Riley

        In any other election year, Michael Riley might be running for Cincinnati City Council as an independent candidate trying to have his voice heard above two dozen other candidates'.

        But this is not any other year.

        And so Mr. Riley is running for mayor as an independent, trying to get his voice heard above Charlie Luken's and Courtis Fuller's.

        “All the issues are being neglected. I feel this is an unfair election because no one wants to debate anybody. We have four candidates, not two,” Mr. Riley said.

        With only one day until Tuesday's nonpartisan primary will officially make it a two-man race, Mr. Riley is trying to focus attention on issues he said are important to people in the poorer neighborhoods.

        Police officers should be required to live in the city, he said. He opposes a garbage transfer station in the city. He said the city should do more to fight AIDS. And he said Cincinnati should move toward a system of district representation on City Council.

        If these issues aren't be ing addressed, he said, it's because the attention is on two candidates.

        “I'm more mad at Courtis right now than Charlie Luken. Mr. Fuller just moved into the city the other day. He doesn't do anything. He doesn't say anything. He just smiles. All he has is name recognition and a pretty face, and that's what's wrong with politics today.”

        Mr. Riley lacks the money

        and name recognition of the better-known candidates. He carries a backpack and often wears a baseball cap.

        The 52-year-old Evanston resident, formerly known as Mikal Ali, said he's well-known in the city's poorer, predominantly black neighborhoods.

        And though he's tried to take his message elsewhere, saying he wants to see all 52 neighborhoods develop and prosper, his message has not always been welcomed.

        At a Westwood Civic Association forum last month, Mr. Riley said Mr. Luken hasn't done enough since the April unrest.

        That's when 56-year-old Westwood resident Jim Huhn confronted Mr. Riley. “What are you doing now to solve these problems?” Mr. Huhn asked.

        Mr. Riley said he tried to set an example in poorer neighborhoods, talking to young people about their concerns. But Mr. Huhn wasn't satisfied.

        “You're campaigning. You're not answering. If you don't want to, fine,” said Mr. Huhn.

        Mr. Riley has held a medley of government jobs with the city and county, topping out as a real estate appraiser. He's now retired and spends much of his time at City Council or at protests.

        At the April 9 Law and Public Safety Committee meeting when hundreds of protesters demanded answers to the 2-day-old shooting death of Timothy Thomas, Mr. Riley was in the front row, standing beside Mr. Thomas' mother with a sign reading, “Enough is enough.”

        Mr. Riley has a long resume as a protester. He has a scrapbook of stories on the 1968 unrest that followed the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

        In 1999, he was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct while protesting a fatal police shooting. Police said Mr. Riley interfered with the arrest of another protester when he got in front of officers and started taking their pictures; a judge later ac quitted him.

        Mr. Riley filed complaints of police brutality with the Office of Municipal Investigations and the Police Division's internal affairs section, and sued the city in federal court.

        All the complaints were dismissed.

        Mr. Riley acknowledges that he's toward the left of the political spectrum, but said he's not easily labeled.

        Though he usually votes Democratic — and was once a Republi can when he worked for the county auditor's office — Mr. Riley said he's now proud to be an independent.

        “I've been a fighter all my life. I'm not going to sell out to a party. What has the Democratic party done for black people?” he said. “Nothing's being done for the black people. Nothing's being done for the gay people. Nothing's being done for the poor people.”

        Indeed, he said, his favorite councilman is a Republican.

        “I'll tell you the one I respect the most — and this may be hard to believe — and that's Phil Heimlich. He stands up for what he believes. The rest of them play games,” he said.

        Of the three other mayoral candidates, the one he said he respects the most is Republican Bill Brodberger.

        “I don't agree with Brodberger, but I have more respect for him than for Charlie Luken and Courtis Fuller. I know what he's got to deal with. We've got an uphill climb,” he said.

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