BY ANNE MICHAUD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
With Broadway Commons headed for the ballot, Hamilton County Commissioner Tom Neyer Jr. hopes voters do not tag him as the embodiment of opposition to the proposed Reds ballfield site.
He wants voters to consider the whole candidate as he runs for the first time for the county commission.
But Democrats plan to dog him with the issue.
"Tom wants to run away from the single most important public vote he's made since going on the commission, and he doesn't get to do that," said Tim Burke, chairman of the local Democratic Party. Mr. Neyer, who was appointed to the commission in February 1997, faces Democrat Marilyn Hyland.
She hopes Broadway Commons enthusiasm will sweep her into office. "It is absolutely essential that taxpayers who support Broadway Commons also support me in this election," she said Wednesday, after Secretary of State Bob Taft decided to place the issue on the ballot. Her vote on the commission would give Broadway Commons a 2-1 majority.
Last month, Mr. Neyer became the deciding vote for a riverfront site, when county commissioners approved a preliminary agreement with the Reds. Commissioner Bob Bedinghaus has long liked the riverfront; John Dowlin is a well-known Broadway Commons fan.
That one vote may preoccupy his detractors, but Mr. Neyer said his performance should be judged on a range of county issues.
"The baseball discussion should happen outside the framework of the county commission campaign and in a separate campaign on the ballot initiative," Mr. Neyer said. "I don't think it should stay out of my race, but it should be in its appropriate context." Voters he has met on the campaign trail want to know about the mental health levy on the November ballot, about job security and about access to child support services, he said.
Mr. Neyer said he stands for job creation, balancing the county budget, supporting criminal justice and re-establishing pride in the county's future.
Nonetheless, Broadway Commons and a related issue, the preliminary financial package commissioners have sketched for the Reds, will dominate the discussion this fall because the public is exceptionally interested, Mr. Burke said.
"That doesn't make either candidate a one-issue candidate," he said.
Ms. Hyland, who is in danger of being tagged with the one-issue label, said her championing of Broadway Commons stands for a broader criticism of how the county commission operates:
"The central issue of the campaign is the total arrogant disregard of our public money and trust put in the commissioners when we voted for the stadium tax. Broadway Commons is the most recent example." Commissioners have failed to listen to what she argues is the will of the people, and the commission has earned itself a petition drive in the process: "You won't need to collect 45,000 signatures to get my attention," Ms. Hyland said.
