By Patrick Crowley
The Cincinnati Enquirer

CRESCENT SPRINGS - There will be a contested council election in this Kenton County suburb after all.

Council member Christie Arlinghaus-Clem filed Friday at the Kenton County Clerk's office to be a write-in candidate on the Nov. 4 ballot. She will face Mike Daugherty, who is on the ballot but not a member of council.

Chosen by council in July to fill a vacancy, Arlinghaus-Clem said Monday she was "under the assumption" that she did not have to seek election to the seat until November 2004, when the other members are up for reelection. So she did not file election papers to get on this year's ballot by the Aug. 9 deadline.

"So (Daugherty's) on the ballot, and I'm not," said Arlinghaus-Clem, 54, a manager at the Internal Revenue Service in Covington. "But I am a write-in candidate, so if people want to vote for me, they'll have to write my name in."

The only local races on the ballot this year are for special elections.

Arlinghaus-Clem said she should have been told by Mayor Clare Moriconi or other city officials that she had to file for this year's race in August. And she suggests the mayor may have had a political agenda in not telling her to file.

"I've come in and asked a lot of questions about how we do things in the city," Arlinghaus-Clem said. "The mayor wants to keep her majority rule on council."

Moriconi said Monday she does not get involved in city council races.

"I don't even put council people's (campaign) signs in my yard," Moriconi said. "I'm not supporting either one of them."

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E-mail pcrowley@enquirer.com