Local Politics: The Rooster calls City Council candidate’s eligibility into question

A challenge was filed with the Franklin County Board of Elections on Wednesday against Tiara Ross, one of the candidates for Columbus City Council in District 7. DJ Byrnes, Columbus resident and owner/operator of Ohio politics newsletter The Rooster (and, for full transparency, my spouse), filed the protest of candidacy.

The District 7 council seat was vacated by Shayla Favor, who was elected Franklin County Prosecutor in November of last year. City Council appointed Otto Beatty III to serve the remaining year of Favor’s term, and the winner of the current contest will take the seat in January. 

In his letter to the Board of Elections, Byrnes alleges that Ross moved from Reynoldsburg to District 7 in Columbus in August or September of 2024, citing public records as evidence. Section 6 of the Columbus Charter requires council members to have lived in their district for one year prior to the date of the primary election, which is scheduled for May 6. If these allegations are true, Ross would not meet the requirements to hold the council seat. A hearing will be set in the near future by the Board of Elections to consider the challenge.

There are two other candidates for the District 7 seat whose petitions were certified by the Board of Elections this past week: Kate Curry-Da-Souza, network director of the Success by Third Grade program at the United Way of Central Ohio, and Jesse Vogel, an attorney at Community Refugee & Immigration Services Ohio. Curry-Da-Souza did not respond to a request to discuss the council race, and Vogel declined to comment on the topic of the challenge.

This candidacy challenge and question of residency highlight a few issues with Columbus council districts and the manner in which the Democratic party recruits candidates for office.

It is no secret that Ross was the candidate preselected by the Franklin County Democratic Party and is supported by the current members of City Council. The seat occupied by Favor, and before that, Jaiza Page (now a judge of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas), has been seen internally as a seat to be filled by a Black woman, particularly since none currently serve on the council following Favor’s departure. Council President Shannon Hardin, during a December hearing regarding appointment to the seat, went so far as to say that he was looking for two things in a candidate: an African American woman, and someone who would not seek election to that seat the following November. Despite those comments, and perhaps in recognition of the exclusionary appearance of his statement, council members selected Beatty III for the seat, who is a Black man.

The amendment to the city charter creating the council district system was approved during a special election in May of 2018. It includes the requirement that a candidate reside in Columbus and their district for at least one year prior to the date of the primary. The requirement exists so that candidates can’t repeatedly move around within the city, picking their district at will. It also ensures that people from outside of the city or state can’t move into Columbus and immediately run for council. By including the residency requirement in the 2018 charter amendment, the people of Columbus affirmed that they believe a year of residency is an important minimum requirement for office.

Even if Ross meets the residency requirement and lived in District 7 before May 6, 2024, voting records show that she first voted in Franklin County in Nov. 2024. Her prior voting history, through Nov. 2023, took place in Licking County, which contains parts of Reynoldsburg.

The Democratic Party’s willingness to choose and promote candidates from outside of Franklin County is worrisome, but it’s especially disappointing when you consider that there are hundreds of qualified and eligible candidates, many of them Black women, who already live in District 7. Having someone relocate to the district from outside of the county speaks to a lack of commitment to the people who live in Columbus. In recent years, Ohio Democrats have ostensibly sought solutions to decreased election turnout, yet the party continues to take actions such as this, which undercut voter power and buy-in.

There is also a kind of Catch-22 to Ross’ apparent desire to represent and serve. If Ross is committed to knowledgeably representing her neighbors, she could have run for office in Reynoldsburg, where it appears she was a longtime resident. Alternately, if she wanted to knowledgeably and credibly represent the people of Columbus, she could have moved here some time ago.

Backing an electoral candidate from outside of the county can’t possibly be in the best interest of Columbus residents. District 7 is full of smart and talented leaders who know their community, any number of whom Democrats could have nurtured and developed into viable candidates for City Council rather than letting the task fall to someone who allegedly relocated from the suburbs.

Hardin has been quoted as saying that council members don’t serve to get elected, they get elected to serve. But this convoluted process certainly does not serve the people of Columbus or District 7.