It was Halloween.

        Charlie Winburn, the former Cincinnati city councilman, was comparing himself to Freddie Krueger, the dashing figure from Nightmare on Elm Street.

        “You will see me again,” he mimicked in a threatening tone. “But not now.”

        Not on Tuesday. Not the day Cincinnati elects its first strong mayor in 76 years.

        “I would probably have been the next mayor of the city,” he said confidently.

        In June however, Mr. Winburn told the Hamilton County Republic Party leadership he was not interested in making a run for the premiere political title in the city. He had other priorities.

        • His ailing wife, Coleen, who is battling complications from chemotherapy and radiation.

        • His three children.

        • His five-year appointment in February to the Ohio Civil Rights Commission.

        • His Tuesday-evening “School of Ministry” classes, in which he is teaching more than 640 “unchurched” men and women an overview of the Bible.

        “It was a very tough decision,” he says, recalling how he announced his political intentions the night before the filing deadline. “All those other entities needed me more.”

        But Mr. Winburn, a 50-year-old Baptist minister at the Church in College Hill, couldn't leave Cincinnati politics altogether.

        “Of course, you know politics is in my blood,” he said. “It has been since I was 16.”

        Less than a week before Election Day, he was fielding requests for his support — for local candidates and issues.

        Depending on his position, he was willing to oblige.

        But his focus these days, he says, is the commission and its efforts to protect Ohioans from discrimination in employment, housing and higher education.

        “It's a lot of work,” he said. “It's interesting, though . . . You've got to stay ahead of the law.”

        The commission just negotiated a multimillion-dollar settlement with the Farmers Insurance Co. over homeowners' policies in minority neighborhoods in Toledo.

        “We handle over 5,000 cases a year,” he said.

        Now, in the wake of terrorist attacks on America, the commission is meeting with Arab groups across the state, “letting them know we're supportive of them and we're not going to tolerate an attack on Arabs and those of the Islamic community.”

        Meanwhile, the notion of serving Cincinnati as mayor is an attractive one, he admits.

        But, “It would have taken me away from bringing blacks and whites together every Tuesday (at the church),” he said.

        “I really love Cincinnati. I'm really praying that, starting off in January 2002, whoever the mayor is, in spirit we're going to become one city.

        “It's really my dream . . . what I believe in God for.”

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