Word: tafts
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...general election. He was an experienced, chipper, charismatic campaigner who could beguile white suburban clubwomen at tea and rap with soul brothers in Hough. He was a Democrat in a town that had not elected a Republican mayor in the past 26 years. And his opponent was Seth Taft, 44, who bore the multiple burdens of a stiff presence, the wrong party label plus nephewship to the "Mr. Republican" who co-authored the Taft-Hartley Act, longtime anathema to organized labor...
...Taft turned out to be a liberal, and a dogged, gutsy campaigner to boot. He saw "human relations" as the city's number one problem and poured out a spate of specific ideas while Stokes tended to generalize. "We don't need more plans in this city," Stokes declared at one point. "What we need is action." Actually, he was already on record with his own specifics. To an all-white meeting of policemen, Stokes declared his intention of firing Police Chief Richard Wagner as his first order of business. To a Negro club he promised...
...Though Taft had scrupulously avoided the race issue-despite Stokes's needling about his upper-crust background -some of the Republican's aides openly injected color into the campaign. Perhaps in response to this pressure, Stokes a month before election day blurted during a debate that if Taft won it would be purely because of bigotry on the part of Clevelanders...
...manager, Dr. Kenneth Clement, was to rue later: "A lot of people who did not like the idea of a Negro mayor were waiting for an excuse to vote against him." It was not merely an error but a near calamity. In the early opinion polls Stokes had led Taft by 30 points and more. Now he was running scared. He dropped his supercilious needling and swung into substantive issues. To answer his opponent's charge that he had been a poor legislator, Stokes produced a testimonial that read: "The reports I hear of your performance in Columbus...
Stokes began to match Taft detail for detail. He promised to combat the crime rate (up 14% last year) by increasing the police patrol-car force one-third, expand the airport with already available fill, eliminate a particular traffic bottleneck on Baltic Road ("the Baltic Blockade"), which, conjectured Stokes, costs a 20-year commuter 100 days off his life. He announced plans for an inaugural ball to raise money for clothing for children of relief families. Even with a skillful advertising campaign, a large and capable biracial campaign staff and a regiment of 2,000 door knockers, Stokes...