Mayoral candidates make final election appeals
11/5/2017
Toledo mayoral candidate Wade Kapszukiewicz, right, and volunteer Doug Johnson, left, look at a map of Toledo precincts in order to prepare to go door-to-door to campaign while organizing volunteers at Kapszukiewicz's headquarters.
The Blade/Amy E. Voigt
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Toledo’s mayoral candidates entered the home stretch of this year’s mayoral election Saturday, meeting people at the early vote center or knocking on doors in Toledo neighborhoods.
Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson took to the radio airwaves, joining a live Saturday morning radio program, while Treasurer Wade Kapszukiewicz prepped volunteers to walk door-to-door in West Toledo.
Sitting around the table crowded with microphones and studio equipment, Ms. Hicks-Hudson joined in the lighthearted banter of the Saturday Morning Blues Party on WIMX-FM, 95.7 with hosts Curtis Hopkins and Rocky Love, where she was introduced as “Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson - esquire” for her legal occupation.
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“It’s just so important that everyone gets out and votes,” Ms. Hicks-Hudson said. “It’s our civic duty. Just take care of it and get it out of the way.”
Referring to the long early vote period available in Ohio, as well as the opportunity to vote this weekend, she said, “We’ve made it so there’s no reason not to vote.”
The mayor at noon attended a city government function where the city police department signed a “code of conduct” that spelled out respectful and nonviolent ways police officers and community members should interact when crimes are being investigated.
Later, she greeted people at the Lucas County Board of Elections Early Vote Center.
Ms. Hicks-Toledo, the endorsed Democrat, is seeking a full four-year term after serving the nearly three years remaining in the term of Mayor D. Michael Collins who died in February, 2015.
Lucas County Treasurer Wade Kapszukiewicz, a Democrat running without the party’s endorsement, is seeking to unseat Ms. Hicks-Hudson.
He started the day with a squad of about 10 volunteers at his campaign headquarters downtown where donuts were shared, along with some pep talk.
In remarks to them before the afternoon of canvassing, Mr. Kapszukiewicz expressed a high level of confidence, and said the door-knocking and phone-calling of the past 80 hours capped off a campaign well-run.
“The hay is in the barn. There’s nothing left than old-fashioned footwork. We are in excellent shape. We’ve done a couple of polls. We are ahead,” Mr. Kapszukiewicz asserted to his volunteers.
He said his campaign had put out twice as many television commercials and three times as many direct mail pieces as Ms. Hicks-Hudson.
He said that since April, every organization that has made an endorsement has endorsed him.
Registered voters can vote Saturday until 4 p.m., on Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m., and on Monday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., or wait until Election Day Tuesday, when polls are open in neighborhood polling places from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Lucas County’s early vote location is 1301 Monroe St.
In preparation for Tuesday night, the Lucas County Board of Elections announced a new website for people to follow the election returns, which will be reported starting after 7:30 p.m. with the count of absentee ballots.
The LiveResults tool can be found at lucascountyvotes.org once the site goes live.
The ballot in Lucas County has 174 candidates running in city, village, township, and board of education races, and 15 questions, including two statewide questions.
Contact Tom Troy at tomtroy@theblade.com, 419-724-6058, or on Twitter @TomFTroy.