By Gregory Korte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The campaign commercials are running wall-to-wall, the $1,000 contribution checks have been cashed, and the three dozen neighborhood candidates' nights have merged into one indistinguishable memory of church basements and over-rehearsed stump speeches.

For Cincinnati City Council candidates, Election Day 2003 is less than 24 hours away.

ELECTION COVERAGE IN TODAY'S ENQUIRER

• Chasing young voters: An untapped gold mine • Student volunteers get full exposure to campaign • Council campaign enters last lap • Council hopefuls waver on tax breaks • 'Overvoting' can be spoiler • About voting in Tuesday's election • Cincinnati.Com election coverage

In one last, hectic weekend of campaigning, Democratic, Republican and Charterite council campaigns crisscrossed the city, dropping so much literature on local front porches that, if put all together, would warrant an illegal dumping fine.

As with any election, the strategy now turns on turnout.

Republicans, in the minority since 1971 and fielding a slate of nine candidates for the first time in a decade, say they feel a breeze blowing their way.

"I think our strategy is working," said Hamilton County GOP chairman Michael Barrett at a Saturday morning campaign rally in Camp Washington.

"The nonincumbent Democrats are nonexistent, and no one's talking about the Charterites," he said. "We have a good shot of knocking off some Democrats, and I really see that happening."

Republican campaigns fanned out across the city's top 25 Republican precincts Saturday, dropping literature that once again exploits the Empire Theatre scandal.

"Democrats wasted $184,172 on the old Empire Theatre. And what do city taxpayers have to show for it? Don't let Democrats do this to your neighborhood," the full-color flier says.

Republicans are hoping that voters will give them a chance to set the agenda after 32 years of Democratic majorities.

"We've had riots, population loss and jobs leaving the city like a sieve," Republican Chris Monzel said.

On the Democratic side, former Mayor Jerry Springer uses a similar argument to bolster Democratic turnout.

"Let's face it," Springer says in a get-out-the-vote radio ad. "Right now, Republicans control virtually every level of our government. ... The Democrats in City Hall are our last line of defense for the things that you and I believe in, like civil rights, equal justice and the rights of working people."

Charterites, too, are not above using celebrity ads to get out the vote.

Basketball Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson endorses Christopher Smitherman in a radio ad that emphasizes the importance of voting for the candidate, not the party.

"Like sports, City Council works best with teamwork," Robertson says. "Don't just vote down party lines."

At a candidates breakfast at the Greater New Hope Missionary Baptist Church in Avondale Saturday morning, independent Damon Lynch III was the star of the show.

Even Democrat Samuel T. Britton, one of just two Democratic challengers in the race, threw his support behind the Over-the-Rhine pastor. Britton introduced Lynch as "the next member of council."

Lynch, a leader of the Cincinnati Black United Front, attacked Republican Sam Malone, who has tried to get candidates to sign a pledge that they will renounce the boycott. Only a few Republicans have signed it.

"Sam Malone is confused," Lynch said. "The problem with Sam Malone is that he doesn't have the historical context, and doesn't have the strength to buck his own party."

Lynch gave a short speech on the boycott, corporate subsidies and poverty - and then left early to flip a coin at an East Walnut Hills Peewee football game.

The breakfast, organized for 26 years by 69-year-old Evanston activist Pinkie L. Williams, is a required stop for any candidate making an honest effort to pick up African-American votes.

"I don't know where all the candidates were, but the people were here," Williams said.

---

E-mail gkorte@enquirer.com