Toledo, Ohio municipal elections, 2015

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The city of Toledo, Ohio, held elections for mayor and city council on November 3, 2015. A primary election for the city council races took place on September 15, 2015. The filing deadline for candidates who wished to run in this election was July 21, 2015, for the city council race. Six city council seats were up for election.

Toledo was originally scheduled to hold a council-only election in 2015. However, the death of first-term Toledo Mayor D. Michael Collins on February 6, 2015, led the city to add a special mayoral election to the calendar.

Another electoral consequence of Collins' death was a vacancy on the city council. The council appointed District 4 council member Paula Hicks-Hudson to serve as acting mayor on February 1, 2015, shortly after Collins suffered the cardiac arrest that eventually led to his death five days later. Hicks-Hudson's appointment was temporary. Hicks-Hudson, who won the special election, served out the rest of Collins' first term, which expired in 2018. On March 18, 2015, Hicks-Hudson announced her intentions to run in November. In the meantime, city council appointed Scott A. Ramsey to fill Hicks-Hudson's District 4 seat and called for a special election, which was held on May 5, 2015. Four candidates filed for the seat, including Ramsey. Yvonne Harper won the election, and had to run again in the September primary. More information on the District 4 special election can be found below.

Both the local and state marijuana ballot measures seemed to make the elections less predictable because the measures were expected to draw people to the polls. The management and safety of the city's tap water were a concern for candidates and voters, especially after the weekend water ban that occurred in 2014 due to unsafe levels of microcystin in the water. Read more about these issues below.

Mayor

Candidate list

• Paula Hicks-Hudson - Incumbent Hicks-Hudson was appointed in 2015.
  • Affiliated with the Democratic Party.
• Mike Bell
  • No party affiliation.
• Sandy Drabik Collins
  • No party affiliation.
• Opal Covey
  • Affiliated with the Republican Party.
• Mike Ferner
  • No party affiliation.
• Carty Finkbeiner
  • Affiliated with the Democratic Party.
• Sandy Spang
  • No party affiliation.

Election results

Mayor of Toledo, General election, 2015
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Paula Hicks-Hudson Incumbent	35.6%	23,087
Mike Bell	17.3%	11,228
Carty Finkbeiner	15.9%	10,276
Sandy Drabik Collins	14.6%	9,432
Sandy Spang	10.8%	7,028
Mike Ferner	5.0%	3,208
Opal Covey	0.8%	544
Write-in votes	0%	0
Total Votes		64,803
Source: Lucas County Board of Elections, "Election Summary Results", accessed November 3, 2015

City council

Candidate list

District 1

Primary election candidates:

• Jennifer L. Scott a
• Tyrone Riley a - Incumbent Riley was first elected to the council in 2011.
• Darryl Fingers

General election candidates:

• Jennifer L. Scott
• Tyrone Riley

District 2

General election candidates:

• Matt Cherry - Incumbent Cherry was first appointed in 2014.
• Drew D. Blazsik

District 3

Note: Incumbent Mike Craig did not run for re-election.
Primary election candidates:

• Peter Ujvagi a
• Ernest McCarthy
• Robert James Worthington
• Glen Cook a

General election candidates:

• Peter Ujvagi
• Glen Cook

District 4

Primary election candidates:

• Robert J. Longoria
• Peggy Brown-Morehead a
• Yvonne Harper a - Incumbent Harper was first elected in a 2015 special election.

General election candidates:

• Peggy Brown-Morehead
• Yvonne Harper

District 5

General election candidates:

• Tom Waniewski - Incumbent Waniewski was first elected in 2007.

District 6

Primary election candidates:

• Lindsay Webb a - Incumbent Webb was first elected in 2007.
• Alex Rivera
• Bill Delaney a

General election candidates:

• Lindsay Webb
• Bill Delaney

At-large

General election candidates:

• Cecelia Adams - Incumbent Adams was first appointed in 2015.

