Mayor of Cleveland
In November 2001, Campbell won the Cleveland mayoral election with 54% of the vote, defeating former Clinton administration official and attorney Raymond Pierce, who received 46% of votes. She took office on January 1, 2002, becoming the city's first female mayor.
In office, Campbell inherited a $60 million budget deficit and a city government in financial turmoil. In just one year, she stabilized the city's budget without a tax increase, however some city services endured cutbacks and the following year she had to layoff many city employees in order to maintain financial stability.
One of her political accomplishments was bringing the Lakefront Plan to the forefront of regional awareness, a plan that emphasized Lake Erie as the region's most valuable asset and a vital element for revitalization in Downtown Cleveland.
Throughout her four years, Campbell worked with other levels of government and the private sector to initiate nearly $3 billion of investments for urban development and redevelopment projects. By 2005, several of these projects were underway, including Steelyard Commons (a Brownfield-turned-shopping center, opened Sept. 2007), Gordon Square Arts District, Battery Park (redeveloped Eveready Battery Plant), The Avenue District, Fourth Street redevelopment, and Euclid Avenue rapid transit corridor.
Also under her administration, Ohio's first state-of-the-art Emergency Operations Center was built, and in 2004, Cleveland became the first city in the country to host the International Children's Games.
Ethics of the city government dominated the headlines for much of Campbell's term. During Campbell’s mayoralty, the federal corruption investigation continued of the prior city administration, resulting in subsequent convictions of two of the former Mayor’s confidantes.
In 2005, Intel named Cleveland as one of the "World’s Digital Communities" in 2005, after Campbell set the stage for using technology as a platform for innovative economic development.
Read more about this topic: Jane L. Campbell
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“Without infringing on the liberty we so much boast, might we not ask our professional Mayor to call upon the smokers, have them register their names in each ward, and then appoint certain thoroughfares in the city for their use, that those who feel no need of this envelopment of curling vapor, to insure protection may be relieved from a nuisance as disgusting to the olfactories as it is prejudicial to the lungs.”
—Harriot K. Hunt (1805–1875)
“The truth is, I do not want that office. When the American people choose a President they require him to remain awake four years. I have come to a time in life when I need my sleep.”
—Grover Cleveland (1837–1908)