Newark Mayor Jeff Hall seeks 4th term over independent write-in candidate Daniel Crawford
NEWARK − There is only one name on the general election ballot for Newark mayor, but there are two candidates.
Jeff Hall, a Republican, is asking Newark voters to give him a record fourth term in office. No previous mayor has served more than three terms.
Hall has had only one close mayoral race: his first election for the office in 2011, when he edged Democrat Max Sutton with 51% of the vote. Hall received almost 60% in 2019 against Jeremy Blake and 67% in 2015 against Anthony Hottinger. Hall was Newark city treasurer before he became mayor.
“As the incumbent, you keep working hard," Hall said. "I still have to run the ship every day. That’s a full-time job. You’ve got some track record to run on as a mayor. You run on what your strengths are and whomever your opponents is, you’ll deal with it.”
Daniel Crawford, an independent who previously ran as a Democrat and an independent, is a write-in candidate for mayor. This is Crawford’s sixth candidacy in nine years, all unsuccessful.
Crawford ran for council in 2015, 2019 and 2021, for Newark school board in 2017 and for the Ohio House in 2022.
“What made me decide to run is early this year there was an article on who filed in the primary, and I saw no one ran for mayor (against Hall) and I thought at least people needed an alternative for such a high office," Crawford said.
“I consider myself a Democrat. I always aligned more with the Democrat Party. I became an independent a couple years ago because I was not happy with the party leadership, nationally or locally. Part of me felt pushed away. I’m trying to not be as combative and burn bridges.”
The mayor acknowledges incumbency provides an advantage in name recognition but also creates opposition from those who have disagreed with his decisions.
“It’s quite an honor to be mayor of this city,” Hall said. “If you win, you prove yourself. You’d certainly love to make everyone happy. A lot of the things people want, there’s a limit on money, or if we can even do it.”
The 221-year-old city has 360 employees working in 24 departments at 13 locations. Newark, the state's 18th largest city in the 2020 census, increased its population 5% from 2010, a larger increase than any of the 17 larger cities, except Columbus.
"We're the 18th largest city, but we want a small-town feel," Hall said.
Intel Corp. development spurs collaboration among neighboring communities in Licking County
The Intel Corp. decision to locate a $20 billion computer chip manufacturing facility in Licking County, just south of Johnstown and less than 20 miles from Newark, has increased interest in the city.
“Being a few more miles from Intel doesn’t make us any less important," Hall said. "We're a community with established infrastructure and can handle potential growth. We’re the county seat, and county services are going to be affected no matter where the growth is.”
Newark, like many communities in Licking County, continues preparing for 2025, when Intel production is set to begin, but also all the other development coming into western Licking County.
The result of the Intel announcement has been improved communication among all Licking County communities and more meetings with developers, Hall said.
“We've been in a lot of group meetings with people across Licking County and talking about how can we make this a successful future for Licking County," Hall said. "Our relationships with (other) communities is as good as it’s ever been.
“It’s made tremendous changes in the daily operations in my office because now we’re in the planning stages across Licking County. All of us are working proactively."
Newark mayoral candidates discuss how to address rise in homelessness
Crawford said he has heard a common concern from residents as he campaigns for mayor. It's an issue that has brought residents to council frequently during the past decade.
“From going door-to-door, the issue that comes up more than anything is the rise of homelessness and safety," Crawford said. "I disagree with the mindset of kicking them out of the city because that’s passing the buck.
“I don’t believe there is a limit to how compassionate we should be. If we don’t have the resources, we should connect people with the resources.”
Crawford said affordable housing, living-wage jobs and public transportation are keys to helping people in need.
"Those three things will make a huge dent in homelessness and poverty," Crawford said. "We need to make sure we grow together. Try to make sure we don’t leave any citizen behind.”
Hall said homelessness is probably one of the city's top 5 issues, but city government and police can only do so much. He said homelessness has increased in the past 10 to 15 years, but the reasons are not clear.
“It's an issue across the country," Hall said. "It's not something unique to Newark. There's different groups of people. Some don’t want help, and that’s the most challenging part.
“There’s limits to what we can and cannot do. There’s a lot of split opinion about homelessness. A private property owner can say we don’t want that on our property.”
The mayor said people often view police officers only as enforcers of the law, but they are also there to help people.
“They have compassion like all the rest of us have," Hall said. "Are (the homeless) breaking the law or not? Their job is to apply that properly. We don’t want to violate civil rights.”
Newark competing with Columbus, other communities to staff police, fire departments
Crawford said residents have concerns about their safety, as the city struggles to hire enough police officers to fill all the open positions.
“I strongly support the increase in the number of police officers," Crawford said. "We need to make sure we have enough to quickly respond. Safety is the primary issue for the people of Newark.
“We need to have a discussion what it means to adequately fund police and fire.”
Crawford said the city may need to make cuts elsewhere in the budget or put a safety levy on the ballot to fund the police department.
Safety Director Tim Hickman said the police department has 73 funded positions and 69 filled, with four in the pipeline to join the department by the end of the year.
The fire department started the year down 16 from its 84 funded positions, and now has 80 firefighters in the department.
Hall said the city just can't match the salaries offered to police and fire personnel in Columbus and its suburbs.
"Commuting is pretty easy. If you want to make $20,000 more a year, you can get in your car and drive it.”
The opportunity for advancement and the variety and volume of calls in Newark are appealing to some job candidates, Hall said.
"There's a lot of people that just love working for Newark," Hall said. "They love the community. They love staying busy. They love the variety of what they experience within a shift."
The police department receives more than 40,000 calls a year and the fire department about 13,000 annually.
Dealing with a housing shortage as developments come to the central Ohio region remains a struggle
The severe housing shortage in central Ohio and Licking County, has every community considering what it needs to provide without overwhelming the school districts.
Newark has two new housing subdivisions in development. The city has 14% of its land left to develop, the least of all the communities involved in the Framework project, a tool to help in the preparation for Intel and other developments.
“We've got some older apartment stock," Hall said. "We're not going to see 1,000-unit apartment communities or 500-unit apartment communities. Apartments fit in some areas and not in others.
“Single-family homes bring more students into your school system than do apartments. We have good conversations with Newark City Schools and the surrounding communities. There’s a balance there. You don’t want to flood your schools either."
Crawford said, "The thing is we have to have something. Apartments have a bad history and people are worried about property values. I’m not opposed to apartments. I get why people are opposed to them. They fear it’d bring down property values.”
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This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Newark mayor election 2023: Jeff Hall seeks 4th term vs Daniel Crawford
