Justin Jeffre

Justin Jeffre (b. February 25, 1973, Mount Clemens, Michigan) is a former member of multi-platinum group 98 Degrees.

Career

98 Degrees (or 98°) is a Grammy-nominated vocal group that was formed independently and later signed to the Motown label in the mid-1990s. Other band members were Nick Lachey, Drew Lachey, and Jeff Timmons. 98 Degrees has released 4 albums to date. Their debut album was self-titled 98 Degrees.

After building popularity with their appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, singing "True to Your Heart," a duet with label mate Stevie Wonder, their success broke out in late 1998 with their album 98° and Rising, which included the hit singles "The Hardest Thing" and "I Do (Cherish You)". After the first album, 98 Degrees left Motown for its parent company, Universal Records. All four albums released by the group went platinum.

Other albums include This Christmas and Revelation. In 2002, they released a compilation album "The Collection." Since the release of "The Collection" 98 Degrees has sold over 10 million records.

Jeffre made several guest appearances on Nick Lachey's MTV show Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica which launched in 2003 and 98 Degrees appeared on the couples Christmas special on ABC.

Politics

Together with high school English teacher [1] Jason Haap (aka "The Dean of Cincinnati") and[2]Michael Earl Patton, Jeffre launched a blog called the Cincinnati Beacon. The Beacon features video interviews with local politicians, investigative reporting, labor news and alternative views of what's happening around the city.

Candidate For Office

Jeffre a member of the Orange Party of Ohio [3] first ran for elective office in 2005 as a candidate for mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio. The Jeffre for mayor campaign did not purchase any television, radio, or print advertisements, relying instead on a grassroots campaign. When the results of the non-partisan September primary election, were announced Jeffre had received 708 votes (1.7%), finishing fifth among seven candidates in the primary.^[1]

Jeffre is a proponent of campaign finance reform, instant-runoff voting, and proportional representation. He is active in the Southwest Ohio Green Party.

In 2007, he ran as a candidate for Cincinnati City Council, and was endorsed by the local Green Party (Cincinnati elections are non-partisan but political parties often endorse candidates). Jeffre received votes from 7,371 (12%) of the 61,503 voters [4] who turned out on election day. Cincinnati city council elections are at-large with each voter selecting nine candidates. So while Jeffre received votes from 12% of the electorate his 7,371 votes translated to 1.71% of the total vote (the nine winning candidates received between 7.83% and 5.41%)[5].

Jeffre's blog, The Cincinnati Beacon, has questioned election count procedures [6], detailing inconsistencies [7] with local reporting on how ballots are handled. A few weeks later, Ohio's Secretary of State coincidentally questioned the whole State's vote counting mechanism.

During the 2008 presidential election Jeffre endorsed and was a staffer for Ralph Nader's campaign [8]. In his capacity as a staffer for the campaign he hand delivered Nader's nominating petitions to the Arizona state capitol.

Activism

In March, 2008, Jeffre filed a formal complaint [9] with the Ohio Department of Education, claiming that the state-mandated Ohio Graduation Tests were "unfair" according to guidelines set forth in Ohio Administrative Code. He followed up with a complaint to the Ohio Board of Regents [10], concerned that they were training teachers in illegal methods.

In April, 2008, Jeffre went to work on Ralph Nader's presidential campaign, and he gave the formal introduction at a speech in Illinois [11].

Independent media

He has also collaborated in Cincinnati independent media projects. He is co-publisher of The Cincinnati Beacon -- political blog in Cincinnati that recently made the transition to print.

References

External links

2006-2007

• The Cincinnati Beacon
• Justin Jeffre's journey from Pop star to media activist
• Vote Gained, Tax Opponents Not Likely To Switch Sides
• Cincinnati's leading political blog enters newspaper business

2005 and earlier

• Justin Jeffre for Mayor website
• 98 Degrees' Justin Jeffre Tanks in Cincy Mayoral Primary
• Justin Jeffre at the Internet Movie Database