General election

Toledo City Council District 1, General election, 2015
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Tyrone Riley Incumbent	72.2%	6,333
Jennifer L. Scott	27.8%	2,438
Write-in votes	0%	0
Total Votes		8,771
Source: Lucas County Board of Elections, "Election Summary Results", accessed November 3, 2015

Toledo City Council District 2, General election, 2015
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Matt Cherry Incumbent	70.0%	8,350
Drew D. Blazsik	30.0%	3,575
Write-in votes	0%	0
Total Votes		11,925
Source: Lucas County Board of Elections, "Election Summary Results", accessed November 3, 2015

Toledo City Council District 3, General election, 2015
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Peter Ujvagi	52.9%	3,258
Glen Cook	47.1%	2,904
Write-in votes	0%	0
Total Votes		6,162
Source: Lucas County Board of Elections, "Election Summary Results", accessed November 3, 2015

Toledo City Council District 4, General election, 2015
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Yvonne Harper Incumbent	73.6%	4,777
Peggy Brown-Morehead	26.4%	1,715
Write-in votes	0%	0
Total Votes		6,492
Source: Lucas County Board of Elections, "Election Summary Results", accessed November 3, 2015

Toledo City Council District 6, General election, 2015
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Lindsay Webb Incumbent	69.8%	7,289
Bill Delaney	30.2%	3,154
Write-in votes	0%	0
Total Votes		10,443
Source: Lucas County Board of Elections, "Election Summary Results", accessed November 3, 2015

Primary election

Toledo City Council, District 1 Primary Election, 2015
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Tyrone Riley Incumbent	69.2%	1,613
Jennifer L. Scott	25.1%	584
Darryl Fingers	5.7%	134
Total Votes		2,331
Source: Lucas County Board of Elections, "Official primary election results," accessed October 1, 2015

Toledo City Council, District 3 Primary Election, 2015
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Peter Ujvagi	47.2%	925
Glen Cook	29.1%	570
Ernest McCarthy	12.6%	247
Robert James Worthington	11.1%	218
Total Votes		1,960
Source: Lucas County Board of Elections, "Official primary election results," accessed October 1, 2015

Toledo City Council, District 4 Primary Election, 2015
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Yvonne Harper Incumbent	69.5%	1,472
Peggy Brown-Morehead	18.7%	397
Robert J. Longoria	11.8%	250
Total Votes		2,119
Source: Lucas County Board of Elections, "Official primary election results," accessed October 1, 2015

Toledo City Council, District 6 Primary Election, 2015
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Lindsay Webb Incumbent	64.2%	2,177
Bill Delaney	25.1%	851
Alex Rivera	10.7%	364
Total Votes		3,392
Source: Lucas County Board of Elections, "Official primary election results," accessed October 1, 2015

Special election

Candidate list

May 5 Special election candidates:

• Yvonne Harper
• Ruth Ashford
• Alfonso R. Narvaez
• Scott A. Ramsey

Election results

Toledo City Council, District 4, 2015
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Yvonne Harper	42%	602
Ruth Ashford	27.4%	393
Scott A. Ramsey	22.2%	318
Alfonso R. Narvaez	8.5%	122
Total Votes		1,435
Source: City of Toledo, "Official special election results," accessed May 28, 2015

Ballot measures

Marijuana Decriminalization Initiative

See also: City of Toledo Marijuana Decriminalization "Sensible Marijuana Ordinance" Initiative, Issue 1 (September 2015)

A Marijuana Decriminalization Initiative, Issue 1, was on the ballot for Toledo voters in Lucas County, Ohio, on September 15, 2015. It was approved. Ultimately, the provisions of this initiative that related to decriminalizing felony offences—as determined by state law—were overturned in court.

Issue 1 was called the "Sensible Marijuana Ordinance" by supporters.

Issue 1 decriminalized marijuana by decreasing the penalties for marijuana-related violations, including those considered felonies by state law, to the absolute minimum while keeping the substance technically illegal in order to comply with state law.

Specifically, the measure was designed to:

• Remove all jail time and fines for marijuana violations
• Prevent driver license suspension due to marijuana violations
• Forbid any marijuana violation from being reported to any professional licensing board or agency
• Prevent law enforcement agencies from reporting marijuana violations to any authority above the local city attorney
• Prohibit civil or criminal asset forfeiture as a consequence of any marijuana-related infraction

Upon the approval of Issue 1, Toledo, the fourth-largest city in the state, became the first to enact a local ordinance decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana in Ohio. Sean Nestor, a member of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), said that activists were planning decriminalization initiatives in six additional cities in Ohio.

Marijuana activists were also working toward statewide legalization through an initiative petition targeting the November 2015 ballot.

Toledo, Issue 1
Result		Votes	Percentage
a Yes		11,663	70.37%
No		4,911	29.63%

Election results from Lucas County Elections Office

Issues

Marijuana

See also: Ohio Marijuana Legalization Initiative, Issue 3 (2015)

In addition to Toledo's "Sensible Marijuana Ordinance" in September, there was a statewide marijuana measure on the ballot on November 3, the Marijuana Legalization Initiative (also referred to as the ResponsibleOhio plan). This initiative would have legalized medical and personal use of marijuana in the state for those over 21 years of age. There would have been 10 Marijuana Growth, Cultivation and Extraction (MGCE) facilities, and 1,159 retail stores (one store for every 10,000 Ohioans) would be allowed.

