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Former Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic: Tanned, Rested, Ready For Another Run?

Mayor Don Plusquellic in 2014 at a project to prevent combined sewer overflows [Mark Urycki / ideastream]
Mayor Don Plusquellic in 2014 at a project to prevent combined sewer overflows [Mark Urycki / ideastream]

Former Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic may run for the city’s executive office again. The Democrat would have to go up against incumbent Daniel Horrigan, a fellow Democrat, in the May primary.

In an email to ideastream, Plusquellic writes he hasn’t even made up his own mind yet, but he is considering a bid for the office that he held for 28 years. He says a number of people have been urging him to consider a run. 

Plusquellic is unhappy that Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan has cut programs like the Summer Arts Experience. The program, which serves 100 high school students each year, offered mentoring with established artists and attempted to foster cultural awareness. 

He also says the Horrigan administration is not reaching out enough to foreign companies. Such investment was a focus for Plusquellic during his tenure, the longest term of any Akron mayor, serving from 1987 to 2015.  

Pusquellic writes, it appeared Horrigan was “merely getting rid of any program I started.”

Although he remained popular, Plusquellic abruptly quit in May 2015, half a year before his term ended. He was always unhappy with the press and cited treatment by the Akron Beacon Journal as a reason he quit. He cited an editorial that was actually praising his drive to try innovative methods:  

“At times, that drive can rub many the wrong way,” the Beacon editorial stated. “It recalls a 2008 skit performed on Saturday Night Live about Hillary Clinton, the theme, in short, about how bitches get things done. Well, it might be said, bastards do, too.”

In his resignation letter the mayor wrote, “After 41 years of honest service to the City I love, to be called a 'B word' in an editorial is more than I'm willing to endure.”

The deadline to file for the mayoral primary is Feb. 6.