Eight months ago, Charlie Luken and Todd Portune put together a carefully balanced funding plan that would end a decade of debate about expanding the Albert B. Sabin Cincinnati Convention Center.

Luken

        But after Delta Air Lines pulled its $15 million naming rights commitment this month, Cincinnati's mayor and the Hamilton County commissioner argued for days via e-mail about how to salvage their plan.

        The 13 e-mails, released by the mayor's office under an open records request, reveal a deep division between the county's two most powerful Democrats about how and if the city should proceed with the $198 million expansion, who should bear the tax burden, and whether the northern suburbs should be allowed to create their own convention bureau.

Portune

        The exchange began two days after Mr. Luken said the expansion plan would have to be “mothballed” because of Delta's announcement. On Aug. 16, Mr. Portune was quoted as saying the decision was a “defining moment” for the region.

        “We need to reverse the serious damage done to the city's and the region's business interests by the suggestion yesterday that the expansion project would be shelved,” Mr. Portune said.

        Mr. Luken took exception, telling Mr. Portune in an e-mail that the most serious damage was done by the county's proposal to use part of the county bed tax to fund a northern convention bureau. He said the “defining moment” came in 1994, when Mr. Portune, then a city councilman, failed to show leadership on the issue.

        Mr. Portune ignored the jabs, pressing forward with proposals to encourage a bidding war over naming rights to the convention center. Mr. Luken rejected all of them, insisting that because the county had altered the terms of their original plan, the county should make up the Delta shortfall.

        “I repeat, will you pledge money to help the project make up the funding gap? Will you pledge to reverse your position on the creation of a suburban bureau?” he wrote. “Simple questions. How about simple answers?”

        At one point, Mr. Luken began answering all of Mr. Portune's suggestions with a standard, four-word reply: “... more of the same.”

        Then the conversation quickly escalated into terse, rapid-fire exchanges, which ended only when the Enquirer asked for Mr. Luken's correspondence to Delta and others about the convention center.

        Eric Kearney, chairman of the Greater Cincinnati Convention and Visitors Bureau, said he hasn't seen the e-mails, but has heard of them.

        He said leaders from the public and private sectors continue to make progress behind the scenes, and he's confident that the political support will come around in the end.

        “I am very optimistic regarding the viability of the expansion,” he said. “There is a clear need for it, and when there's a clear need, people find ways to do things. So I'm not really deterred by that kind of stuff.”

        Mr. Luken made no apologies for the tone of his e-mails.

        “I think there's been too much talk about leadership and vision, and not enough talk about cash and commitment, and that's what those e-mails reflect,” Mr. Luken said.

        Mr. Portune did not return phone calls seeking comment.

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