Saturday, October 30, 1999
Democrats' radio spot zeros in on Heimlich
Ads directed at African-Americans
BY HOWARD WILKINSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The Democratic Party, worried that Republican Councilman Phil Heimlich is making headway in mending fences with African-American voters, is running an ad on black-oriented radio stations attacking his council record.
Mr. Heimlich called the radio ad, paid for by the Hamilton County Democratic Party, “gutter politics,” but Democratic Party leaders say they are just trying to remind one of their core voter groups of Mr. Heimlich's record.
“He is trying to make an appeal to the African-American community with his own ads and we thought we needed to tell the rest of the story,” party co-chairman Tim Burke said.
The ad attacking Mr. Heimlich is one of two 60-second ads in an $8,000 radio buy on three AM stations with large African-American audiences — WCIN, WIZF and WCVG.
In the anti-Heimlich ad, an announcer asks listeners: “How stupid do the Republicans think we are? Just because they've got people with famous names, they think we should vote for them.”
The ad continues: “This character Heimlich thinks we should vote for him just because he put up cameras to watch us. Thanks, Big Brother.”
The cameras refer to the police surveillance cameras mounted on high-crime street corners in several Cincinnati neighborhoods. One is mounted at the Five Corners intersection in Evanston. A Heimlich TV ad features Charles English, an African-American Evanston barber, talking about how the camera has reduced crime and made Evanston safer, thanks to Mr. Heimlich.
A radio version of Mr. Heimlich's Evanston camera commercial is running on WCIN and WIZF.
The Democrats' ad also criticizes Mr. Heimlich for voting against creation of a civilian panel to review complaints against police and for favoring location of a jail in Bond Hill. It also takes Mr. Heimlich to
task for his support of “privatization” — the farming out of some city services to private companies.
The second Democratic Party ad, read by state senator and party co-chair Mark Mallory, an African-American, attacks the Republican council slate in general and urges voters to support the nine Democratic candidates.
Mr. Heimlich is considered one of a handful of council candidates with a chance to be the top vote-getter in Tuesday's election, which would win him the mayor's job.
He ran second in the 1995 council campaign, but dropped to sixth place in 1997, largely because what support he had in Cincinnati's African-American wards all but disappeared in that election.
This year, the Heimlich campaign has been working overtime to get those voters back.
Mr. Heimlich's Evanston TV ad, Mr. Burke said, is a direct appeal to African-American voters, one of the key constituent groups that Democratic candidates depend on.
“I will concede it is a pretty good ad,” Mr. Burke said. “My sense is Phil is doing a better job of running for mayor this time because he hasn't been so blatant about it.”
Mr. Heimlich said he is not running for mayor, but to “run as strongly as I can.”
“I've tried to stay positive and focus on the themes of safer streets and better schools,” he said. “I'm really sorry that the Democrats have decided to drag this into the gutter.”
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