Rematch in Cleveland

Cleveland, whose population is only 35% Negro, in 1965 came within a hairsbreadth of becoming the first major U.S. city to elect a Negro mayor. It may still be the first. Currently, the leading contender in the Oct. 3 Democratic primary is Carl Stokes, a Negro state legislator who, running as an independent two years ago, fell short of winning the election from Incumbent Ralph Locher by only 2,143 votes.

Stokes, 40, a handsome, articulate lawyer with an outstanding record in the Ohio House of Representatives, has based a low-key campaign on the lackluster administration of Mayor Locher, 52, and the apathy toward ghetto problems at city hall that helped stir four days of rioting last year in the Negro slum district of Hough. Stokes's campaign advertising proclaims: DON'T VOTE FOR A NEGRO FOR MAYOR. Underneath, in smaller type, the ads urge: "Vote for a Man Who Believes in Cleveland, Carl B. Stokes." Figuring that he can count on East Side Negroes anyway, Stokes has concentrated his campaign on the white West Side where, as he notes, his support two years ago was "a little less than overwhelming." (He won 3% of the total white vote.)

Stokes's moderate, constructive platform has won him the active support of several leading white businessmen. Last week the Cleveland Plain Dealer, which had endorsed Locher in his three previous campaigns, came out for Stokes in a front-page editorial. "This personable young man," said the city's only morning paper, "has vigor and imagination. He has the courage to try new solutions to the urban problems that are plaguing Cleveland and other cities."

If Stokes wins the primary, he faces a strong challenge in the November election from Republican Candidate Seth Taft, 44, grandson of the 27th President and cousin of Congressman Robert Taft. A lawyer, Taft wants to bring municipal government closer to the people with 15 "branch city halls," promises to revitalize a sluggish urban-renewal program. He is an energetic and knowledgeable campaigner who would probably attract many normally Democratic votes on ability alone. But, in a race with Stokes, he would probably also attract many other Democrats who could just not bring themselves to vote for a Negro.

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