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Way back in the day, say, the two thousand aughts, every Tom, Dick and Terry aspired to membership on Toledo City Council. Terry being, of course, the perennial candidate Terry Shankland. He ran again and again, never coming close to being elected. He finally got the hint and gave up his folly. And, Shankland wasn’t alone in his silliness. In those days it was common for a couple dozen miscreants to seek councildom each election.
Many of these folks were fully delusional in their quest, like Shankland. They had no requisite connections or support, and they sunk back to the bottom of the barrel sooner than you can say buh bye.
In with the new
Seems like they and their ilk have stayed there. This year only twelve brave souls cast their grimy hats into the council candidate ring, including, at the time, all six incumbents. This eliminated the need to winnow the field in a primary.
You might think this minuscule group means slim pickins’. Au contraire, mon frere. What it really means is there was some self-reflective self-winnowing before the primary.
The usual cast of kooks and crazies didn’t waste their time and ours in a quixotic run for office. The field is smaller but more robust. Newcomers include long time community activist Erin Kramer and restaurateur Ed Beczynski, real estate professional Rob Pasker and entrepreneur Blair Johnson, and popular former council member Tom Waniewski. There are others on the list, including perennial candidate Tom Names, which makes for a strong group of challengers.
So strong, in fact, that incumbent Council Prez Carrie Hartman gave up the ghost, terminated her campaign, and resigned from Council.
Hartman has only served a couple years since her appointment to council Unfortunately her next gig, which she expected to be with UT fell through, so now she’s unemployed. Whoopsie.
Our bet is she lands in Wade’s administration after the election. Stay tuned.
One more no-chance-in-Hades long shot is Emily Desmond. She frantically launched a write-in campaign after Hartman resigned. We don’t know anything about her, but Hartman’s resignation provided exactly no better chance of winning for Desmond.
Write-in? In the last month of the race? Really?
Buh bye.
Photo finish
The way we see it, there are five folks running for two available seats. Incumbents Nick Komives, Cerssandra McPherson, George Sarantou, and Mac Driscoll are shoo ins.
Hartman would have been in the bottom tier, but she’s out. And Brittany Jones? Is she even in the race? That leaves two seats for challengers. Desmond? No. The other guy? Nah Waniewski has the chops. Kramer has the connections. Beczynski has the back story and has run a strong race. Johnson and Pasker have community support.
Buckle up, peeps. This might be the closest finish in a very, very long time.
