The Enquirer

The Republicans must think Bengals fans represent a key block of swing voters.

First, the Bush campaign snagged Hall of Fame tackle Anthony Munoz as the Southwestern Ohio campaign chairman after Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen was forced to step down in a sex scandal.

"I want to thank Anthony Munoz, mi amigo," President Bush said Friday in Portsmouth. "Anthony is a great guy. He's helping me in the campaign. He's helping to invigorate the grass roots."

ELECTIONS CALENDAR

Today • Todd Portune for Hamilton County Commissioner neighborhood campaign kick-off party, 20th Century Theater, Oakley, 4 p.m. Monday • Cate Edwards, daughter of Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards, to meet with College Democrats at Xavier University, 1:45 p.m. • Deadline for Ohio write-in candidates, Board of Elections, 4 p.m. Tuesday • U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow speaks to the Ohio Association of Realtors, Cinergy Convention Center, downtown, 8 a.m. • Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry to visit Toledo. • Hamilton County Commissioner candidate forum, sponsored by Bellarmine Chapel, Calvary Missionary Baptist Church and the Amos Project, Purcell Marian High School, Walnut Hills, 7 p.m. Wednesday • Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards begins a two-day bus tour through southern Ohio, visiting Athens and Portsmouth. • ''Rock the Vote" rally, Xavier University, Evanston. Thursday • State lawmaker forum sponsored by the Woman's City Club of Greater Cincinnati, at the Xavier University Cintas Center, Evanston, 7 p.m. Saturday • Ohio Democratic party state convention, Columbus. Sept. 28 • First day of absentee voting. Oct. 4 • Voter registration deadline. Oct. 5 • Vice presidential debate, Cleveland. Oct. 15 • Hamilton County commissioner candidate forum sponsored by Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, Hyatt Regency, downtown, noon. Nov. 2 • Election Day. Dec. 13 • Ohio Electoral College meets in Columbus, noon. E-mail announcements of forums, debates and other political events to gkorte@enquirer.com

(Munoz's own explanation of how he came to be regional chairman - "I got a call last week" - drew giggles Thursday from a Republican crowd that could only imagine the rest of the conversation.)

Then on Wednesday, the Bushies pounced on the Kerry campaign for an alleged gaffe during John Kerry's speech at Union Terminal, where the Kerry campaign distributed a press release to the national press corps. The headline: "Cincinnati Bungles: Bush Misled U.S. Into War Based on False Evidence, Says Kerry Campaign."

The Bush campaign's Ohio press secretary, Aaron McLear, responded with half his tongue in cheek: "As a Bengals fan, I am personally offended that the Kerry campaign would not only trivialize the war by equating the president's stance on it to a football team, but would resurrect the negative nomenclature of the resurgent Bengals. This is another example of John Kerry being out of touch with Ohioans. I wonder how many other proud Bengals fans will be put off by his use of the term 'Bungles.' The Cincinnati Bengals and their fans deserve better."

Whatever his politics, McLear knows something about being a football fan. As a student at Ohio State University, he worked as the mascot Brutus Buckeye.

HOMECOMING: Vice President Dick Cheney never lived in Cincinnati, but he did note that he served on the board of Procter & Gamble for seven years, from 1993 to 2000. "It's a little like coming home, I guess," he said in some small talk with the Enquirer's editorial board last week.

At a town hall meeting Thursday, wife Lynne Cheney was more effusive, calling Cincinnati "a most beautiful city."

"Isn't it called 'the Queen of the Cities?' " she said. "It's a very apt title."

FACES IN THE CROWD: The 600 Democrats who got invitations to Kerry's speech on Iraq at Union Terminal is an exclusive enough crowd, but the oh-so-important list of people in the front row demonstrates who has the real clout in the local Kerry campaign.

The list: Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken, Vice Mayor Alicia Reece, fund-raisers Allan and Jennie Berliant, longtime civil rights activists Donald and Marian Spencer, Kerry law school chum Ronna Greff Schneider and husband John, school board member Harriet Russell and state Rep. Tyrone Yates.

WHISTLE STOP: Bush and Kerry, with their dueling speeches on Iraq there two years apart, aren't the first presidential candidates to visit Union Terminal. But they are the first to attempt to tame its terrible acoustics.

From its completion in 1933 to the dawn of jet travel, almost every president or would-be president came to Cincinnati through Union Terminal: Wendell Willkie, Franklin Roosevelt, Thomas Dewey, Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower. But most of them spoke at nearby Music Hall, which was built for sound.

Truman came through the train station five times, and is the only other president to speak there - giving a two-minute speech two days after his election in 1948. But that was from his railroad car at the platform, not in the echoes of the rotunda.

Then again, the acoustics have been made irrelevant by another feature of the modern campaign. The true audience for the Bush and Kerry speeches on Iraq wasn't the 600 or 800 people at Union Terminal who could barely hear it - but the millions who might see them on television.

Regulations vary on campaign signs

It's after Labor Day and you have a yard sign supporting your favorite candidate for office.

But that doesn't necessarily mean you can put it up yet.

Sign ordinances vary from place to place. Cincinnati and Delhi Township have the most liberal sign ordinances in the region, allowing political signs 90 days before an election.

But in some places, it's still illegal to put up signs. Those limits in Hamilton County:

• 45 days (Sept. 18): Blue Ash, Colerain Township, Montgomery, Norwood, Wyoming.

• 32 days (Oct. 1): Greenhills.

• 30 days (Oct. 3): Arlington Heights, Golf Manor, Harrison, Lockland, Sharonville, Symmes Township.

• 28 days (Oct. 5): Amberley Village.

Localities not listed either have no sign ordinance, or the time restriction has already passed.

Special cases: Evendale, which limits the display of signs to 15 days in any calendar month, and Forest Park, where the ordinance is being challenged in a federal lawsuit.

Restrictions on the size of signs also vary, and most places require signs to be taken down one to 10 days after an election.

For more information, call your local zoning office or political party.

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E-mail gkorte@enquirer.com