By Gregory Korte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The 2003 field of Cincinnati City Council candidates includes the usual slate of establishment candidates: five lawyers, two bar owners, an aerospace engineer and a funeral director.

CANDIDATES

Twenty-six candidates for Cincinnati City Council filed their petitions by the Thursday deadline. They are: Democrats: Howard H. Bond Samuel T. Britton * Y. Laketa Cole * John Cranley * David C. Crowley * David Pepper * Alicia Reece Republicans: John Connelly Terry Deters * Pat DeWine Leslie Ghiz Tom Jones Sam Malone * Chris Monzel Barbara W. Trauth Pete Witte Charterites: John F. Schlagetter Cristopher Smitherman Nick Spencer * Jim Tarbell Independents: Larry J. Frazier Brian Crum Garry Glenn O. Givens Sr. Marilyn Hyland Damon Lynch III Eric Wilson * incumbent

And then there are some non-traditional candidates, including the leader of a group urging a boycott of the city for the past two years.

By Thursday's deadline for filing petitions, voters had placed the names of 26 candidates in nomination for nine at-large City Council seats.

Their vital statistics: 11 black and 15 white; 21 men and five women; 17 east-siders and nine west-siders. They range in age from 25-year-old Charterite Nick Spencer to 70-year-old Democrat Samuel T. Britton.

Though the Nov. 4 election is technically a non-partisan affair, Cincinnati's three political parties have endorsed nine Republicans, seven Democrats and four Charterites. Six are running as independents.

But with eight incumbents running for re-election, the real race is an 18-way contest for one "open" seat, succeeding term-limited Democrat Minette Cooper.

Among them: Damon Lynch III, leader of the Black United Front and pastor of the New Prospect Baptist Church, who turned in 3,235 signatures on petitions Thursday afternoon after a two-day blitz of shopping centers, churches and restaurants.

If just 500 signatures are valid, he will add his name to the ballot - and make the boycott of Cincinnati an issue for voters.

The Hamilton County Board of Elections will check candidates' petitions and decide which candidates are eligible next week.

This year's council election will be the first since 1925 in which the voters will have absolutely no say in who the next mayor will be.

That's because Mayor Charlie Luken is in the middle of a four-year term - the result of a 1999 charter amendment that led to the first direct election of a mayor since the 1925 charter. The mayor was previously selected from among the council.

E-mail gkorte@enquirer.com

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