CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland Councilman Brian Cummins is the second council incumbent to be ousted in Tuesday's election.
Challenger Jasmin Santana leads Cummins 51 percent to 49 percent, according to unofficial vote totals reported by the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections. While Santana leads by just 46 votes, her margin of victory is outside of the 0.5 percent that would lead to an automatic recount.
Jasmin Santana
Santana, a 38-year-old activist who resigned from an outreach position with the Hispanic Alliance during her council campaign, will become the first Hispanic council member since Joe Santiago lost his seat in 2009. Ward 14, which includes the Brooklyn Center, Clark Fulton and Stockyards neighborhoods, has the highest concentration of Hispanic voters of any in the city.
Cummins, 57, has served on City Council since 2006. He is a former Peace Corps member and previously ran the Old Brooklyn Community Development Corp. While he previously was more of a political outsider on City Council, he has made an effort more recently to become close to council leadership after switching from the Green Party to the Democratic Party.
Ward 7 Councilman TJ Dow also lost Tuesday to Basheer Jones, an activist.
Ward 14 has been a hard-fought contest, with each side's supporters trading accusations. One of Santana's prominent supporters is Rick Nagin, a community Democratic Party ward club leader whom Cummins narrowly defeated in 2009.