By Howard Wilkinson
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Jim Tarbell (left), the No. 3 vote-getter, and David Pepper, the top vote-getter, confer during the City Council session Wednesday. (Glenn Hartong photo) | ZOOM |

A thoroughbred horse that makes the turns flawlessly but pulls up in the stretch doesn't win many races.

Neither does a Cincinnati City Council candidate who rolls up big numbers in some parts of the city but stumbles in others.

Ask the two newest members of city council. Charterite Christopher Smitherman and Republican Sam Malone left the jaws of the city's political establishment on the floor Tuesday by running seventh and eighth, respectively.

Smitherman and Malone, both African-Americans, won their seats because they understood the fundamental truth of Cincinnati City Council politics: A candidate has to run strongly in every corner of the city.

"It's just a simple fact that you have to have broad appeal to break through and win," said Gene Beaupre, a political science instructor at Xavier University.

If Cincinnati had a district election system, there is little doubt that two candidates whom many expected to win - Republican incumbent Chris Monzel and Damon Lynch III, the Baptist pastor who has led the Black United Front's boycott of downtown Cincinnati - could win a seat.

Monzel is a favorite of white, conservative voters on the city's west side; Lynch has enormous popularity among blacks who make up about 37 percent of the city's voting population.

But Monzel and Lynch lost because neither seemed to be able to move beyond his core voters.

"I don't know of anybody who could depend on one part of the city to win," said Thomas A. Luken, the former congressman, mayor and councilman who is in his sixth decade of watching Cincinnati politics. "It's a big place. You have to go everywhere."

Malone and Smitherman finished in the top nine in 18 of the city's 26 wards. Lynch was not far behind, finishing in the top nine in 17 wards. But his performance in most of the city's predominantly white, conservative and Republican-leaning wards was weak.

In Mount Washington, one of the city's largest predominantly white wards, only about eight of every 100 voters who went to the polls gave a vote to Lynch. Malone, in the same ward, had 41 out of every 100 voters.

In the predominantly white, Republican west side, the news wasn't much better for Lynch - he ran 17th in Westwood and 18th in Ward 25, which includes West Price Hill and Covedale.

Still, Lynch came close, only 949 votes behind the ninth-place finisher, Democratic incumbent David Crowley.

Lynch and Monzel are polar opposites politically, but, they both suffered from the same problem - they couldn't get much beyond their base of support.

In the city's predominantly black wards, only eight to 10 of every 100 voters cast a vote for Monzel.

In Monzel's case, it may have been the message his campaign delivered - or the lack of a message, to be precise - that made the difference.

The Monzel campaign ran a campaign commercial that was similar to one he ran two years ago when he was a relative unknown. In the TV spot Monzel was relaxing at home, playing with his kids and being a "regular guy."

"He went the warm-and-fuzzy route again and people had already seen it," said Beaupre. "He needed something substantive that said, 'This is who I am, and this is what I will do.' "

Smitherman introduced himself during the campaign to voters but also stressed a message of racial conciliation.

Malone had one 15-second TV spot in which the black Republican looked at the camera and stated his opposition to the economic boycott that Lynch has led. It was aimed straight at those west side, white, conservative voters that Malone needed, and it apparently hit the mark.

"I had a message I wanted to get out to people who might otherwise not consider me," Malone said. "I believe I got through."

Reporter John Byczkowski contributed. Email hwilkinson@enquirer.com