Same old same old
I used to wonder why Cincinnati's power elite made all the decisions without asking the public. But as election returns trickled in late Tuesday night, I began to realize why:
There is no problem in Cincinnati that cannot be made worse by voters.
This year was no exception.
- Voters re-elected Mayor Roxanne Qualls, who did almost nothing wrong by doing almost nothing - and also sent back, intact, the entire coalition that hijacked the council and left her as powerless as Leona Helmsley in a truck stop. That's sort of like sending a whole team of Saddams to help a U.N. weapons inspector.
- Or, if you prefer the mayor as Saddam and the coalition as U.N. peacekeepers, the outcome is just as bad. Councilman Phil Heimlich did what citizens have nagged about for years: He reached out to his adversaries and formed an alliance across political and racial lines. For that, he was thrashed soundly by voters, for consorting with the enemy.
The mandate: Don't cooperate with anyone - and if you do, don't admit it in campaign ads.
- The most depressing results are the way voters rewarded venal politics.
Minette Cooper's campaign was going nowhere, until a rumor was spread, like a flu bug, that there was a plot to remove her - because she is a black woman.
As an alleged member of this ludicrous plot, I confess: There was a conspiracy of thousands who noticed something else about Mrs. Cooper: She was clueless on council.
However, the race and sex cards were picked up by the Democratic Party, which mailed out fliers urging her re-election on the basis of credentials nobody could argue with: She was born female and black. It worked.
I can hardly wait for the next campaign, when candidates are elected based on their genetic codes, fingerprints and family trees.
It gets worse. Mr. Heimlich's hard tumble to sixth place was no accident. The rungs on his ladder had been greased.
Councilman Dwight Tillery teamed up with Mr. Heimlich to form a coalition and pass a pork-packed budget. He praised Mr. Heimlich and even said he would support him for mayor.
But when his Democratic Party accused him of sympathizing with a Republican, Mr. Tillery repudiated the alliance, denied that he ever attempted to cooperate, and scorched his ally, using his sway with black voters to undermine Mr. Heimlich's bid for mayor.
Most people care less about all this stuff than they do about the baby-shaking nanny on Court TV. That means turnout is low, and special-interests rule. A composite of Tuesday's winning voter would be a retired union member who once stepped in something at the zoo and got a traffic ticket on the way to vote. The elderly and unions won. The losers were law enforcement, the zoo and sanity.
It's enough to make me long for the good old days when Cincinnati was run by and for the corporate CEOs. Bring back the Cincinnati Business Committee - or something like it.
And while everyone was watching meaningless ads for a meaningless election, that's what happened. As voters rearranged the furniture at City Hall, real power shifted: The old CBC is being traded in on a newer model that does not have running boards and a hand-crank starter.
Leaders of the Metropolitan Growth Alliance insist, ''This does not in any way threaten the CBC, it does not seek to supplant them.''
Maybe not. The secretive, clubby, arthritic CBC will not stroke out and keel over. It will cling to its aluminum-walker mission to aid downtown and urban schools. But it will be left in the shadows by the new MGA.
This is not your father's Corpocracy.
A list of high-octane members - including women and minorities! - was actually revealed in public. MGA leaders reached across the forbidden river to include Northern Kentucky; they even admit that's where the idea started. They plan to bring in experts on regional issues - and open some meetings to the public.
Pigs can fly.
The CBC was weakened by damage from its own executive director, Ron Roberts, who has now moved on to damage the Reds' stadium negotiations with the same threats and bullying that wore out his welcome everywhere else.
The beginning of the end was the day when CBC members emerged into the sunlight, juggling sauerkraut-heaped hotdogs and toy bats, lined up in silly Reds caps and promised Marge Schott a new Reds ballpark.
They didn't get it. And now she has to deal with taxpayers.
''The good old days when a couple of guys could have breakfast at the Queen City club and action would follow - that just doesn't work anymore,'' said one MGA leader.
He's right. Business help is welcome, but these days Cincinnati voters demand the constitutional right to make a complete mess of things all by themselves.
Peter Bronson is editorial page editor of The Enquirer. If you have questions or comments, call 768-8301, or write to 312 Elm Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202.
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