Carleton "Carty" S. Finkbeiner (born May 30, 1939) is an American Democratic politician and former mayor of Toledo, Ohio. In all, Finkbeiner has run for Toledo mayor seven times, spanning a period of 40 years. He was elected to four-year terms in 1993, 1997, and 2005; he lost in 1981 (to Douglas DeGood), 1987 (to Donna Owens), 2015 (to Paula Hicks-Hudson), and 2021 (to Wade Kapszukiewicz). First elected in 1993, he took office on January 1, 1994. In 1997, he defeated challenger Nick Wichowski to win a second term. Term limits prevented him from running a third consecutive time. He was succeeded by former mayor Jack Ford in 2002. Following his first administration, Finkbeiner served on the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority board. He joined the ABC affiliate in Toledo and hosted Carty & Company, a Sunday morning public affairs show. He also contributed a weekly editorial segment, It's Just Not Right! Finkbeiner left WTVG in May 2005. On June 30, 2005, Finkbeiner announced that he would seek a third term as mayor. He won the Toledo mayoral primary, winning roughly 37% of the vote in comparison to 29% earned by incumbent Ford. On November 8, 2005, Finkbeiner was re-elected mayor. Finkbeiner was sworn in for his third term as mayor in a private ceremony on January 3, 2006. Carty announced that his third run as mayor would be his final one and he would not seek re-election. According to city finance records verified by the Toledo Blade, Finkbeiner left the city with a 48 million dollar deficit which was inherited by Ohio Fire Marshall Michael P. Bell, an Independent, who succeeded Carty Finkbeiner in 2010. Finkbeiner resides with his wife, Amy Finkbeiner, in South Toledo. He has three children: Ryan, Jenny, and Katie, and five grandchildren. Finkbeiner announced plans to run for a fourth term as mayor of Toledo on August 29, 2015. The 2015 election, to fill the remainder of Michael Collins' mayoral term, was won by Paula Hicks-Hudson. In July 2021, Finkbeiner filed a petition to run again for mayor of Toledo, challenging incumbent Wade Kapszukiewicz.

Early life

Finkbeiner was born in 1939 and raised in Toledo. His father was an engineer who specialized in building municipal water and sewage systems; he was a one-time president of the Ohio Society of Professional Engineers. Finkbeiner graduated from Maumee Valley Country Day School, where he was an all-state high school quarterback. He attended Trinity College in Connecticut, where he lettered in football, baseball, and basketball until a head injury ended his athletic career; he transferred to Denison University in Granville, Ohio and received a bachelor's degree in 1962. After graduation, he returned to Toledo to teach and coach football at Maumee Valley. In 1963, he was hired as an assistant football coach at the University of Toledo, where he also taught physical education classes. Over the next decade, he held a variety of jobs, including as an insurance salesman, encyclopedia salesman, social worker, census taker, and TV sportscaster. Between 1967 and 1969, he was associate director of the Toledo Office of Economic Opportunity, administering War on Poverty programs. In the early 1970s, he worked for Youth For Understanding, an international student exchange program.

1970s: Campaigns for Congress as a Republican

In 1974, Finkbeiner ran for the U.S. House of Representatives as a moderate Republican, facing a 22-year incumbent Democrat, Rep. Lud Ashley. Despite the terrible political environment for Republicans amid the Watergate scandal, he outperformed expectations, winning 47% of the vote. He ran against Ashley again in 1976, but the incumbent hit back by criticizing Finkbeiner's unsteady work history and won by 10 percentage points. Finkbeiner had, in effect, been running for the seat since 1968, when — while debating whether to enter the Virginia Theological Seminary — he decided to seek the office. He was then a registered Democrat. But thinking he couldn't beat the powerful Ashley in a Democratic primary, he switched parties to the Republicans. Ohio state law at the time prevented a candidate from running as a Republican until five years after his last vote in a Democratic primary, meaning his run couldn't begin until 1973.

