{"id":21367,"date":"2026-11-13T01:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-11-13T01:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=21367"},"modified":"2026-11-13T01:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-11-13T01:42:11","slug":"spotlight-on-lucas-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/13\/spotlight-on-lucas-county\/","title":{"rendered":"Spotlight on Lucas County"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Donald Perryman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Rev. Donald L. Perryman, Ph.D.<\/em>
\nThe Truth Contributor<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0Win or lose, we win by raising the issues<\/em>. \u2013 <\/em>Charlotta Bass, 1952 vice-presidential campaign slogan<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Many in Lucas County went to bed on election night uneasy and in the dark, still waiting to learn the outcome of important races, including local levies. Tina Butts’ Movement, Kevin Dalton’s teachers and Petee Talley’s Ohio Unity coalition had already done the work, though. They worked the way Charlotta Bass said to in 1952: win or lose, raise the issues.<\/p>\n

Governor-elect Amy Acton now has a cabinet and judges\u2019 chairs to fill, and a few Toledo names are making the rounds. It is time to turn the spotlight on the people who delivered the votes, and some of them may be packing for Columbus.<\/p>\n

The Winners<\/strong><\/p>\n

Marcy Kaptur. <\/strong>She won again despite many pundits\u2019 forecast of her political demise. Campaigns have changed since the days Kaptur worked events 18 hours at a stretch, and most of the fight now plays out on television and the internet.<\/p>\n

Yet she continues to shake one hand at a time and shows up at every event, campaign season or not, often eager to scoop up a toddler in her arms. It is common to cross paths with Kaptur as she shops at Kroger or at the gas pump, so her superpower seems to be that folks view her as a politician that is accessible and not untouchable.<\/p>\n

Amy Acton. <\/strong>Her win is a political miracle by any measure. She spent plenty of time in northwest Ohio, suggesting spoils to the victor may come Toledo\u2019s way.<\/p>\n

Ohio House Democrats. <\/strong>They broke the Republican supermajority, so a governor\u2019s veto can now stand, and Columbus has to negotiate anything that passes in the legislature.<\/p>\n

Wade Kapszukiewicz. <\/strong>The talk has come up often enough to have legs: Acton may have offered the mayor a cabinet job involving economic development, where state grant money gets funneled. Whether he takes it is another matter, but there is no doubt that he should. Toledo needs more people to grow the tax base, and he has already been doing that work well.<\/p>\n

Under the mayor, Toledo has grown its culture: the art museum and the zoo, murals around town, the lakes and recreation, and now a money museum on its way from New York. That is how a city with fewer residents finds new taxpayers to help pay for its amenities and necessities.<\/p>\n

Paula Hicks-Hudson. <\/strong>Close to Acton and an early endorser, she held a high-level role in the Strickland years, and her name comes up for Columbus, which would open her Senate seat.<\/p>\n

Anita Lopez. <\/strong>An attorney and the one commissioner whose name keeps coming up. Lopez has wanted a judge\u2019s chair for years and talk runs from there to a possible state legal post.<\/p>\n

Democratic judicial hopefuls. <\/strong>Myron Duhart\u2019s win on the Sixth District Court of Appeals was a significant one. He beat CJ Kamm 63.9 percent to 36.1 percent even with a party label by his name, and he went all in to get there. Opportunity for others may come next. Republican Judge Michael Goulding, who won an appeals seat unopposed, leaves a Common Pleas seat Acton fills, the first for a Democrat since Ted Strickland left office in 2011.<\/p>\n

Colin Flanagan. <\/strong>A Toledo native, he spent the past year managing John Kulewicz\u2019s campaign for attorney general, which he says he built from the ground up. That statewide victory is the first Democratic win for the office since 2008. This election put Flanagan on the map.<\/p>\n

The Ground Game<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kevin Dalton. <\/strong>He started as a first-grade teacher at Birmingham Elementary and has led the Toledo Federation of Teachers since 2012. His members were among those out front. With Amy Acton headed to the governor\u2019s office, new ways to rejuvenate the public school education system will likely be on the agenda, and Dalton\u2019s union will want a seat.<\/p>\n

Tina Butts. <\/strong>The ground game carried this election, and The Movement was at the center of it in Lucas County. Butts and her group were boots on the ground for Amy Acton, Sherrod Brown and the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n

Petee Talley. <\/strong>She spent more than two decades in labor politics, rising to Ohio AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer, the first woman elected to one of the federation\u2019s top two offices, before building the Ohio Unity Coalition in Toledo. She wrote after 2024 that getting eligible voters to the ballot never ends. This year the coalition put that into practice with get-out-the-vote work.<\/p>\n

Anita Madison. <\/strong>The face of voter empowerment in Toledo. This tireless coordinator for the Ohio Unity Coalition is a constant presence and has been at this for years. Her simple and practical mantra pays dividends, though: Check your registration, make sure your ID matches your voter file, and confirm your polling place.<\/p>\n

Who Gets the Spotlight?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The chairs are about to move. If the mayor leaves for Columbus, Toledo City Council President Vanice Williams moves up under the charter. A commissioner who leaves is replaced by the county Democratic central committee within 45 days.<\/p>\n

Whoever moves up should remember who got them there. The work it takes to reach the top is the work it takes to stay there, and the people who did that work this year deserve the spotlight.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Contact Rev. Donald Perryman, PhD, at <\/em>drdlperryman@centerofhopebaptist.org<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rev. Donald L. Perryman, Ph.D. The Truth Contributor \u00a0\u00a0Win or lose, we win by raising the issues. \u2013 Charlotta Bass, 1952 vice-presidential campaign slogan   Many in Lucas County went to bed on election night uneasy and in the dark, still waiting to learn the outcome of important races, including local levies. Tina Butts’ […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,252],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[374],"class_list":["post-21367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial-opinion","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21367"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21368,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21367\/revisions\/21368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21367"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=21367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}