Financial disclosure reports due today should give voters a clearer picture of who's winning the money race for Cincinnati City Council and who's trying to influence the outcome.

But an analysis of records already on file with the Cincinnati Elections Commission shows Cincinnati Reds owner Carl Lindner and his relatives are once again the leading contributors. They gave $49,150 in contributions through Sept. 5, mostly to three Republican campaigns: Pat DeWine, Chris Monzel and challenger Barb Trauth.

The next largest contributors were Rob Smyjunas and his wife, the former Mary Beth Conway. They gave $12,500, with John Cranley, David Pepper, DeWine and Monzel getting $2,000 each. Smyjunas is the developer for the Center of Cincinnati in Oakley.

Witte the Charterite?

Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur of Toledo (D-Ohio) greets Sue Taylor (far right), president of the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers along with Cincinnati council member Alicia Reece at Integrity Hall in Bond Hill Sunday during a Reece fund-raiser. (Craig Ruttle photo) | ZOOM |

Republican Pete Witte boasts a cross-party endorsement from Arn Bortz, the city's last Charterite mayor. Witte has "the imagination and the vision needed on council," Bortz says in a Witte campaign mailing. He also says Witte embodies the Charterite values of a citizen-legislature, something lacking in today's politically ambitious council.

Bortz, a partner in Mount Adams-based Towne Properties, always was a little more conservative than the party of Bobbie Sterne. He admits that he nearly renounced his Charter membership after the 2001 riots.

"They were far too politically correct and far too quiet. There was an unwillingness to challenge the demagoguery that infected this whole town," he said. Bortz returned to the fold after Charter President Michael Goldman publicly took the Woman's City Club to task for honoring the boycott.

Lucky 13

The Cincinnati Area Board of Realtors has endorsed 13 candidates for Cincinnati City Council: Republicans DeWine, Leslie Ghiz, Sam Malone, Monzel, Trauth and Witte; Democrats Sam Britton, Laketa Cole, Cranley, David Crowley, Pepper and Alicia Reece; and Charterite Jim Tarbell.

Warning: Don't try this at home. Voting for more than nine candidates will invalidate all your votes.

The national campaign

For a City Council candidate, Reece sure looks like she's running for something much bigger.

Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Denny White and national chairman Terry McAuliffe stumped last month, and last week it was U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Toledo.

"I've been around more than most council candidates have been alive, and I've never seen so much national attention on a City Council campaign," bragged Reece's campaign manager and father, Steve Reece.

To vote or not?

"Because we don't have a strong ethnic community, we get trapped into thinking the vote is our salvation. The real battle now is on the economic front. I understand the argument for voting. I just think what is important is economic parity."

- Damon Lynch III, now a candidate for Cincinnati City Council, in a Cincinnati Enquirer interview published June 2, 2001.

E-mail gkorte@enquirer.com