MANSFIELD — Lydia Reid is officially watching a local election from the sidelines for the first time in four decades.
But make no mistake: The 84-year-old local government icon remains keenly interested in the outcome of the primary election on Tuesday.
The longest-running former mayor of Mansfield — and the first and thus far the only woman to hold the office — retired a few months ago from the Richland County Board of Elections.
It was the last official tie with local elections for Reid, a Democrat who served as the city’s mayor for 14 years, 1993 to 2007.
But she is paying attention to local races, including the four-way Republican Party race for mayor, a field that includes three women.
When you add in Democrat Sherry Vaught, who is unopposed in the primary, 80 percent of the candidates for the top spot on the ninth floor of the Municipal Building are women.
“We have come a long way,” said Reid, who also once served as the city’s finance director and member of City Council.
“I really think so many women have become governors, prime ministers … the world has finally realized women can do some things just as well, if not better, and they are being given more opportunities,” she said.
Reid, whose husband of 40 years, Rodney “Rod” Reid, passed away in 2019, said she never experienced sexism in her long tenure of public office.
Like his wife, Rod Reid was a force in the local Democratic Party, though the U.S. Army Veteran and iron worker worked behind the scenes.
“I was never really political. Rod wanted to run. (Party leaders) said, ‘We want you, not Rod.’ I said I could understand that,” she said with a laugh.
“I never (experienced sexism)… partly because I was a business person (before taking office) and partly because I was married to Rod … who would have killed them,” she joked.
“I had some great jobs. If you know what you are doing, I don’t think you would have any problems … unless it’s from a guy who has a lot of angst about women,” she said.
Reid isn’t officially endorsing anyone in the mayor’s race on Tuesday — a contest among Jim Holsinger, Jodie Perry, Linn Steward and Stephanie Zader.
“I am not really going to say,” she said. “I know who I have supported through word of mouth. I think Jodie or Linn, for different reasons, are good candidates.”
Good candidates are crucial, according to Reid. She was appointed finance director to fill an unexpired term and was then retained by voters in the 1991 election.
That was the year fellow Democrat Charles “Charlie” Scott, a City Council member, shocked many — including himself — when he defeated incumbent Republican Ed Meehan for mayor.
“Charlie was such a fun-loving, good guy. (But) he was not a mayor. He sold rugs. He was a real people person. But he didn’t know what he was doing as mayor. That wasn’t his thing. He had no business acumen,” Reid said.
Scott, whose father was mayor and died in office during a plane crash in 1964, succumbed to cancer two years into his own term. His kindness was hailed after his death.
Democratic Party leaders selected Reid to finish his term — and she then won three straight elections.
She knew she had to hit the ground running as mayor.
“I called all the managers and told them, ‘Here is what I want to do.’ I was used to running businesses. (Local government) is like a business,” she said.
Reid is critical of people who don’t prepare before seeking office and wishes both local parties would return to the days of conducting workshops for political newcomers.
“You can’t just run, for God’s sake. No, no, no. You can’t walk into party headquarters and say, ‘I want to run.’ People who run need to be prepared … from both parties.
“I tell them, ‘You got no business in this race. You have to do the groundwork.'”
Reid was appointed to the four-member, bipartisan elections board shortly after term limits prevented her from seeking another four years as mayor.
She never missed a meeting, including times she had to fly back from visiting her family in Florida to meet her board responsibilities.
“We are so blessed in Richland County to have the board and elections officials we have,” she said. “All of those people work so hard and work so well together.
“Everyone should volunteer … work at the polls. It’s a real eye-opener. There is a lot of damn work in that job. It’s unbelievable,” she said.
