Elections board approves 7 candidates for Toledo mayoral race

17 certified to run for city council seats

Incumbent Mayor Mike Bell hands petitions to Lori Jacek as files to run for reelection at the Lucas County Board of Elections in Toledo last week.

The Toledo-Lucas County Board of Elections today certified seven candidates seeking to become the next mayor of Toledo and 17 people running for six at-large seats on Toledo City Council.

Independent Mayor Mike Bell will be challenged by independents D. Michael Collins and Alan Cox; Democrats Toledo City Councilman Joe McNamara and county Auditor Anita Lopez; Libertarian Michael Konwinski, and evangelist Opal Covey, who is listed in Lucas County voter records as a Democrat but who is running as a Republican. Donald Gozdowski filed to run as a write-in.

The 17 candidates certified for city council include Toledo Board of Education member Larry Sykes and former Toledo Mayor Jack Ford, both Democrats and former city smoking ban opponent Bill Delaney, a political independent.

The other council candidates who were certified were Republican incumbent Councilman Rob Ludeman; Democratic incumbent Councilman Adam Martinez; Republican challengers James Nowak, James P. Martin, and Joseph Celusta, and Democrat Joshua Fowler. Mr. Celusta is a grandson of the late Ollie Czelusta, who was mayor in the 1950s. Joe Celusta’s father, the late John Celusta, dropped the “z” from his name.

Independents Theresa Gabriel and Sandy Spang; Republicans Alfonso Narvaez, Ernest McCarthy, and Ron Johns; Democratic incumbent councilmen Steven Steel and Shaun Enright, and Green candidate Sean Nestor were also certified.

There names will be on the ballot for the primary election on Sept. 10 in Toledo. The two highest vote-getters for mayor and the 12 highest vote-getters for council will face off Nov. 5 in the general election.

Republican Alex Rivera filled petitions for Toledo City Council but did not have enough valid signatures, said Elections Board Director Meghan Gallagher.

“We had four staff members review [the petitions],” Ms. Gallagher said. “Two hundred-fifty were needed but only 246 were valid.”

Thirty-eight people signed and listed addresses where they are not registered. Eleven people who signed were not registered to vote, she said.

Also certified were three candidates for Sylvania City Council — V. Mike Brown, Katie Cappellini, and Mary Westphal, and one candidate for Sylvania mayor, incumbent Craig Stough.

Candidates certified for Toledo Municipal Court were Amy Berling for a term starting Jan. 2, 2014; and Gretchen DeBacker, Michael Goulding, Joseph Howe, Joshua Lanzinger, and Kenneth Phillips for a term starting Jan. 1, 2014.