Jane L. Campbell

Jane L. Campbell, (born May 19 1953), an American politician of the Democratic party, is the current mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, first elected in 2001. She was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She won the November 2001 mayoral election with 54% of the vote, defeating fellow Democrat Raymond Pierce who received 46%. She took over on January 7, 2002, and is Cleveland's first woman mayor. She is a former state legislator and Cuyahoga County commissioner. She is the daughter of Joan Brown Campbell, the former General Secretary of the National Council of Churches. She was an unpledged member of the Ohio delegation to the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. As mayor, she has focused on economic development and reclamation of the city's Lake Erie waterfront, but has been criticized by some for providing indecisive and lackluster leadership.

Campbell's troubled tenure as mayor has been attributed by opponents to her lack of experience as a chief executive, all of her previous elective experience having been either legislative or as part of the three-member Board of Cuyahoga County Commissioners. She has made enemies of the police and firefighters unions, particularly in her handling of layoffs, and has suffered from a variety of other flaps, such as urging civic-minded companies to "adopt" a trash can, proposals to install cameras to ticket red light violators as a means for reaping money, the discovery of embarassing overuse of city vehicles and security by her family, the eye-poppingly high salaries of some executives in her cabinet which are not necessarily consistent with an ailing city budget, and an ill-thought (and racially insensitive) quip at an NAACP dinner when she stated she was surprised that the event was actually running on schedule. Campbell has appeared on Good Morning America for a makeover, seen by many opponents as an indication that she lacks serious commitment to addressing the city's problems.

In December 2003, a local Cleveland man, Michael Levin, tried unsuccessfully to have Mayor Campbell recalled. To force a recall, he needed to collect more than 22,000 signatures from Cleveland voters within 30 days.

In recent news, the outlook for Cleveland, a once-thriving metropolis, is not so good. Crushed by the loss of steel and other manufacturing jobs, Cleveland has ranked high for poverty before — but never Number 1. That changed when a report from the U.S. Census Bureau recently rated it as the nation's poorest big city, putting it ahead of Detroit, Miami and Newark, N.J.

Campbell is expected to meet a host of opposition in the 2005 election, from other Democrats known city-wide such as Frank G. Jackson (President of Cleveland's City Council) and Robert Triozzi (a Cleveland Municipal Court Judge, and former Legislative Director for Congressman Eric Fingerhut.) Raymond Pierce, who ran in 2001, announced and then quickly dropped out of the race for 2005. The challenge for the next mayor will be to provide leadership and solutions for a city with daunting budgetary problems and a population that ranks first in the nation in poverty.

At the time of this writing, she has not officially announced plans to run for re-election. A small group of local citizens are so galvanized about making their opinions about her and the Campbell Administration known, that they have formed a blog at http://kickme.to/ByeByeJane [1] (http://kickme.to/ByeByeJane) letting others know about their disdain with her over the past three and a half years, their deep concerns for their community and their hopes for its recovery. Campbell is also faring poorly at http://noclevelandwalmart.org [2] (http://noclevelandwalmart.org), where she has received considerable blame for her role in bringing a Wal-Mart to Cleveland via deals made behind City Council's back.

Campbell is married to urban planner Hunter Morrison, who is currently reveloping Youngstown through its Youngstown 2010 renewal plan. They have two daughters, Jessica and Katie.

Preceded by: Mike White

Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio 2002-present

Succeeded by: None