TOLEDO – Once, when someone in Toledo asked me if I were a baby boomer, I said, “actually, I am of the generation too young to remember a time before Carty Finkbeiner was running for office, and too old to think I will live to see a time when he isn’t running.”
That was a slight exaggeration, but not much. I was just 22 when he stunned the city by coming out of nowhere and nearly beating longtime Congressman Lud Ashley. Carty was a Republican then, and not only was Toledo strongly Democratic, the Watergate year of 1974 was one of the worst for Republicans in modern history.
In retrospect, his showing was an incredible political achievement. Carty, now a youthful-looking 82, has run many times for many things since, winning some and losing some. This year, nearly half a century after that first race, he ran for mayor for the sixth time, losing badly.
He’s said this before, but now “Yes, that really was my last race,” he said over a long, expansive lunch last week. Most losing politicians I’ve known blame others — unfair opponents; the media, lack of money — for their defeats.
Finkbeiner didn’t. “I didn’t do a good job getting the message out. The polls showed I won that televised debate we had, but I didn’t think I did well enough, and we didn’t do a good job getting turnout, especially among African -American voters.”
I told him that while I had expected him to lose, I thought it would be more like 55-45 than the 70-30 percent drubbing he actually received. “You know, that wouldn’t have surprised me,” he said, indicating he thought along similar lines. He said he hadn’t really expected to win this time, but did think he had a message he needed to get across, and that there were some things about incumbent Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz’s administration worth criticizing.
It is easy –it has always been easy -– to poke fun at Carleton Finkbeiner: His hot temper; sometimes seemingly chaotic managerial and administrative style, and penchant for occasionally saying headline-grabbing silly things, such as when he mused that maybe deaf people should be encouraged to move near the airport because they wouldn’t be bothered by the noise.
Nevertheless, nobody ever doubted his dogged devotion to Toledo. Not many know this, but he could have ended up having had a Michigan career rather than an Ohio one. Back in the early 1960s, he was offered graduate assistantships in athletics at both the University of Toledo and the University of Michigan.
“My dad expected I’d take the one at Michigan, but Bump Elliot (then Michigan’s football coach) said he thought I’d have more opportunity in Toledo, and so that’s what I did.”
That led to a few years of teaching and coaching, after which he had a stint working for an anti-poverty program, which opened his eyes about the reality of life for African-Americans and the poor.
After losing twice for Congress, he eventually spent eight years on City Council, once losing a bid for mayor under the old weak mayor form of government. But when the city went from a city manager to a strong mayor form of government in 1993, Carty was the first one they elected. He served two terms; sat out one, as the law required, and then came back to win a final one in 2005.
The Great Recession hit the nation before that term ended, and he retired. He later wanted to come back, but this year, voters said no for a second time. However, you don’t have to think Carty Finkbeiner should be mayor again to realize that he does know a lot about the city – and has learned a lot through 20 years in government. Back in the 1990s, he often feuded with Ron Randall, who then ran the Urban Affairs Center at UT. Mr. Randall felt Toledo should use the city’s water system as an incentive to annex surrounding areas.
Today, Finkbeiner says, “I think we should have done that,” His memory is also a valuable guide to the city’s history of struggles and efforts to revitalize downtown Toledo and attract jobs.
He wonders, as I do, if Ed Dodd, George Haigh, and the late Paul Block Jr. to save downtown Toledo in the 1980s would have been more successful today, when living downtown and not having to use cars constantly has become fashionable among millennials.
It also seems to be that while the voters clearly didn’t want Carty back, some of his criticisms of the current administration may be worth some thought. “I really think they have largely abandoned the inner city,” he said. “If you are doing well, you are fine, but they have forgotten about the have-nots.”
He also thinks the mayor hasn’t defined strongly enough what his administration is for, and too much time polling and obsessing over what the polls show would be popular. Carty also thinks the city has to get rising urban violence under control, and whether or not you agree with his ten-point plan, it’s hard to dispute that.
I probably wouldn’t agree with everything Carty Finkbeiner said or thought if I were running Toledo. But I think I certainly would want to often pick his brains.
(Editor’s Note: A version of this column also appeared in the Toledo Blade.)
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