Monday, May 03, 1999
Issue 4 divides interest groups
Minorities, unions, parties take both sides
BY HOWARD WILKINSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Both sides of the debate over Issue 4 — the plan for direct election of Cincinnati's mayor — have been able to make one claim that is absolutely, undeniably true.
Both can say that they have broad-based, diverse support for their positions.
Voters who identify with certain interest groups, particularly African-Americans, members of labor unions, feminists or those who identify strongly with the Democratic or Charter parties, have been getting mixed signals from their political leaders.
Cincinnati voters will go to the polls Tuesday to decide a charter amendment that would result in the biggest change in Cincinnati's form of government since the city charter was adopted in the 1920s.
It not only calls for direct election of the mayor, but it would give that mayor new powers, including the power to veto council legislation, appoint council committee chairs and initiate the hiring and firing of the city manager, with the consent of council.
Issue 4 was the brainchild of a group of young political activists that formed under the guidance of the leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Build Cincinnati worked for more than a year on a plan members thought a diverse set of political leaders could agree on. In February, they persuaded six council members to put it on the ballot.
Coming Together for Cincinnati, the campaign committee that succeeded Build Cincinnati, hoped to avoid the mistakes made in 1995 when Cincinnati Business Committee tried to persuade Cincinnati voters to approve a “strong mayor” plan.
It failed, in part, because it was seen by many as a strictly Republican, pro-business plan. Coming Together for Cincinnati leaders were determined not to let that happen.
“We have put together a broad-based coalition,” said Aaron Herzig, campaign manager for Coming Together for Cincinnati. “People from every background, every part of the city.”
Pro-Issue 4 organizers began with endorsements from high-profile political figures, past and present, starting with the council members who voted to put it in on the ballot — Democratic Mayor Roxanne Qualls, Democrat Todd Portune, Charterite Jim Tarbell, and Republicans Phil Heimlich, Jeanette Cissell and Charlie Winburn.
Five former mayors signed on to the campaign — Charterites Bobbie Sterne, Arn Bortz and Tom Brush, and Republicans Eugene Ruehlmann and Ken Blackwell — and one former Ohio governor and city councilman, Democrat John Gilligan.
Pro-Issue 4 leaders say getting the Charter Committee, the party that created the council-manager form of government in the 1920s, was the key to the coalition.
“They are the "good government' people, and if they are on board, it helps a lot,” Mr. Herzig said.
Mr. Tarbell said he had doubts about the plan but decided to support it after talking to dozens of people with city hall and particularly with Mrs. Sterne, whose seat Mr. Tarbell inherited when she retired last year.
“I became convinced that this is better than what we have and is worth trying,” Mr. Tarbell said.
The Republican Party is solidly behind the plan, but the Democratic Party is a different matter. Democratic Party co-chairs Tim Burke and Mark Mallory support Issue 4, but the Cincinnati Democratic Committee — made up of precinct executives — voted last month to oppose it.
The core of the opposition is made up of Democratic council members Tyrone Yates, Minette Cooper and Paul Booth.
African-American voters, too, are getting mixed signals from political leaders. All three council members who oppose the ballot issue are African-Americans, and former Mayor Dwight Tillery has an ad on black-oriented radio denouncing Issue 4.
The NAACP supports Issue 4; the Urban League opposes it.
African-Americans are getting different messages from their religious leaders, as well.
The Baptist Ministers Conference was one of the first groups to come out against Issue 4. Friday, however, the African Methodist Episcopal Ministers Alliance endorsed it.
“We see this as good for everybody in the city, not just one group or another,” said the Rev. Eugene Godhigh of Nast Trinity Church in Over-the-Rhine.
Labor, too, has split. The AFL-CIO Labor Council has endorsed Issue 4, as has the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers.
Individual unions such as the Building Trades Council and United Auto Workers are in opposition.
Gene Beaupre, who teaches political science at Xavier University, said Tuesday's election is likely to have a relatively small turnout, and the electorate will be petty well-informed.
If those voters are getting mixed signals from political leaders, Mr. Beaupre predicted, they “will start looking elsewhere for information.”
Or, he said, “they'll just give up and stay home.”
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