Former OC student manages Cleveland political campaign

Jeanette Hanna-Ruiz learns about political activism outside Oberlin

Former Oberlin student Jeanette Hanna-Ruiz has been totally immersed in managing a highly publicized campaign for Cleveland Council candidate Angel Guzman (D-Ward 14) since June.

The race in Ward 14 was interesting because no matter what the outcome, Cleveland would gain its first-ever Latino Council member. However, Hanna-Ruiz said neither candidate made his cultural identity a part of his campaign and Ward 14's one-third Latino constituency was not the main focus of either campaign.

Hanna-Ruiz said she hasn't had the luxury of doing things she'd like to do, like read a book, since she started her job. The heavy workload continued right up until the last minute on Election Day. "Election day started at 5 a.m. We lit dropped the top 27 precincts...Up until 7:30 at night we knocked on doors, giving out literature."

Guzman ultimately lost the election to Nelson Cintron, but Hanna Ruiz said her work is far from finished. "Win or lose, [there is] an enormous amount to do," she said.

Hanna-Ruiz estimated that by Dec. 1 her work in retiring the campaign's debt, acknowledging the people who helped with the campaign, thanking community members and dealing with the press will be finished.

According to Hanna-Ruiz, campaigning involves a lot of direct action rather than the use of models or theories that is often taught in the classroom. Hanna-Ruiz said she learned a lot from the Cole Scholar Program in electioneering for this reason. She describes herself as a hands-on person who enjoys working in her community.

As manager of a grassroots campaign of people who live in Ward 14, she had to "manage competing interests, pull everyone [working on the campaign] together, and keep them together" in order to deliver messages to voters. There were three to four regular campaign workers, a group of core volunteers, and hundreds of volunteers altogether.

Guzman's campaign concentrated on his more than 30 years of experience in the Cleveland community, the fact that he has spent his entire life in Cleveland and has worked and gone to school there and his "family plan on issues confronting Ward 14," Hanna-Ruiz said. Guzman, 48, is the executive director of the Hispanic Business Association and has been active in Cleveland politics and business since the 1960's.

Nelson Cintron, 31, has run for Council twice in the past and is co-owner of Hoya's sports bar in Cleveland.

Despite having done political and campaign work in Washington, D.C. and Cleveland in the past, Hanna-Ruiz said, "I don't think anything really prepares you for this...Politics is a dirty business. Nothing you learn in school prepares you to know how dirty this business is."

Hanna-Ruiz said, "We tried to focus on the issues. You have to decide in the beginning if you're going to run a clean campaign or a dirty campaign. We continued to run a clean campaign [despite] attack after attack...from Cintron. Our main goal was to focus on the issues and stick to our message."

According to Hanna-Ruiz, Guzman is known in Cleveland's community because he works to build small businesses. Hanna Ruiz said Cintron "only comes out at election time. You don't see him involved in the community....Now he'll have to be around. He'll have to be around or else they won't elect him again."

Hanna-Ruiz said, "Mr. Guzman has put forth his best foot in trying to communicate with Mr. Cintron. The future will tell whether they work together."

For Hanna-Ruiz, believing a candidate "is a decent human being" is crucial to her decision to work for them. "I have to believe they can be the best representative of a particular community," she said.

Understanding and patience are two things Hanna-Ruiz said she has learned while working on campaigns. "You take the blame for everything that goes wrong...and anything that goes well, the candidate gets credit for," she said.

"[Working as a campaign manager has been] a worthwhile experience...I hope that people who study this kind of thing at Oberlin will have this kind of opportunity," she said.

Hanna-Ruiz came to Oberlin planning to be a Neuroscience major and "got sucked into [the campaign] business." She said, "I could not see myself having children and doing this...[However], after each campaign job I have, I say I'm never doing this again."