The mayoral candidates (excluding Opal Covey) attended an event at the Toledo Country Club in early September. According to The Toledo Blade, "The candidates were mostly in agreement on the marijuana ballot measures. They are in support of decriminalization on the city ballot and against the so-called Responsible Ohio plan." Gary Johnson, a Democratic activist in Lucas County, said the statewide ballot measure made it hard to predict the outcome of the mayoral race. "We’ve got an issue on the ballot [legalizing personal use of marijuana] that will bring out a group of people that we really can’t put our finger on as to how they’re going to vote," he said.

Water

See also: 2014 Toledo Water Crisis

During one weekend in August 2014, Toledo endured a water crisis wherein residents were told not to drink, cook or brush their teeth with tap water. Neither water filters nor boiling the water were effective in making the water safe. The ban was due to toxic levels of microcystin in the water, which comes from Lake Erie. Unsafe levels of microcystin can cause diarrhea, vomiting or abnormal liver function.

The graphic below from the City of Toledo's website showed the status of drinking water on September 17, 2015.

In June 2015, concerned citizens contacted the city, news outlets and the water treatment plant seeking information about a possible water warning. This occurred after rumors spread about an algae bloom that was spotted in the lake three miles from the city's water intake. Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson called a press conference to quell the rumor, which she said was unfounded. "I think it's important to let the public know that we have safe processes in place to make sure we are producing safe water, and when there is any type of hint of the water not being safe, we need to stop those rumors, and make sure people are not panicking or worrying unnecessarily," she said. The issue of water was important in the 2015 election, including ensuring the safety of drinking water and whether the city should regionalize water distribution.

Comments from Toledo's 2015 mayoral candidates on water quality.

Acting Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson said she would tackle the causes of the lake's algea in order to avoid future water quality problems. She said the city had already been moving in the right direction, referencing the water plant’s early detection system and the fact that no microcystin had been detected in the city's treated tap water during the 2015 algae season. Paula Hicks-Hudson Carty Finkbeiner On the topic of water quality, Carty Finkbeiner said the city needed to "get the best brains in this country in here to tell us how we can deal with this issue". He proposed going to Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and Ohio Governor John Kasich to "ask them to take it to the Great Lakes governors, so we're all on the same page, working together, which we are not today." Mike Bell suggested that the city lower the depth of its intake and bring in experts for help. "One of the things about algae is that it floats right in that three to four feet area. And if we lowered our intake, we'd be very similar to Oregon, which has a lower intake than we do, and we'd have fresher water," he said at a mayoral debate on September 23. On his campaign website, Bell said he would work with federal and state legislators on the issue and "look at a variety of innovative ways to reduce chemical usage so that our water supply is not only safe for today, but for future generations." Mike Bell Sandy Drabik Collins Sandy Drabik Collins said that the city needed to go to the federal government. "We need to ask for an executive order to make Lake Erie and the Great Lakes a national treasure, and go at this in a positive way," she said. According to her campaign website, part of Collins' platform was to "Lobby state and federal officials for greater enforcement of agriculture run off and to stop open lake dredging." Mike Ferner issued a statement on August 26 about the urgent need to protect Lake Erie and Toledo's drinking water. He stressed that the sources of pollution to the lake need to be held accountable, including dredgings from the Maumee River ship channel and material that leaks from diked disposal facilities, sewage treatment plants and factory farms in the Maumee River watershed. He said that if he became mayor, he would ask the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to declare the western basin of Lake Erie an "impaired watershed", which would set into motion the process of finding out where the phosphorous, which causes the algae blooms, is coming from. In his statement he said, "Big Agriculture and corporate polluters cannot be allowed to ruin our lake and poison our drinking water." Mike Ferner

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Toledo Ohio Election. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Toledo, Ohio municipal elections, 2015 - Google News

See also

• United States municipal elections, 2015
• Toledo, Ohio
• City of Toledo Marijuana Decriminalization "Sensible Marijuana Ordinance" Initiative, Issue 1 (September 2015)

External links

Suggest a link

• City of Toledo
• Lucas County Board of Elections - Official special election results
• Lucas County Board of Elections - Official primary election candidate list
• Lucas County Board of Elections - Official general election candidate list
• Lucas County Board of Elections - Official primary election results