Cincinnati City Council Election: July 2025 Update

In the Summer my motivation to write about politics does not normally find a good footing. I was not sure that I was going to even write an update for July. This month made something clear to me. I have been observing and writing about Cincinnati Politics for a long time, over twenty years. There are not many politicians that I find more repulsive than Steve Goodin. I mean there are far worse human beings that has been involved in Cincinnati Politics than Goodin, but as far as being a Politician, Goodin is amongst the most dastardly I have seen run. Give him a mustache he could twirl and he would personify the cartoon character Dick Dastardly.

As I have commented before, the Charter Committee is dead and Goodin, like a straight-to-video Dr. Frankenstein, has hooked up the remains of Charter to the battery of a rusty 1988 Chevy Cavalier with GOP stenciled on the side. What has been reborn is the Charter Party and it is just recycled Republicanism. Steve must be nostalgic for the 20th Century Republican Party as he leads his party down the tropes that harken back to second and third wave white flight. Over the weekend videos of an incident outside of a club drew national attention amongst Republicans, Conservative media, and local news outlets looking for clickbait. This manufactured outrage is what I consider a modern day lynch mob. Republicans perceive black on white crime and Vance's half brother needs better fundraising from the fascist crowd and we get viral bullshit. Charter Party's Facebook page was quick to post on it:

This reads like Republican anti-City dogma from 2001. I would have expected suburbanites like Chris Monzel,  Pat DeWine, Brad Wenstrup, any one of hacks from COAST, or talk radio circus clown Willie Cunningham to push this type of crap, not Charter.  This tripe is disgusting.  There is no transparency to it, it is just Goodin pulling out the typical Republican anti-city dogma.  Fearing Downtown because black people live there is the undertone.  He'll scream bloody murder for me pointing out the obvious, but that is what has driven the attention to this crime, racism. That is why it got national attention: White people were perceived to have been hurt by black people.  Republicans from all over the Suburban and Exurban and Rural parts of  the metro area jumped on the story - after been lead there by the Conservative news media the racially charged algorithms. 

Who saw the opportunity to ride wave of negative publicity? Republican Steve Goodin took hold and lead his new Charter Party into the Republican cave of racial tropes.  It must be 1994 or 2001 in Steve's mind. More cops is the answer that rings out from scared suburban Local TV news watchers who can't tell where a crime story took place, but when it says Local 12 on the Facebook account they assume the headline they read is local.

Charter Committee didn't run campaigns based on fear of the City. That is what Republicans have been doing for at least 50 years. That is what Goodin is doing and will drag down the other Charter candidates.

Goodin should also be questioned on the bad ethical position he created. All Spring he has been running Charter like a Republican political clone of NIMBY fanatics and "then suddenly" chose to run for City Council himself. He had control over a political party, using its resources to build up himself, and then runs for office, presumably still leading the party.  How will being in charge of Party work with the four other candidates that he will be competing with? Who controls the Party money? Seems like a HUGE conflict of interest.  No one can ethically lead/run the party and be its candidate at the same time. It is wrong and he should remove himself from a leadership position, immediately.  He's brought in enough other Republicans to take over that he shouldn't even after worry about the old Charter Committee and its dignity coming back.

I think Goodin hopes to use the other four candidates to build himself up and thinks he can sneak on council like Liz Keating managed in 2021. He forgets that Michelle Dillingham and the internal Dem displeasure of many progressives that she did not get a Dem endorsement (A wise choice by the Dems) is what got Keating elected.  There is little likelihood of a repeat of that sentiment, no matter how much a few might claim otherwise. 

Just two years ago he ran for county wide office as a blood thirsty Republican. He ran a negative campaign and lost big time. He ran as a full throated Conservative post January 6th, 2021 ballot identified Republican.  Goodin is member of the Party of Trump. He has not as far as I know EVER denounced or even publicly criticized Trump. Until he does so the only conclusion to make is that he is a Trump supporter, like any good stooge Republican would be.

The bait and switch in this election will come after Goodin gets on the ballot (assuming he gets it done) and then the Hamilton County Republican Party cross endorses him and he can get the big Republican Chris Bortz Indian Hill money. Bortz has become a big donor to Trumpist Republicans.  I don't know when Bortz went over to the fascists, but he jumped in with big money donations, willingly, as he maxed out on the Primary to Vance's half brother in the mayor's race.

So, if you are someone out there who used to like the Charter Committee, remember, that Charter is dead.  Charter Party is what is here now it is a Republican NIMBY clone that goes against nearly everything Charter used to stand for.

On a side note: Steve also went to the length of blocking my Cincinnati Blog Facebook page from viewing the Charter Facebook page. I've been blocked by people before and I block people as well, for cause.  This blog post is the most critical I've been on Goodin and Charter to date. I don't get why he would do that, but it fairly petty and pointless to block me. I guess he does not like critical comments and didn't want to keep having to delete mine. Oh, well, Charter Party is no longer about Transparency, so why bother being open to the public at all?

Next month petitions are due.  There is still not much to shake up the race. Charter Party is so late to the game. They do not have strong candidates and Charter has a weak organization.  I guess they could try and get Republicans to support them, but the other four Charter Party candidates are not big in Republican circles.  I think Republican Party might endorse one or two more, beyond Goodin, but they will not be strong candidates at all.

By the end of August the candidates who will be on the ballot should be set. I hope the circus from this weekend got as much of that nonsense out of the election's system. The local news media should be embarrassed by giving it as much attention as it did, but tabloid clickbait is number one choice of local news.  

Here are the current listing of candidates.  22 or 23 candidates would be a likely number to get on the ballot. Any one else who gets on are set up to be more also ran candidates.

Democratic Endorsees
Anna Albi (D)‡
Jeff Cramerding (D)‡
Mark Jeffreys (D)‡
Scotty Johnson (D)‡
Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney (D)‡
Meeka Owens (D)‡
Seth Walsh (D)‡
Ryan James (D)‡
Evan Nolan (D)‡

Other Candidates with Organized Campaigns
Laketa Cole (C)‡
Donald Driehaus (C)
Steven Goodin (R,C)
Dawn Johnson (C)
Sol Kersey (DSA)
Raffel Prophett (D)‡
Aaron Weiner (C)‡

Other Candidates with Prior History or on the Ballot

Audricia Brooks (I)‡
Thomas Chandler (R)
Jerry Corbett (I)‡
Kevin Farmer (R)‡
Gary Favors (R) ‡
Linda Matthews (R)
William Moore (I)
Michael Patton (R)
Donald Washington (I)‡

Took Out Petitions (Running?)

Sheila Andrews (I)
LeTecia Cunningham (I)
Autumn Hall (I)
Ryan Holbrook (I)
Travis Johnson (I)
John Maher (I)
Ned Measel (I)
Brandon Nixon (R)
Benjamin Press (I)
Stephan Pryor (I)
Tyrone Roberson (I)
Bart Rosenberg (I)
Gwen Summers (I)
Quentin Taylor (I)
Ozie Davis III (I)
Dale Mallory (I)


Sharetha Collier (I) is also listed as having taken out petitions, but the address listed is in Woodlawn, outside of the City Limits. Additionally the person who has been registered to vote with the same name/address is no longer listed under that name on Hamilton County's voter registration list I have as July 19,2025. I will monitor the list to see if anything changes.

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 from 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 (Petitions Sufficient)
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.