Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell likes retired Judge David Grossmann in the "other" race for Hamilton County commissioner, and he's telling voters so in a new TV ad.

Another Cincinnatian gone statewide - Ohio Treasurer Joe Deters - also is endorsing Grossmann, as is state Rep. Bill Seitz of Green Township.

The commercial is Grossmann's third. He's positioning himself as a social and fiscal conservative and as the only one of the five candidates who has previously won countywide office.

The other top candidate for the GOP nomination, Chris Monzel, has run a chiefly grass-roots campaign after $120,000 in TV spots last fall failed to get him re-elected to Cincinnati City Council. However, Tuesday he began airing commercials that feature his anti-tax message as well as a couple of county residents who support him.

Blue Ash Councilman Jim Sumner, who has been in the race the longest, locked up key local endorsements early from the likes of Prosecutor Mike Allen and Sheriff Simon Leis. He doesn't have the money to tout them on TV, however.

The other two candidates competing for the chance to challenge Democratic incumbent Todd Portune in November are Anderson Township Trustee Russ Jackson and financial planner Sandra Hall.

Cindi Andrews

RISING UP: GOP precinct executives in many Hamilton County communities have given their blessing to incumbent John Dowlin in the second, more high-profile commissioner primary.

Suburban precinct leaders met in three groups to endorse Dowlin after county GOP Chairman Michael Barrett declined to choose between him and Republican challenger Pat DeWine.

"The people are rising up against downtown," said Seitz, an ardent Dowlin supporter.

The winner will face either Lincoln Heights activist Kabaka Oba or Erich Streckfuss, a University of Cincinnati student, who are running for the Democratic nomination.

Cindi Andrews

HOSPITAL COMPETITION: Who will win the race to build the first hospital along Interstate 75: Middletown Regional Hospital or UC Physicians?

A decision by UC Physicians to build a 200-bed facility along I-75 in West Chester Township, just north of Tylersville Road, could be made by September, a spokesman says.

The announcement would coincide with the September opening of UC Physicians' eight-bed, one-story, short-stay surgical hospital on the group's 75 acres off Cox Road.

"From day one we have said our site plan has space for a community hospital at University Pointe," says John Gillespie, UC Physicians marketing director. "We absolutely want to put a full community hospital (there)."

Three exits up the highway, Middletown Regional Hospital plans to break ground next year on a hospital, cancer center and office building just east of the Ohio 122 exit. The hospital is expected to open before April 2008.

John Kiesewetter