Perk Out in Front

When you are the first Republican mayor of your city in three decades, and, what is more, Democrats there outnumber Republicans 8 to 1, it behooves you to run, at the very least, a shrewd re-election campaign. Cleveland Mayor Ralph J. Perk has been doing just that, and last week he won 56% of the vote in the nominating primary against Millionaire Democrat James M. Carney.* Perk took office two years ago, succeeding Carl Stokes and changing the tone of city hall from soul food to sauerkraut. To unseat him, Carney, an attorney and land developer, seemed an apt choice--a moderate white who represented both black and business interests and commanded the resources to run an estimated $100,000 campaign. Perk spent hardly any money on advertising; instead, he capitalized on--and deepened--his personal popularity and purposeful ethnic Bunkerism. Perk did well in the white wards (where he won 79.8% of the vote), and Carney performed well with blacks (84.1%).

What was not expected was that Carney would do as poorly as he did among whites. By contrast, Perk's showing among blacks was impressive. When he ran in 1971, Perk got less than 4% of the black vote. This time he received a respectable 15%. Perk seems a sure winner in the general election in November, where he will face Carney again.

* To avoid multiple candidacies in the general election, the two top votegetters in Cleveland's non-partisan primary automatically go on to face one another in the general election, even if one of them receives more than 50% of the primary vote.

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