1980s: Campaigns as a Republican, independent, and Democrat

He was elected to Toledo City Council in 1979 as a Republican, and in 1981 he challenged incumbent Democratic mayor Douglas DeGood. DeGood prevailed narrowly, beating Finkbeiner by a margin of 50.2% to 49.8%, despite outspending him 3-1. Finkbeiner was elected again to city council in 1983 and 1985, both times as an independent, though he then rejoined the Democratic Party. In 1987, he challenged two-term Republican mayor Donna Owens as a Democrat. In the September nonpartisan primary, Finkbeiner topped Owens decisively, winning 62.7% of votes versus Owens (36.8%) and two minor candidates. But those results merely meant Finkbeiner and Owens would meet again in the November general election. The campaign between Finkbeiner and Owens was negative and personal, drawing national attention. Owens mocked Finkbeiner's "goofy ideas" and accused him of being $3,000 behind on child support payments, a charge he denied; Finkbeiner accused Owens of being in the pocket of big downtown development interests at the expense of Toledo's neighborhoods. Finkbeiner's skimpy employment record was again an issue, with Owens noting his tax returns reported his only income the previous year had been his $7,800 in city council salary. The Associated Press reported that the two "seem to have a genuine dislike for each other"; his old foe Lud Ashley fronted a group named Democrats for Donna. In the general election, Owens beat Finkbeiner, 52% to 48%. Finkbeiner declined to congratulate her, calling her campaign "an affront to the citizens of the community." Now without his meager city council salary, Finkbeiner took a job with a suburban Toledo furniture store. Among other things, he began "appearing in television commercials discussing a number of public issues as well as promoting the store." He also helped found and became executive administrator of an anti-drug group named Crackdown Inc. Finkbeiner announced another run for mayor against Owens in 1989, but he later withdrew after the Lucas County Democratic Party endorsed John McHugh. McHugh easily defeated Owens that year, while voters returned Finkbeiner to city council, where his fellow council members elected him vice mayor. Finkbeiner's eight runs for office since 1974 had made him perhaps the best-known politician in the city and a center of controversy. As an Associated Press headline put it: "Carty Finkbeiner: Toledoans either love or hate him": "Finkbeiner's approach to issues has made him a popular, but misunderstood, politician. Residents love him or hate him; there's no middle ground. He has alienated local power brokers, saying corporate leaders 'sit at the exclusive Toledo Club drinking martinis, talking about workers who make too much money while they make plans to move their factories out of the city.' Finkbeiner has been called an urban populist — a title he wears like a badge of honor — for his fight to get the city to spend more money in neighborhoods rather than on downtown riverfront projects. He has been called a political opportunist, who switches parties and issues when expedient."

1990s: First two terms as mayor

With McHugh running for a second term, Finkbeiner ran for council again in 1991, winning easily. He worked on issues that could increase his popularity among more conservative voters, proposing a citywide curfew for teenagers and sponsoring a "Buy American" bill for city purchases. Council rejected the curfew, but Finkbeiner and future mayor Jack Ford led a signature drive to put the issue before voters, who approved it. In 1992, Finkbeiner and a group of other city leaders proposed a switch from a city manager form of government to a strong-mayor system. Previously, much of the role of Toledo's mayor was ceremonial, with little more power than other city council members and administrative authority invested in the city manager. Finkbeiner also proposed switching from at-large city council seats to a mix of at-large and neighborhood districts, which appealed to civil rights groups. Toledo voters had rejected strong-mayor proposals six times in the previous 55 years, most recently in 1988, when sitting mayor Owens opposed it. But this time, voters approved the change, setting up the 1993 election to pick the city's first "strong mayor" in decades. The candidates in 1993 included three members of Toledo city council: Finkbeiner, Democrat Peter Silverman, and independent Mike Ferner. Also running were Republican Paula Pennypacker, a former radio talk show host who had lost to McHugh in 1991, and Bill Boyle, a former Lucas County Democratic Party chairman. In the non-partisan primary, Finkbeiner came out on top with 27%, followed by Ferner with 23%, Boyle with 19%, Silverman with 16%, and Pennypacker with 10%. Ferner, Finkbeiner's opponent in the general election, had made his name on the political left, working as an anti-war activist, union organizer, environmentalist, and proponent of a municipal power company to replace unpopular utility Toledo Edison, whose electric rates were among the nation's highest. As in 1987, the campaign took on a nasty tone. Finkbeiner allies attacked Ferner for being an agnostic and over his (honorable) discharge from the Navy in 1973 as a conscientious objector. A Ferner supporter said he had fired Finkbeiner from his brief stint running Crackdown Inc. in 1990 for "incompetence." Ferner criticized Finkbeiner as an opportunist and flip-flopper on policy; Finkbeiner accused Ferner of "socialist tendencies" and an "anti-business, soft-on-crime attitude." A poll two weeks before the election showed Ferner with a 17-point lead. But Finkbeiner's late attacks gave him a boost, and unofficial returns on election night gave Finkbeiner a 702-vote lead, out of more than 92,000 votes cast. A recount later reduced that total to 672 votes.

Controversy

Several controversies have occurred during Finkbeiner's involvement in public office: