 |
 |
Friday, January 21, 2005 - 06:31 PM
Reported mythical numbers suggest party turmoil
By Michael D. Altman
According to the City Charter, Sam Malone—Cincinnati’s lone Republican on City Council after Pat Dewine was elected to County Commission—gets to choose who takes Dewine’s seat. Importantly, it does not say in the Charter that the party has any say; it is solely the Council member’s choice.
Since May of 2004, when Pat Dewine claimed victory over John Dowlin in the Republican primary for County Commissioner, Leslie Ghiz had been known as the frontrunner to take the seat of Dewine. It has been common practice within the party of the departing member of City Council to select the highest vote getter who did not win from the previous election, which Ghiz was. Plus, the Democratic challenger at the time was the young, almost unknown Erich Streckfuss, who would later be replaced by Eve Bolton.
Leslie Ghiz—Hyde Park resident and attorney originally from West Virginia—simply out campaigned any other Republican by a long shot. On her first run for office, without the name recognition that is so important in getting elected in local politics, received seven hundred more votes than then incumbent Chris Monzel. Incidentally, Monzel was the only incumbent to lose in any party in the 2003 City Council election.
Why then did Sam Malone pick Chris Monzel?
Added to the speculation that is worth anything, of which there is few, the Hamilton County Republican Party (HCRP) non-judicial screening committee, the committee that steered the Council seat selection process, held a vote regarding who would be selected. Cincinnati Post reporter Kevin Osborne and 700 WLW talk show hosts claimed that there was a 28-3 vote in favor of Ghiz.
This left Ghiz and supporters reeling at the notion that the party endorsed her but Malone went it alone, scoffing at their suggestion. What made the most sense—if this conclusion were true—was the notion that Malone would have to choose between two “hands that feed him,” one hand is the proponents of the Equal Rights Not Special Rights campaign, because of Ghiz’s bold support of the repeal of Article XII, the other hand the HCRP.
Quite a pickle I’d say; which way would he go?
You heard it here first: none of that juicy politico speculation is true, not according to Malone and the executive director of the party, in fact some of the facts in the paper seemingly materialized out of thin air.
Councilman Malone told me Tuesday night that the recommendation of the HCRP was Chris Monzel; it was not a case of Malone feeling so strongly about his loss in the campaign for Article XII, that revenge was in order, which is exactly what the feeling had been.
“I don’t know where [Osborne] got those numbers. There was no vote,” said HCRP Executive Director Tara Kriss. Kriss went on to say that the only vote taken was to decide whether or not Malone and HCRP Chairman Michael Barrett would make the decision together, which the committee decided in favor of.
“There was no vote,” laughed Councilman Malone, who was not part of the committee to steer the party to make a recommendation for council. “People said you said this and you said that. I wasn’t even there. I’m just telling you what I was informed.”
Malone could only speculate as to the source of the misinformation. “Depending on who you talk to, you’re liable to get any response. There are some people who have stronger personalities; if nine people go into a room [a la City Council] and they come out, there are bound to be some rumors [about what went on]. The loudest, strongest personality’s rumors are gonna get a lot more play.”
“There are people who want to suggest there is a party split over this, but there simply isn’t,” concluded Kriss.
Michael D. Altman writes “I Don’t Mind Telling You” based on insight into the direction politically and socially of this, the Pepsi Generation (No--- that’s Gen Y?). The fact checker responsible for this confusion has been sacked (fired). The column appears as a weekly feature in QCF magazine.
Contact Information
· michaelda@queencityforum.com
|
|
| |
|
|
|
