The debate over whether pastor and boycott leader the Rev. Damon Lynch III should be allowed to run for Cincinnati City Council makes me uneasy.

An emergency Board of Elections hearing Wednesday did nothing to ease that.

Instead, I got the impression that if the Elections Board doesn't watch out, the process could devolve into a cheesy soap opera, complete with cliffhanger questions.

Will Lynch tell all about his marriage? What does he do in his new condo?

Tune in.

The back-story is this: Four days before Lynch filed to run as a council candidate last month, he changed his voting address from the family home in Woodlawn - outside city limits - to a condo he has owned since 2001 in East Price Hill.

Council candidate Pete Witte protested, claiming Lynch doesn't live at the condo.

Lynch claims he does.

Wednesday, both sides agreed to these facts: Lynch's current address is in the city, and his family still lives in Woodlawn.

Their agreement only temporarily staves off Witte's attempts to subpoena things like Lynch's phone bills, to show where he gets his mail. But Witte and his attorney, David Langdon, plan to dig deeper into Lynch's home life.

Mainly they are fixated on a legal definition of a candidate's address.

Ohio law - which may need an update - says residency is where a married candidate's family resides. The only exception is if a candidate lives "separate and apart" from the spouse.

Langdon says he wants to explore if Lynch and his wife are separated and living physically apart.

The lawyer, long associated with "pro-family" causes and with the local Republican Party, has asked the Board of Elections to let him investigate Lynch's "intentions," and question him and others in public about why the minister lives away from his family.

How else, Langdon asks, can we be sure Lynch isn't just "maintaining a pillow" at the condo?

That's intrusive, says Lynch's attorney, Ken Lawson.

Lawson, long associated with the Black United Front and the post-riot boycott of the city, claims Langdon and Witte really want to air Lynch's personal business.

Why should anyone, even a candidate, have to make public disclosures about his married life?

"You don't subject any citizen to questions about what goes on in the bedroom," Lawson said.

How far should the probe go?

Do voters need to know how often Lynch spends the night at his condo or at his family's home? Should we grill his neighbors about his comings and goings?

This inquiry strays from the central question, which is whether Lynch is a qualified registered voter in the city who then is eligible to be a candidate.

Ohio law requires Lynch be registered to vote 30 days in order to be considered an "elector." Only electors can run for office.

But when do you start that clock? Witte and Langdon contend Lynch needed to be an elector 30 days before he announced his candidacy.

Lynch and Lawson say he needs to be registered as a Cincinnati voter 30 days before the November election.

The board should consider these legal questions, not private speculations, at its hearing Friday.

E-mail damos@enquirer.com or phone 768-8395

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