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Graham revs up drive for mayor
UAW chief to run for leader of Warren
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Jim Graham, president of United Auto Workers Local 1112 at GM Lordstown since 1997, has announced his candidacy for Warren mayor.
In an interview Tuesday, Graham, who has never before worked in government, said he thinks there’s something more important than government experience: determination.
“You have to set a goal and focus on that goal — and when I say focus, I’m talking about the entire city — and go after it,” he said.
Graham, 63, announced his candidacy at a gathering of hundreds Tuesday night at Sorrento’s Restaurant on Parkman Road.
He has worked at GM 42 years and said he believes the same leadership concepts that helped GM Lordstown secure the Cobalt and Cruze automobiles in the past decade will help him secure gains for the city of Warren.
“The goal is to make Warren, Ohio, an all-American city. In order to do that, you need everyone in the city — blacks, whites, Hispanics, Republicans, Democrats — to be on the same page,” he said.
As for whether he will lean too much in favor of employees if elected mayor, Graham, a Democrat, said he will talk to city workers the same way he talks to union members at GM.
“If your city prospers, everybody wins,” Graham said. “The people in the union are smart enough to understand that, and I’m going to sit down with them and say ‘We can move forward, but we have to do it together.’”
Graham said he’s grown frustrated with news about Warren in recent years — especially the slow pace of progress in creating the city’s business incubator and the failure of a federal grant application handled by the city of Youngstown that was supposed to provide millions in housing assistance for Warren and eight other communities.
“Once you make up your mind to do something, do it. Don’t half-step,” Graham said.
“We have a lot of resources we can use. I think if there had been a little more thought, we could have gotten it through,” Graham said of the application for Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds.
“I’m the type of person who wants to get things done yesterday. I would have had people working 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
As for the city’s Tech Belt Energy Innovation Center, whose downtown home was revealed at a press conference last week, Graham said the amount of time — about two years — between announcement of state and federal grants and start-up is too long.
“We should have been welcoming businesses already,” he said.
Graham said one of the most important things the city has to do to make it more attractive to business is get cleaned up. “If they [businesses] see a decaying city — crime running rampant, prostitution on the street, drug dealers on the street, they’re not going to come,” he said.
Graham didn’t criticize Mayor Michael O’Brien directly, but said “I’ve been watching my city for the last eight years just crumble, deteriorate.”
O’Brien announced last week that he will not seek re-election after his second four-year term expires at the end of 2011. He had no opponent in the 2006 election.
Graham said he will retire from GM at the end of 2011. His current term as union president ends in May 2012.
Though Graham has never been a political candidate, he has worked on the campaigns of others. He was the first campaign manager for U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th, when Ryan ran for state Senate, and has been campaign manager for Sheriff Thomas Altiere.