The Cinci mayoral campaign is picking up as election day is this week. I was quite nervous because I didn't know who to vote for. David Pepper has an awful lot of TV ads, and while I know he is a democrat, he just seems so...white. I get the feeling from his ads that he hates downtown Cinci, and I even noticed a nearby block on his TV ad about shutting down crack-houses. I guess I just get a bad vibe from him.

Charlie Winburn is black, but his tv ads are so bad that I don't want to vote for him on that principle alone. They don't make any sense. In fact, one of his ads says this (verbatem): It seems like every community has a bullet with its name on it, and city officals are helpless in stopping crime. Once Charlie Winburn is elected the only thing criminals will shoot off is their mouths, behind bars. Whaaaa? Then there is another, where he says that he has a lot invested in Cincinnati because it is where he met his wife, and he has had to "fight for a place at the table." Whaaa? These make no sense. When I learned he was a Republican, and a Minister, it all began to make sense.

I saw one ad for Alicia Reece, and she seemed very promising. She is currently the Vice-Mayor of Cincinnati and has been on city council for a while. I haven't really seen much about her, other than the one ad, and everything else I hear is really bad. Seems like she is getting elected because of the family name (family of career politicians). I have to take these with a grain of salt though, because Cinci is a very racist and sexist city from what I have heard, so who knows if she is just being criticized because she is a powerful and successful black woman.

I thought that was it for candidates until I watched a local news show this morning that had a panel with all the major party candidates and that included Mark Mallory. He is currently a state senator, and the Assistant Minority Leader for the Democratic Party in the Senate. During this debate he kept out of the bickering the other three were engaged in, kept out of the blame game, and kept a level head. Perhaps that is because his experience is on the state level, and not the drama of city politics, but I am excited to vote for him.