The path to representing Ward 11 on Cleveland City Council became clearer for Nikki Hudson.
Her opponent, Andrew Fontanarosa, bowed out of the race, although his name will still appear on voters’ ballots.
Fontanarosa withdrew as a candidate Sept. 19, not early enough to take his name off the ballot. Votes cast for him won’t count, a spokesman for the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections said. The board will post notices about his withdrawal in polling places. A similar note will accompany mail-in ballot packets.
An attorney, Fontanarosa said he left the race to take a job in the KeyBank legal department. He previously worked at an immigration law firm. He said he had to choose between the new job at Key and staying in the race.
“It’s not really compatible to do a full-time private sector role and also be on City Council,” he said in a phone interview. “Even you did get past that, the potential for conflict of interest is real.”
The ward’s new boundaries reach from Edgewater Park to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, crossing such neighborhoods as Detroit-Shoreway, Cudell and Old Brooklyn.
With no incumbent, the West Side contest was guaranteed to send a new face to council. The deadline to run as a write-in has passed.
Although she knows the race’s outcome, Hudson said she is still moving “full speed ahead” to knock on doors and talk with voters.
“I don’t want to miss the opportunity to connect with my future constituents,” she said in a phone interview Wednesday.
Open seats on Cleveland’s West Side
Hudson is a more than 20-year resident of the Cudell neighborhood who previously served on the board of Northwest Neighborhoods Community Development Corp. She has the backing of the county Democratic Party and the progressive groups A Better Cleveland For All and the Working Families Party.
She helped lead the Coalition for a Better Cleveland, a group of neighborhood activists who have protested a plan to build a gas station near Cudell Park. The group also succeeded in pressing the school district not to cut down trees at the park for a school expansion.
After deciding to drop out, Fontanarosa said he called Hudson to let her know. The two candidates had agreed not to make their race contentious and stuck to that promise, she said.
“I’m a little sorry to see him drop out and I wish him nothing but the best,” Hudson said.
Fontanarosa said he believed Hudson would work hard for the ward.
“I’m very happy for her, and I hope that she does a wonderful job for Ward 11,” he said.
Council Members Jenny Spencer and Kerry McCormack both decided not to seek reelection, effectively leaving two seats open in Cleveland’s redrawn ward map.
Mohammad Faraj and Austin Davis will compete for the other of those two seats in Ward 7, which covers Detroit-Shoreway, Ohio City, Tremont and part of downtown.
This story has been updated with comment from Fontanarosa.
