Cincinnati City Council Election September 2023 Update

Tumble weeds are traveling across the pollical landscape in the 2023 Cincinnati City Council race. There is nearly no campaigning going on. With only ten candidates that is not a surprise. Audricia Brooks did not, after final review by the Hamilton County Board of Elections, have enough signatures on her petitions. That leaves only endorsed candidates running, with only one non incumbent. The race is down to two questions:

1. Will Liz Keating get a support boost and finish higher and safer in the race, or will she be back competing for last place again like she did in 2021.
2. Will Albi or Walsh fair better than any of the seven previously elected candidates?

At this point, I would say with the expected high turnout amongst Democrats in November for the various ballot issues, I see Liz Keating's prospects of pushing higher up the rankings to be low.  That means to me the only action will be for the last two spots among Keating, Wasl, or Albi.  Those three need to campaigning.  Keating has a funding advantage and if she targets Republicans and Moderates, she might have enough to defeat the Democratic Party Lists.

With no big change possible on City Council, this means that only about a couple dozen people will be paying much attention to the council race.  The other ballot issues will take all of the media attention, so other then election night, I don't think much more will be published, unless a candidate tries to gain attention by creating controversy.

There is nothing wrong with a quiet election.  I think it is actually quite refreshing. There is a chance that these ten candidates could wage a full on retail election, with direct door to door or event connection.

The City, County and State ballot issues will be drawing the attention and generating the turnout, so the political parties will be spending there and not on the City Council race.  I fully expect all statewide issues to be nasty campaigns. The religious right is not against lying and cheating, so I expect we shall see a lot of that. I dread the lies, but that is politics now, especially those out to influence the ignorant. The electorate is made up of so much ignorance that it can be far too exploited.  It is what will doom Democracy.

Candidates

Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney (D)*‡
Reggie Harris (D)*‡
Meeka Owens (D)*‡
Victoria Parks (D)*‡
Jeff Cramerding (D)*‡
Mark Jeffreys (D)*‡
Scotty Johnson (D)*‡
Liz Keating (R,C)*‡
Seth Walsh (D)*‡
Anna Albi (D)‡

Candidate Twitter List: I have created a list of candidates on Twitter. Here is the actual list Twitter handles for the candidates. This list may not last as Twitter turns into a chaotic mess and not a valued website. A future update to the Blog may be a either a separate page with additional links to social media of the candidates or an update to the listing above. Stay tuned for that.

As always:  If anyone has any other names please send them my way (editor@cincyblog.com) or if anyone named above wants to confirm they are not running, I'll remove them future postings of this list. If there are other social media or full websites I don't list, send them along as well.

The party designations at this time are what I've seen reported or what I've determined based on my observations. These notations do not mean the candidate is endorsed by any political party or group. Once official endorsements are made, these references will be updated to reflect the endorsements. 

Key
* = Incumbent
‡ = On Ballot
D= Democratic Party
R= Republican Party
C= Charter Committee (aka Charter Party)
G= Green Party

DSA= Democratic Socialists of America
I= Independent
?= I am speculating based on my reading of the information and observations available to me or unsure.