Meet the candidates for Newark City Council’s second ward: Beth Bline and Daniel Crawford

Two candidates – incumbent Beth Bline and longtime candidate Daniel Crawford – are facing off to represent Newark City Council’s second ward. 

Beth Bline

Beth Bline, a current city council member, is a teacher and longtime Newark resident. Bline has lived all over the country, including in Tampa, Florida; Seattle, Washington; and New York City, and spent time doing community service across the world, such as along the U.S.-Mexico border near Eagle Pass, Texas, repairing roofs and digging sewers. 

Bline was inspired to run for a city council seat after she moved back to her childhood home in Newark’s south end to raise her kids. Bline was disheartened by the increase in crime since she had moved back. 

“I saw people beginning to recede from what had been a very active community,” Bline said. “Neighbors, basically, they’d come home and shut their doors, kids weren’t in the yards playing as much as they used to, people were huddling in their homes, and I was deeply saddened.” 

Bline said she is an advocate for public safety. One of the first things she requested after the last election was for the installation of lights underneath south Newark bridges. Bline said she also wants to continue to empower the community to make positive changes by adopting their own parks and blocks to keep them clean.

“Some people, they’re like, ‘You know what Beth, why don’t we turn this into a dog park?’ Fantastic. If that’s your dream, let’s go for it,” Bline said. “We’re empowering people to take their place, (and) be educated to know how to speak so they can lend their voice toward the governance of the community.”

If voted onto the council again, Bline said she wants to focus on continuing to empower the community, and encourage residents to learn about zoning. Bline said once you change the zoning of a place, it may work for the present moment. But if the business moves out, zoning stays the same, and then someone with a more negative impact can come in and create a shift in a neighborhood.

“I am the one that knocks on their door and says, ‘Hey, this meeting’s coming up, and it’s going to impact your neighborhood,’” Bline said. “So that’s my job, is to help the people become involved so they can take ownership of their neighborhood.”

When asked about Newark’s camping ban, an ordinance that Bline voted for, Bline said that many people requested that something be done about homelessness in Newark. Bline said that the creation of HOME Court is changing lives and helping people prosper.

To address affordable housing, Bline said that the council needs to be wise. Bline is a big supporter of first-time homeowners, as they invest in the community around them when they settle down. 

“People really want that, that chance for the American dream again,” Bline said.

Daniel Crawford

This is not longtime Newark resident Daniel Crawford’s first time running for a city council seat for Newark’s second ward. Crawford has run for city council roughly every other year since 2015. Along with city council, Crawford also ran for the Newark City School Board, Newark mayor in 2023, and for the state legislature. 

“To say that I have a lot of experience running for office is an understatement,” Crawford said. 

Though he has not served on the city council, Crawford was a member of Newark’s charter review commission in 2017 – a committee brought together every five years to ensure the character is still in line with the city’s goals. Crawford is also on the central committee of Licking County’s Democratic Party, and The Freedom School in Licking County. 

Crawford helped launch the “occupy movement” in Licking County in 2011, now known as the Licking County Progressives. In 2016, Crawford also helped to get a measure decriminalizing marijuana on the ballot, which Newark residents approved.

Crawford has lived in Newark since he was 10 years old. For his first few weeks in Newark, Crawford and his family were unhoused, and living in the Clay Lake Campgrounds. 

“I know from that experience that there’s no one reason for becoming homeless,” Crawford said. 

One of the most important issues Crawford wants to tackle is civic engagement in the community. 

“One of those things that I want to do is make sure that people know that we don’t just come around when it comes time for election time,” Crawford said. “I want to go out and have semi-regular town hall-style events.”

Crawford also wants to focus on the needs of the working class. Crawford said the camping ban, despite the creation of HOME Court, is another road block for unhoused people.

“My problem with that is that it shouldn’t even get to a point where someone’s going to court for the only offense being being homeless,” Crawford said. Crawford added that he hopes to address homelessness by tackling its trifecta of underlying causes: a lack of affordable housing, public transportation and living-wage jobs. Crawford especially wants to focus on living-wage job creation, which he hopes to accomplish through targeting tax abatements toward small, family businesses instead of larger corporations. 

“My goal is to try to address those three to the best of my ability, within the powers that are afforded to the local government level,” Crawford said.

Crawford also said that there needs to be a conversation about increasing pay for police and firefighters. In addition, Crawford said he wants to see more sidewalks throughout Newark neighborhoods. 

Election Day is Nov. 4.

Maddie Luebkert writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.