By Gregory Korte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Republicans are attacking three Cincinnati City Council Democrats in a cartoonish television ad connecting the trio to the Empire Theater scandal.

TEXT OF AD

Script of the 30-second television ad by the Hamilton County Republican Party, called "Exit Stage Left:" "Now playing, the Empire Theater scandal, starring Democrat John Cranley, Democrat David Crowley and Democrat David Pepper. It's a troubling tale of how liberal City Council members wasted your money on an Over-the-Rhine con job. Each of them voted for the $184,000 fraudulent deal newspapers called an 'embarrassment' and a 'fiasco.' Had enough of them wasting your hard-earned money? Then let's close down this production. It's time for Cranley, Crowley and Pepper to exit stage left."

Targeted are John Cranley, David Crowley and David Pepper, who are portrayed as dancing, bobble-headed players "in a troubling tale of how liberal City Council members wasted your tax money on an Over-the-Rhine con job."

Crowley called the ad "a sleazy act of desperation."

City Council voted for the Empire Theater project along party lines in 2002, giving $184,172 to a developer with no previous experience and who is now running from the FBI.

Friday, the day after the ad started appearing on selected cable channels, City Manager Valerie Lemmie released an audit of the project that Democratic Mayor Charlie Luken called "a stinging indictment of the way we have done development."

Reactions from the three targeted Democrats ranged from indignation to laughter.

Pepper was most outraged, saying he had worked hard for two years to build cross-party cooperation.

"I could point out that it's a Republican who has done more to damage our relationship with the police union than anybody, but that's not going to get us where we need to go," he said.

Cranley said Republicans don't want voters to know that he first proposed hiring 75 more police officers and stood up to attempts by the Republican-controlled Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority to demolish the English Woods housing project.

Said Crowley: "I think it's funny. I laughed when I first heard about it, and I laughed even harder when I saw it. But it's also funny that the Republican Party is so desperate than in order to advance its own slate, it's attacking the heart of the Democratic lineup."

E-mail gkorte@enquirer.com