Peter Lawson Jones

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Peter Lawson Jones of Cleveland, Ohio, is an American politician of the Democratic party. He currently serves as a county commissioner in Cuyahoga County, Ohio.

In 1994, Jones was the running mate for gubernatorial candidate Rob Burch.

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On February 9, 2002, Peter Lawson Jones was appointed to the Board of Cuyahoga County Commissioners, becoming the first African-American Democrat among the 107 men and women who have held the post. He is the Commission’s designee to the United Way Services Board of Directors and United Way Full Vision Council. Jones previously served two and one-half terms in the Ohio House of Representatives, where he was the ranking minority (Democratic) member of the House Finance and Appropriations Committee and second vice president of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus. He currently serves as Chairman of the Ohio Fatherhood Commission.

Jones is a partner with the law firm of Roetzel & Andress, working in the firm’s Cleveland office as part of the public law group. He was formerly the Vice Mayor and a Councilman in the City of Shaker Heights, Ohio. He was also the first African-American ever nominated to run for Lieutenant Governor in the history of the State of Ohio. In addition, Jones is Co-General Counsel of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party and previously served as Special Counsel for the Ohio Attorney General and Associate Bar Examiner for the Supreme Court of Ohio.

A graduate of Harvard College (Magna Cum Laude in Government) and Harvard Law School, Jones was formerly law director and prosecutor for the Village of Woodmere, Ohio, and president of the Ohio Works! Company in Cleveland, a venture that placed welfare recipients in permanent full-time employment. He has also worked as a law clerk with the Supreme Court of Ohio, a congressional liaison officer with the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, a speechwriter and spokesman for the 1976 Carter/Mondale Presidential Campaign and a press and legislative aide with the United House of Representatives.

For his work, Jones, a graduate of the Greater Cleveland Growth Association’s Leadership Cleveland Program, was inducted into the Shaker Heights Alumni Association Hall of Fame in 1987. He has been honored on several occasions by the Jaycees, having earned the Outstanding Young Clevelanders Public Service Award (1989) and having been named one of the Outstanding Young Men in America (1984 and 1990). Jones, who is listed in Who’s Who Among Black Americans, was the Shaker Heights Democratic Club’s Democrat of the Year in 1996. In addition, he has received awards from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (1977) for meritorious serve as well as from the East Ohio Gas Company and WZAK-FM (1992), United Area Citizens Agency (1992), Eastside Coalition (1986) and the Shaker Heights High School PUSH-Excel Program (1981) for his contributions to the community.

For his efforts as a legislator, Jones has received the Ohio School Counselors Association Legislator of the Year Award (2000), Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbank’s Ohio Hunger Hero Award (2000), a Certificate of Appreciation from the Northern Ohio Breast Cancer Coalition and the Center for Families and Children Fathers and Families Together Community and Families First Awards (2000). He was one of approximately forty state legislators from across the nation selected to attend the 1997 Emerging Political Leaders Program at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. In 1998, he was one of twelve state level officials selected by Project Interchange to travel overseas to participate in its Israel Seminar.