She was winning, but then she was losing. It was that close.
And then, on Election Day on May 14th, it appeared she lost her bid – by just two votes! – to become the council representative for Wheeling’s Ward 3.
But wait! Oh!
The slimmest of margins caused a recount!
“I had to wait a week,” said Connie Cain, one of four candidates who ran in Wheeling’s Ward 3, “and it really did drive me nuts. It was a long week, trust me.”
But then her phone rang. But, no, it wasn’t the courthouse. Nope. It was a local newspaper reporter, and that’s who informed the East Wheeling native she had WON the Ward 3 council seat representing thanks to five provisional votes that all went in her favor. The election day totals showed Jerome Henry was in the lead, 199-197, but the final-final count showed Cain with 202, Henry with 199, Chris Ham with 188, and George Greenbaum with 41.
Ward 3 covers the East Wheeling, Center Wheeling, South Wheeling, and Mozart neighborhoods, and Connie Cain will become the area’s newest representative on Monday at the Capitol Theatre when the six council members and new mayor Denny Magruder are sworn into office at Noon.
“All I could do when I got the first call was scream,” Cain admitted. “But now I’m really excited to get started so we can do some good things for the people of the city. I’m anxious for our swearing-in ceremony and the first meeting (July 2).
“I started thinking about running for council about a year ago and then decided to do it and I’m happy I did,” she said. “I’m looking forward to working with everyone and I think Denny Magruder is going to be great as mayor. He’ll get everyone working together.”
The first issue she hopes to address? Homelessness, and the impacts the homeless have had on Ward 3.
“It’s the elephant in the room. We have to talk about the homeless situation because I heard about it from most of the people in the ward during my campaign,” Cain said. “We have to figure out what’s happening now and what needs to be happening. The homeless people need services and we have those, but we have to figure out how it’s working and how it can be improved.
“This is Wheeling and we help people here,” she said. “We have to make sense of it because I don’t think that’s the case right now when it comes to the resident in Ward 3.”
H-I-S-T-O-R-Y
Cain is 55 years old and her and her husband, Kendall, live along 14th Street in East Wheeling. She’s a mother of three, and grandmother to nine, and has worked for the First Judicial Circuit Public Defender Corporation for 30 years.
On Monday, she will become the first black woman elected to Wheeling’s City Council.
“And I love that. I love that I’m making that history, and I love that I’ll be following Clyde Thomas as the second black resident to be on Council,” Cain recounted. “Clyde was first elected back in 1971 and he served 20 years and he did a great job for everyone in the city. I want to be the same kind of council representative.
“I hope seeing me on council tells other black girls that this is possible,” Cain said while smiling. “I’m surprised it took this long to have the first black woman on council, but here I am and I’m ready to work with everyone. I want all of us to work together no matter what the issue so we can help Wheeling grow. One thing I want to address is affordable housing so our kids can afford to stay here. Right now, that’s difficult for a lot of people.”
In fact, Cain will address anything and everything brought to her by her constituents.
“Of course, I can’t promise that I’ll get every pothole filled and street paved, but I do promise I’ll check on everything and get back to the resident asking the question. That’s part of the job,” Cain said. “(W.Va. Delegate) Shawn Fluharty told me knocking on doors was the most important part of a campaign, so that’s exactly what I did. I knocked on all the doors, and I talked to the people of Ward 3.
“The people in Mozart wanted to talk about crime, and the people in South Wheeling are concerned about all the new people from the new apartment buildings because of the new crime. The people in Center Wheeling just want attention from the city and so do the folks in East Wheeling,” she added. “The residents of Ward 3 want to be represented, and that’s what they’re going to get.”
