Liberal activist Mike Ferner, who ran for mayor in 1993 and narrowly lost to Carty Finkbeiner, is considering trying it again this November.
Mr. Ferner, 64, of Point Place said Tuesday that he has begun circulating petitions to get on the Nov. 3 ballot for mayor.
Six others have announced their candidacies or are actively campaigning, including Mr. Finkbeiner.
The city is holding the special election to fill the two years that remain in the term of the late Mayor D. Michael Collins, who died Feb. 6.
No primary is being held.
Mr. Ferner refused to make any other statements Tuesday about his potential candidacy.
“I can’t tell you yes or no right now, but I am going to be making an announcement within the week. I have started circulating petitions,” he said, a process that began on Monday.
Under the city charter, a candidate must turn in petitions containing the names and signatures of at least 750 Toledo resident voters by Sept. 4.
Mr. Ferner is a leading opponent of ProMedica’s plans to build a six-story parking garage in a corner of Promenade Park on the Maumee River to serve its new headquarters. He contends the park should remain undeveloped for public use.
He also is involved in a campaign to put a question on the ballot declaring Toledo in support of a constitutional amendment that corporations are not persons.
Also in the mayoral contest are incumbent Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson; Sandy Drabik Collins, the widow of Mayor Collins; evangelist Opal Covey; former Mayor Mike Bell; and Toledo Councilman Sandy Spang. Mr. Finkbeiner is collecting signatures and is actively campaigning, but has not declared.
In 2006, Mr. Ferner was convicted by a Lucas County Common Pleas Court jury of felony vandalism and possession of criminal tools for spray-painting anti-war slogans on area overpasses.
A 1969 graduate of St. John’s Jesuit High School, he joined the Navy as a hospital corpsman. He was honorably discharged in 1973 as a conscientious objector.
He was elected to city council in 1989 as an independent. In 1993, he dueled Mr. Finkbeiner to become Toledo’s first strong mayor, losing by 672 votes.
First Published August 19, 2015, 4:00 a.m.
