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Jane L. CampbellJane L. Campbell, (born May 19 1953), a American politician of the Democratic party, is the current mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, first elected in 2001. She was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She won the November 2001 elections with 54% of the vote, defeating fellow Democrat Raymond Pierce who received 46%. She took office on January 7, 2002, and is Cleveland's first woman mayor. She is a former state legislator and Cuyahoga County commissioner. She is the daughter of Joan Brown Campbell, the former General Secretary of the National Council of Churches. She was an unpledged member of the Ohio delegation to the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. As mayor, she has focused on economic development and reclamation of the city's Lake Erie waterfront, but has been criticized by some for providing indecisive and lackluster leadership. Campbell's troubled record as mayor has been attributed by opponents to her lack of experience as a chief executive, all of her previous elective experience having been either legislative or as part of the three-member Board of Cuyahoga County Commissioners. She has made enemies of the police and firefighters unions, particularly in her handling of layoffs, and has suffered from a variety of other flaps, such as urging civic-minded companies to "adopt" a trash can, the discovery of embarassing overuse of city vehicles and security by her family, and an ill-thought quip at an NAACP dinner when she stated she was surprised that the event was actually running on schedule. Campbell has appeared on Good Morning America for a makeover, seen by many opponents as an indication that she lacks serious commitment to addressing the city's problems. During the August 2003 North America blackout, which originated in Cleveland at a FirstEnergy facility and left much of the Northeastern United States without power, she volunteered on national television that Cleveland's Water Department discharged raw sewage into Lake Erie, delivering yet another black eye to a region that has yet to live down the then heavily polluted Cuyahoga River catching on fire in the late 1960s. Campbell is expected to meet a host of opposition in the 2005 election, from other Democrats known city-wide such as Frank Jackson (President of Cleveland's City Council) and Robert Triozzi (a Cleveland Municipal Court Judge, and former Legislative Director for Congressman Eric Fingerhut.) Raymond Pierce, who ran in 2001, announced and then quickly dropped out of the race for 2005. The challenge for the next mayor will be to provide leadership and solutions for a city with daunting budgetary problems and a population that leads the nation in poverty. Campbell, Jane L. Campbell, Jane L.
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