Oct 24, 2005 5 min read

Little did George Jackson know that when he moved his family from Uniontown to Cleveland back in 1945 that some day his son would emerge as the front-runner in the race for mayor of Ohio’s largest city. But that’s exactly what happened after Cleveland’s mayoral primary election on Oct. 4. George’s son, Frank, finished first with incumbent mayor Jane Campbell lagging behind in second place. The two are now battling in a runoff election set for Nov. 8.

Frank Jackson said there’s no doubt that his father, who died in 1977, and his mother, the former Rose Volpe, who died in 1996, would be proud of his accomplishment.

“My parents always supported me when they were living, so I know they would be supportive of me now,’ said Jackson. “My mother got to see me elected as a councilman and she was happy about that. I know they would be behind me if they were living.’

Unlike many other people from Fayette County who moved to the Cleveland area for jobs after World War II, Jackson said his parents’ move had nothing to do with economics.

“They were an interracial couple. My father was black and my mother was white,’ said Jackson. “It was the times back then, and they thought things would be better in Cleveland.

“The other thing was that my dad knew people in Cleveland, so he was able to get a job pretty easy and settle down here to raise a family,’ added Jackson.

Jackson said that he used to come back to visit Uniontown often to see his relatives but most of them have since died.

“We used to come back regularly in the 70s and early 80s but then the relatives started dying and I haven’t been back to Uniontown probably since the late 80s,’ said Jackson. “I remember coming back to Uniontown for my grandfather’s funeral. All the family was there for that.

Despite moving westward, Jackson said his father never forget his roots in Uniontown.

“He always knew Uniontown was his home,’ said Jackson. “He used to talk about growing up there and how much he liked it all the time.’

Jackson said while his father wasn’t involved in politics, he had strong opinions on the subject.

“My father was a Democrat and my uncle was a Republican and they would sit around and argue about politics all the time,’ said Jackson.

An attorney, Jackson worked for a time as a prosecutor in the city’s district attorney’s office. He said he didn’t become involved in politics, though, until the 80s. He said a friend was a city councilman and he began working on his campaign. He decided to run for council on his own and won, taking office in 1990.

He has been a councilman since then, representing Cleveland’s poorest ward. He was elected to a fourth term four years ago with only token opposition. While respected for his conscience and integrity, Jackson was largely regarded as a councilman content in his job without any larger ambitions.

In fact, as the head of council, he was an ally of Campbell when she was first elected in 2001.

“I was not looking to run for mayor,’ said Jackson. “I was looking forward to retiring and spending more time with my family, but I was born and raised in Cleveland and I just couldn’t walk away from all the problems here.

“It was very unsettling to see all these problems coming up and nothing was being done about them,’ he added. “There was an inability to get things done. It wasn’t anything personal. It was a leadership issue.’

However, Jackson faced some formidable odds in his bid to become mayor. Unlike Pennsylvania, Cleveland has an open fall primary where anyone can run for mayor. Six challengers lined up to run against Campbell, including Jackson, and the consensus was they would split up the anti-incumbent vote, giving the mayor an easy re-election victory. In fact, it had been almost 30 years since a mayor had lost to a challenger in a similar situation.

But Jackson not only won. He won big, defeating Campbell by nine percentage points.

“I knew it was possible that I could finish first, but I didn’t anticipate my margin of victory,’ said Jackson. “I thought I might win by a couple of percentage points but to win by as much as I did tells you that people don’t have confidence in the mayor’s ability to do the job.’

Still, Jackson is taking nothing for granted and knows he has a lot of work to do in the next couple of weeks before the election.

“We’ll be pretty busy. Things are very hectic now,’ said Jackson. “We’ll be working hard just like we’ve been doing. I have no hidden agenda. We just want to make sure that everything’s done right. Cleveland’s at a crossroads right now. It’s a very important time in the city’s history, and I just want to be sure that the people’s interests are being represented.’

Mark O’Keefe is the executive editor of the Herald-Standard. O’Keefe can be reached by e-mail at mo’keefe@heraldstandard.com or by phone at 724-439-7569.