Friday, October 23, 1998BY LUCY MAY and HOWARD WILKINSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
State Rep. Mark Mallory has raised more money than incumbent Republican Janet Howard has been able to raise on her own in the 9th District Ohio Senate race.
But the Howard campaign has gotten an enormous boost from the GOP leadership in Columbus.
The Ohio Republican Party and the Republican Senate Campaign Committee -- controlled by Senate President Richard Finan of Evendale -- has spent $173,023 for TV advertising for Mrs. Howard, who is considered one of the most vulnerable GOP state senators.
Mrs. Howard's campaign committee had raised $61,666, compared with $189,515 for Mr. Mallory, who four years ago took over the Cincinnati district seat his father, William Mallory, had held for nearly a quarter century.
The district includes much of the eastern half of Cincinnati and many of the city's northern suburbs.
The campaign finance reports filed Thursday with the Hamilton County Board of Elections include contributions through Oct. 14.
In other contests:
The coalition of sports and entertainment groups pushing to cap Cincinnati's ticket tax at 3 percent has raised more than $108,000 toward passage of Issue 12.
The group has no clear opposition. Major contributors include Hart Productions, which contributed $10,000; the Broadway Series, based in Louisville, which gave $20,000; Nederlander Cincinnati, which gave $20,000; and the Cincinnati Bengals, which gave $5,000. Campaign manager Aaron Herzig said the campaign will spend much of its money on TV and radio advertising with a "strong grass-roots effort" toward the end of the campaign.
In addition to the big-ticket contributors, the group had many contributors who gave only $1. "We were proud to have at least 200 contributors before the Oct. 14 deadline," he said.
Hamilton County Commissioner Tom Neyer Jr. reported raising nearly four times as much money as his Democratic challenger, Marilyn Hyland.
The Neyer campaign reported raising nearly $122,000, compared with Ms. Hyland's $32,550. Ms. Hyland's campaign did not file a report Thursday but provided fund-raising totals for reporters.
The group behind building a new Reds ballpark at Broadway Commons reported raising about $78,000.
The group's biggest single contribution came from the Over-the-Rhine Chamber of Commerce, which gave $10,000. The group also got $5,000 from Debra Chavez, whose husband's company owns much of the land that would be needed for the site, and $5,000 from Peter Guggenheim, one of Robert Chavez's associates.
The Broadway group is pushing a "yes" vote on Issue 11, which would create a county charter requiring any new Reds ballpark be built at Broadway and Reading Road downtown.
The pro-riverfront Move Greater Cincinnati Forward campaign, which is urging a "no" vote on Issue 11, reported raising $88,500. Its biggest single contribution was $50,000 from the Reds.
In the Hamilton County auditor's race, Democratic incumbent Dusty Rhodes' campaign reported raising nearly $99,000.
Mary Anne Christie, his Republican challenger, reported a total of nearly $74,000.
In the race for a seat on Ohio's 1st District Court of Appeals, