Two sitting Cleveland City Council members will face off in a race to clinch the new Ward 5 seat.
Ward 12 Councilmember Rebecca Maurer, whose current ward will be sliced into multiple pieces under new maps, announced Tuesday that she will seek reelection in Ward 5. That's where her home address will be when new wards take effect next January.
It’s also home to incumbent Richard Starr, who is running for re-election. This marks the first race this election cycle in which two city council members will face off in a narrowing political field.
The current iteration of Ward 5 includes the neighborhoods of Central, Kinsman, Midtown and parts of Downtown and Slavic Village. But City Council's once-a-decade redistricting process will reduce the number of wards from 17 to 15, shifting ward boundaries.
One of the new maps' biggest shake-ups was to Maurer's Ward 12, which includes parts of Old Brooklyn, Slavic Village, Brooklyn Centre and Tremont. She called foul on the redistricting process, saying the decision to slice up her ward was politically motivated.
Both Maurer and Starr are first-term council members.
Maurer is a lawyer who has championed housing issues, such as lead poisoning in children and tenants' rights, during her tenure in the legal field and on City Council. With an undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago and her J.D. from Stanford Law School, her previous experience includes running her own law practice and working as a staff attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland. Maurer also previously worked as a community advocate, serving on the board of Slavic Village Development and as a teacher at Mind Matters Cleveland.
Starr was elected to his Ward 5 seat in fall 2021, after a failed bid against longtime incumbent Phyllis Cleveland in 2017. Starr grew up in public housing in Ward 5, often citing this lived experience in poverty to inform his time on council. With an undergraduate degree in sports management and a Masters of Business Administration from Baldwin Wallace, Starr previously worked as in various roles at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Cleveland. While on council, Starr worked to increase the number of young people attending Boys & Girls Clubs and campaigned to establish a club at East Technical High School, according to City Council.
Maurer and Starr have previously butted heads politically. Earlier this year, Maurer denounced Starr and Councilmember Anthony Hairston's plans to apparently retaliate against a colleague's accuser, calling the pair's comments "embarrassing" and "unbecoming."
Starr accused Maurer of "running her mouth" to the media and later texted the same group chat of council members that he "know[s] a rat when I see one."
Two other challengers have also filed to run for the Ward 5 seat: newcomers Johnnie Brown and Beverly Owens-Jackson.
Incumbent council members may also be campaigning against one another in new ward 10. Both Anthony Hairston and Mike Polensek's Collinwood addresses fall within that boundary. Polensek, who has served on council for more than four decades, has filed to run.
The Sept. 9 primary will narrow the race for each ward to two candidates who will face off in November.
