Sunday, November 07, 1999
Reece worked hard for council victory
Determination runs in her family
BY PHILLIP PINA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Alicia Reece
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When Alicia Reece was a teen-ager at Withrow High School, she was determined to play basketball. So every day she got up at 5 a.m. to practice. And every day, her father got up to help her.
As a young businesswoman a few years out of college, Ms. Reece decided to run for Cincinnati City Council. She ran a low-budget, high-energy campaign. And again, Steve Reece was there guiding her.
Ms. Reece, the 28-year-old former Withrow basketball standout, was elected to city council Tuesday. And when City Hall observers wonder how a political novice pulled off a fifth-place finish in a field of nine, they must consider her determination — and her father's.
“In my household, politics and community involvement were dining table conversation,” Ms. Reece said. Her election was the culmination of years of work — and some frustration — by the Reece family.
In 1975, when Alicia was a pre-schooler, she handed out Reese's peanut butter cups while on the campaign trail with her father and mother, Barbara Reece. Mr. Reece was 27 and running for city council.
After falling 6,000 votes short, Mr. Reece removed himself from the political foreground. But he has maintained a backstage role.
A leader in the local Democratic Party, Mr. Reece has worked on a number of campaigns, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson's presidential bids in the 1980s. Alongside him was Alicia. She was watching, helping and learning.
When she first signed up to play basketball as a youngster, “I didn't know why they had two baskets,” Ms. Reece said. But her father, an athlete himself, told her it would take a lot of work to make it.
Even as a teen-ager, roaming the halls of Withrow, Ms. Reece impressed others with her determination, said Principal Paul Ramstetter, a teacher then. She was a four-year honor student and a member of student government. She ran for senior class president, and won.
“She comes from a very motivated and active family,” Mr. Ramstetter said. “Alicia was always a go-getter.”
During those early morning games of basketball, Mr. Reece saw his daughter's determination. One of his proudest moments — along with her college graduation and recent election success — was her being named a starter and team captain of the Withrow varsity girls basketball team her senior year.
“She was our point guard, she was our team leader,” said Fred Willis, who coached the 1989 team to the city championship. “She was fundamentally sound, as a student as well as an athlete. And it all goes back to her parents.” Mr. Reece and his wife Barbara attended nearly every game.
Ms. Reece went to Grambling State University on an academic scholarship. Robert Killins, an alumnus living in Cincinnati, saw her leadership qualities and was instrumental in recruiting her to the traditionally black college in northern Louisiana.
While at Grambling, Ms. Reece was active in student affairs and ran a radio show on campus topics, Mr. Killins said. During her stay, ex-Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke decided to run for governor of Louisiana. Ms. Reece was not going to sit idly by.
Helping to register 7,500 voters among fellow students, she was an active part of the youth movement to defeat Mr. Duke.
Her senior year she ran for Miss Grambling State University, and won the post of elected ambassador for the school. She traveled the country and spoke to children about the value of education.
Back in Cincinnati, her father continued his role in politics. He was an active backer of the Rev. Jesse Jackson's Rainbow-PUSH Coalition and was a member of the Democratic Party's executive committee, which gave him a voice on party decisions and endorsements. He was also building his company, Communiplex Entrepreneurs Network, in Bond Hill.
He did run for office once more, losing a 1992 special election for a congressional seat. His daughter, home on break from Grambling, managed the campaign.
When Ms. Reece earned her bachelor's degree in mass communications in 1993, she opted to return home.
“I know she had all sorts of opportunities. The fact she came home to work with her family says a lot about her,” Mr. Killins said.
Ms. Reece is vice president of marketing and promotions for the family business. She coordinates public events, develops community programs and runs workshops. She is also the producer of a radio talk show hosted by Lincoln Ware on WCIN-AM.
Her political aspirations grew. She was director of community outreach for U.S. Rep. David Mann, and was active in political fund-raisers and campaigns for a number of candidates. In 1998, she was named minority coordinator in Hamilton County for the Democratic Party's “Get Out To Vote” campaign.
Mr. Reece describes his daughter as talented, a hard worker and determined. When she told him nearly a year ago she wanted to run for city council, “Are you sure?” he asked. And then he asked, “Why?”
When Ms. Reece wanted to be class president, she ran and won. When she wanted to be Miss Grambling State, she ran and won. And when she wanted to be a Cincinnati councilwoman, she ran and won. Ms. Reece has yet to lose an election.
While success surrounds her, it was the feeling of pain and helplessness that drove her. Four years ago, her mother — an accomplished singer — was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Her mother's fight against her failing health taught Ms. Reece about strength, she said. And it taught her how issues like health care play an important role in everyday lives. It spurred her to get involved.
Her father immediately made a few suggestions. Create a base in the African-American neighborhoods. Reach out to young voters and women. Register voters. The key is name recognition, he told her.
For a novice politician without a lot of money, Ms. Reece worked around the obstacles. She announced her candidacy in churches rather than hotel ballrooms. She wrote her own TV commercial to cut costs. And she stood on busy street corners, waving her campaign placards.
“We burned a lot of shoe leather,” Ms. Reece said. She spent about $60,000 on the campaign, a fraction of what other candidates were spending. A big chunk of that, about $18,000, was from local financier Carl Lindner; he is a Mason like her father.
Ms. Reece knew she had a chance to win when people started recognizing her. Her father always knew she would do it.
“The people who took the time to vote were pretty serious voters; and they had seen her on a street corner or heard her at a community council,” said Gene Beaupre, a Xavier University political scientist. “She got her name out there.”
When Ms. Reece is sworn in on Dec. 1, it will be the culmination of a family project that started in 1975. Mr. Reece sometimes thinks of what he could have done differently during his own failed bid at city council. He believed in his work, ethics and ideas. He instilled those values in his family, and his daughter's election offers some consolation.
“Yes, there is some feeling of vindication,” Mr. Reece said.
Yet after filling his office with newspaper articles and other reminders of the success Ms. Reece and her brother and sister have achieved over the years, he quickly plays his down his role in the election. This, the proud parent notes, was his daughter's victory.
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