sessions with a variety
of people on issue and precinct indicators in an effort to
counter the former mayor, who although yet to declare, seems
to be constantly stalking her.
Currently Paula is awaiting
up-to-date data, which will provide her with what she
expects to be a path to victory. Once it is received, the
challenge will be how to implement the plan dictated by the
polling data. “Every campaign has to have road maps because
you can’t just guess,” noted the consultant, “but the real
question is: Can you execute. Can you do the travel plan?”
The answer is one that no one is yet able to answer.
“That will be known soon,”
said another person close to Hicks-Hudson’s campaign.
Although the mayoral fight is not likely to get red hot
until the August 10 filing deadline, one thing for certain,
two things for sure. It’s already “on like a pot of
neckbones.”
Let’s get ready to rumble!
Contact Rev. Donald Perryman, D.Min, at
drdlperryman@centerofhopebaptist.org
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