Race For
The Mayor
Marcia, Alex and Pete: Stomping
knows how to
focus the issues to
take steps to solve
them. He has the
skills we need to
make Toledo pros-
per in the `90s."
Mr. Silverman
descends from a
line of Democratic
Party activists, and his
opponents openly criticize
him as part of an old boys'
network.
Mr. Silverman, 37, says
he believes in the city where
he was raised. He left
Toledo after college, opting
instead for a law job in New
York City.
He always had his eye on
politics, and he returned
home in 1984 because he
had enough of big city life
and he felt he could more
easily enter politics in his
hometown.
Four years ago, he won a
spot on the city council.
Since his return to
Toledo, he has helped many
small businesses raise capi-
tal to survive. Stimulating
small business, he says, is a
necessary means for
Toledo's future.
"Toledo lacks leader-
ship," Mr. Silverman says.
"It faces the same problems
as all other cities. The way
to attack these problems is
to focus on privatization, job
creation and keeping our
homes safe."
This race holds many
similarities to the Detroit
mayoral race. Like Detroit,
Toledo will be getting its
first new leader in years.
Also like Detroit, one of the
Toledo hasn't had a strong-mayor form of government
since 1937. UJA cabinet member Pete Silverman has his
eyes on the new job.
Pete Silverman: "We will combat crime."
I
oledo — Sixty miles
south of downtown
Detroit, Toledo rocks
all summer long with
ethnic festivals. Though the
population is 330,000, the
city — whose largest
employer is the Jeep
Cherokee and Wrangler
plant — seems more like a
small town.
One area is filled with
Americans of Polish and
Hungarian descent. Other
parts of Toledo attract
Asians, blacks, Arab-
Americans and 6,300 Jews
who are scattered among
the city proper and a hand-
ful of suburbs.
There can be four or five
festivals on any given week-
end day. This makes a
prime breeding ground dur-
ing political season — espe-
cially now, when Toledoans
are preparing to elect their
first strong mayor in 55
years.
After the November gen-
eral election, Toledo resi-
dents will bid farewell to its
city manager form of gov-
ernment. Instead, residents
will begin to hold the first
strongly elected mayor
accountable for such prob-
lems that mirror other
urban dilemmas of the
1990s: making government
work to create jobs and
decrease crime.
Pete Silverman, who
serves on the Toledo City
Council, thinks he can do
the job. He is one of four
mayoral candidates thrust
into a Sept. 14 primary race
so close that no pundit will
dare speculate on a winner.
Alex Silverman, age 18
months, is getting some
early political training. He's
been on the campaign trail
for months, stomping along-
side his mom, Marcia, for
his dad, an attorney and a
Jewish community activist
who for seven years has
served on the United Jewish
Appeal Young Adult
Leadership Cabinet.
Pete Silverman also is on
the board of the Toledo
Jewish Home For Aged, and
he serves on Toledo
Federation committees.
"Say vote for Daddy,"
Marcia Silverman tells their
son en route to the Polish
festival earlier this month.
"Can you say it?"
Alex, clad in a red, white
and blue campaign T-shirt,
just smiles. Pete Silverman
parks the van, walks
around, shaking every hand
within his reach and
engages festival goers in
political conversation.
Mr. Silverman is the only
Democrat endorsed by the
party in this nonpartisan
race, in an area with histor-
ical liberal political lean-
ings. Other Democrats are
vying for the seat, among
them the former Lucas
County Democratic chair-
man, Bill Boyle, a self-made
millionaire, and City
Council Member Carty
Finkbeiner.
The polls list the front
runners as Mr. Silverman,
Mr. Finkbeiner, Paula
Pennypacker, a Republican
who is a former radio com-
mentator, and Mike Ferner,
a former union organizer
who now is a full-time city
council member.
Eight candidates are in
the first-round race. The top
two primary vote getters
will go on to the November
election.
"My challenge is getting
through the primary," Mr.
Silverman says.
Like Detroit, Toledo —
once strong because of man-
ufacturing and the
American automobile indus-
try — is in a quandary.
Foreign competition has
forced the Toledo business
community to diversify its
economic base, slowly mov-
ing the city away from its
union-strong auto-depen-
dent industry into the infor-
mation age.
"You used to be able to
graduate high school and
have a job waiting for you
on the line at the Jeep
plant," says Walter Webb,
34, an auto worker volun-
teering on the Silverman
campaign. "It's not true
anymore. There are no
jobs."
He always had his
eye on politics.
Those who support Mr.
Silverman say he is bright,
articulate and idealistic, yet
pragmatic with the strong
business sense required to
help stimulate the economy.
"He's got good ideas," says
Toledo resident Larry
O'Neal. "Pete Silverman
wants to revitalize the
downtown, which is in a
sorry state. At 5 o'clock,
Toledo is dead. He wants to
do something. He is sin-
cere."
Lucas County Democratic
Chairman Michael Beazley
says there are dozens of
minor issues in this race.
Crucial, he says, is finding
a mayor who doesn't just
sound good on paper.
"Pete has the intelli-
gence, the stability and the
integrity to come to grips
with the problems, and he
The candidate schmoozes for votes.
for daddy.
major problems is keeping
residents from moving out
of the city because of high
crime.
In the last 20 years,
Toledo's population has
declined by 50,000 resi-
dents. Demographers pro-
ject it will lose another
40,000 in the next decade.
"We need to have a com-
munity that will be orga-
nized and aggressive in
working with the police to
try to combat the crime,"
Mr. Silverman says.
Among his ideas is beef-
ing up community policing.
Officers, in cooperation with
city. neighborhoods, will
walk beats. In addition, he
says, Toledo must bring its
660-member police force up
to 750.
Pete Silverman's family
doesn't spend much private
time with him these
days. Between work at the
law firm, city council busi-
ness and the campaign, his
weekdays and weekends
are filled. On the weekends,
his wife and son often
join him on the campaign
trail.
On Shabbat eve, he does
not campaign. Friday nights
are reserved for dinner with
his family. He and his wife,
a former television political
reporter, met at a UJA
Washington conference.
Pete Silverman keeps
kosher on and off the cam-
paign trail, and though he is
not completely observant,
he is a member of the city's
Orthodox congregation. He
studies with Detroit's Rabbi
Eric Krohner.
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