Dayton, Ohio elects a European as Mayor, shocking the urban Democratic machine

[drexel dave]

Underdog struck in a giant way in the Mayor's election in Dayton, Ohio last week, as this sleepy Midwestern rust belt city that has bled economically for almost 30 years elected a European Mayor, Independent Gary Leitzell.

Leitzell, a neighborhood association president and first-time office seeker upset two-term incumbent Rhine McLin, whose political name has been huge in the Dayton area for more than four decades, as her father C.J. McLin was a hugely influential State Senator in the 1960s and 70s.

But a tough economy in a city teeming with urban blight from its closed factories and more than 3,000 vacant homes - along with a hard working campaign and a last minute series of relentless and brilliant youtube commercials produced by an iconoclastic local artist and made viral on a local basis - brought down a political machine.

Most amazingly though, Leitzell was outspent 127k to 12k. That's right. He only spent 15k and won an election in a fairly large American city.

Leitzell, a small businessman and home renovator, could be one of the most interesting figures
on the political scene in some time. In a city with a strong Southern and Appalachian Heritage, Leitzell, who grew up in London, England, pulled the upset of Dayton political history with his win as mayor.

A European with a preference for French Art Deco, Leitzell holds progressive and conservative views, as well as a social libertarian streak.

[HipChick]

1. a lot of Brit's disagree with being called European..n/t

[drexel dave]

2. he doesn't

His family is American. Raised in Brittain while Dad was in Air Force. He likes the European title.

[rvablue]

10. If his mother and father are American and were overseas because of military duty, then he is

American, not "European."

Just goes to show the small-mindedness in some quarters in this country. He has an "accent" ergo he is "other." Well, if what you say is true, he is just as much an American as the other two dudes he ran against.

[drexel dave]

11. nope

he has a European mindset. He campaigned on that. He also championed that our kids need to be reading Scientific American, not watching American Idol.

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. 'American Idol' is a British mindset

The Simons Cowell and Fuller (the latter the manger of the Spice Girls) started 'Pop Idol' in Britain: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/simon-cowell-idol-rich-1820378.html

While Scientific American really is American.

[ellie]

3. An independent

was elected mayor of Toledo, OH last week.

[drexel dave]

4. WOAH

Do we have a trend here?

[boppers]

9. Seattle's mayor race too

"Outsiders" seem to be winning.

[msongs]

5. maybe he will bring single payer health care to Dayton, proving he is no Dem nt

[drexel dave]

6. I don't think that will be on his plate

he'll be better to stick to the local stuff.

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. Looks like the Republicans didn't run a candidate

and the Montgomery County Republican Party endorsed him: http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/election/challenger-gary-leitzell-is-a-free-thinker-with-republican-support-284223.html?imw=Y

So I'm not so sure this is a reason for celebration.

[drexel dave]

8. he took not a dime of their money

Repubs here are so weak they didn't even field a candidate.

[gmoney]

13. I heard part of the debate on radio... McLin was awful.

She didn't seem to comprehend questions, and couldn't (or wouldn't) form meaningful answers to them -- just drifted to some tangential bit of stump speech. And of course, things in Dayton continue to slide for the most part. Beware the offspring of "great men" as they rarely measure up. (I didn't realize that she was a funeral director.)

Leitzell was really anti-government and pro-business, but he at least seemed informed and responded to the questions. Wasn't aware of the 10-to-1 spending difference, but I'm not surprised.

I'm not in Dayton proper, so I couldn't vote, but I would have had a VERY hard time voting for McLin, given that debate performance.

Let's see if Leitzell can do any good. I guess it would be hard to do much worse.