Council Race

Alright, yet another post.

98.50% of City precincts have reported. I'm not sure the last 1.5 percent will change the running order much. If not, the order of finish is:

Qualls

Thomas

Bortz

Berding

Ghiz

Monzel

Cole

Winburn

Quinlivan.

Greg Harris is in 10th place, a full .7% behind Quinlivan.

This Council is going to present a much greater challenge for Mayor Mallory with respect to building a governing coalition. I'm not sure that I see either Winburn or Quinlivan being consistent party-line voters.

Mayor's Race: Mallory Wins

Ok. One more post. If you didn't see it on WCPO: Brad Wenstrup has conceded the race to Mayor Mallory. We should thank Wenstrup for being willing to serve his community, even if he was ultimately rebuffed by the voters.

And congratulations to Mayor Mark Mallory. I voted for him last time, and did so again this time. His first job will be to rebuild a fractured Council. But his talents may be uniquely suited to doing just that. Time will tell.

This Doesn't Mean "Yes" On Streetcars

Issue 9 is clearly going to fail. But I'd better not hear streetcar supporters tell me this means Cincinnatians favor streetcars.

You told us that Issue 9 was about more than streetcars. It was about all passenger rail. And even more broadly, it was about our form of government. We're supposed to, you told us, trust our elected officials to make these decisions.

I remain relatively ambivalent about the streetcar. I thought Issue 9 represented bad government and voted against it accordingly. But don't tell me my vote translates to approval of a streetcar.

No on Nine Winning Big!

The votes are almost all in, and I think Issue Nine will fail! A last
minute prediction.

Live-Blogging Results

I'm in the office late tonight, so I'll be live-blogging election results as they're available from the BOE. I will continue to update this post as the night goes on; feel free to use this as a comment thread, as well.

8:10 PM: HamCo BOE has released some results. 0 precincts reporting, but constitutes 6% of registered voters. Must be absentees.

• Issue 9: losing, 51.72-48.25. Too close to call.
• Issue 8: Passing, 65-35.
• Mayor: Wenstrup and Mallory in a dead heat.
• Council: VERY early results: Harris losing, all other incumbents winning, plus Winburn and Quinlivan.

10:25: Still holding at about 10% of precincts city-wide, 5% county-wide.

• Mayor: Mallory, 56-43. Expect this lead to grow through the night.
• Council: Harris is first out, but only by .01%. Cole is in ninth. Winburn and Quinlivan in 7th and 8th, respectively. Twenty-five percent of all council ballots cast thus far have under-votes.
• County-wide levies are all winning by a healthy margin, except Issue 4, which is losing 51-49. It'll be close, but I expect it'll pass.
• The Cincinnati school levee also passing, 55-45.

10:30: Finally, updated results. 16% of precincts county-wide, 23 % city-wide.

• Mayor: The race tightens again. Wenstrup with a narrow lead now.
• Council: Holding as before. Qualls doing extremely well.
• School board: Looks like Bates, Cooper-Reed, Ingram, and White. Haap lagging well behind in 11th, beating only Curtis Wells.
• All county-wide levies are now passing.
• Issue 9 is failing, 54 to 46.

Honestly, folks, I don't know what to make of the mayor's race. I don't know what precincts have reported in, but the fact that Issue 9 is now being soundly defeated and the mayor's race is this tight is leaving me perplexed.

10:40: More results. 55% of city precincts; 35% county-wide.

• Mayor: Mallory back to a ten-point lead. I'm really curious now as to which precincts the last batch of votes came from.
• Council: These votes are from heavily Democratic wards. Cole's up to 5th, Quinlivan to 5th. Ghiz would be last on: Watson first out; Harris in 10th.
• All county-wide levies passing. School board levy passing.
• Issue 9 failing, 56-44.

11:10: 78% of city precincts.

• Mayor: Still Mallory, but a little tighter: 53-46.
• Council: Order: Qualls Thomas Bortz Berding Ghiz Monzel Winburn Quinlivan. Harris in 10th, down by .5%, which is looking like a lot right now.
• Issue 9 being handily defeated, 56 - 49.
• All county and the Cincinnati school levies are passing.

At this point, you've got the news outlets covering the races. I've got an early morning and am headed to bed. Look for some analysis from Griff and me tomorrow.

Some Random Election Thoughts

As Election Day winds down, I had a few thoughts to share.

First, I hope Greg Harris retains his seat. Conventional wisdom holds that as an appointee, he is the most vulnerable of the incumbent Council members (though I suspect it may be a long night for Jeff Berding), but Harris was the only candidate to offer a specific path forward to closing the looming budget gap. His approach to police and firefighter concessions--pay cuts (but no layoffs) next year that would be restored in 2011 and 2012--is a long-term approach that should be acceptable to the unions. I don't agree with Harris on everything (and particularly not on his stance on "environmental justice"), but he is thoughtful and overall, an asset on City Council.

Second, I hope County voters see the merit in Issue 4 and approve it. The levy--the former Drake levy--funds the Drug Court and other important programs that provide avenues to rehabilitation and re-entry. Drug addiction is a problem that nearly anyone, given the right circumstances, could be susceptible to. I can't tell you how many people I've represented for unlawfully possessing prescription drugs whose addiction started with a legal prescription following an injury of some sort. And even street drugs can afflict nearly anyone. (Have Cincinnatians really forgotten Josh Hamilton already?)

Finally, I'm hoping we can have a reprieve of the current hyper-political climate, at least for a few months, before it's time for the 2010 campaigns to begin in earnest.

Congratulations, New Lawyers

This past Friday, the Ohio Supreme Court announced that 957 applicants achieved passing scores on the July 2009 bar exam. They will be sworn in during public ceremonies in Columbus on November 9. The state's passage rate was 81.3 percent overall, and 87.8 percent for first-time test-takers.

Locally, University of Cincinnati graduates had an 89 percent pass rate overall (first among the nine Ohio law schools), and 91% (third) for first-time test-takers. Dayton's overall bar pass rate was 78 percent, with 82 percent of first-timers passing. NKU (Chase) grads passed at rates of 73 percent overall and 84 percent for first-timers.

Congratulations to all the newly-minted attorneys. Please immediately remit your registration fee to the Supreme Court.