From the PD

The Friday filing deadline for local races brought out a mix of veteran politicians seeking to reinvent themselves, new candidates seeking office and a slew of people looking to make history in an East Side suburb.

Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Judge James P. Celebrezze decided not to seek re-election, but his family’s name will still be on the ballot.

His daughter, Democrat Leslie Ann Celebrezze, is taking the powerful surname - emblazoned on a federal building in downtown Cleveland - into the contest. She has no opposition in the March primary, but will face a Republican challenger, Patrick R. Kelly, in the November election.

On the judicial slate, several familiar faces will compete for new seats on the bench. Election boards released unofficial candidate filings Friday but must still validate petitions. The race for a seat on the 8th Ohio District Court of Appeals will pit three local judges against each other: Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Larry Jones, Lakewood Municipal Court Judge Patrick Carroll and Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Stuart Friedman.

Of all the candidates seeking office in the county, Common Pleas Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold may have the most personal reason for running. She didn’t like the way her divorce case was handled in Domestic Relations Court, so she is runnig against the court’s veteran chief judge, Timothy Flanagan.

Euclid will be the only municipality to hold council elections in a season dominated by county, state and federal elections. A federal judge blocked City Council elections last fall and ordered the city to restructure its council makeup to give black candidates a fair chance of winning seats.

Several candidates are competing to be the first black City Council member in the East Side city. Among those running is Rose Allen. The candidate for council president previously ran unsuccessfully for a council seat in 1981.

Regardless of who wins the Cuyahoga County recorder’s race, it appears to be the area’s most confused contest.

Martin J. Sweeney, president of Cleveland City Council, filed for the primary. His ambitions for a county office are well known in political circles, but he was banking on incumbent Patrick J. O’Malley not running for re-election.

O’Malley filed to run, leaving Sweeney to reconsider. “If he is running, I am not,” Sweeney said. “I will support him.”

Another Democrat, former Cleveland Councilman Nelson Cintron Jr., also filed to run against O’Malley. And Republican Cathy Luks is also seeking the seat.

In Lorain County, politicians who ran a successful grassroots campaign against a county sales tax increase last year would challenge the two county commissioners who supported the hike.

Commissioner Ted Kalo will face Amherst Councilman Nick Brusky, and Commissioner Lori Kokoski goes up against Martin O’Donnell, Avon Lake councilman. The commissioners are Democrats; the challengers are Republicans.

In March, the three commissioners voted to raise the sales tax to 6.5 percent, but in November, voters overwhelming rejected the quarter-of-a-penny increase.

“It’s a disturbing trend, to see how they’re spending money,” Brusky said.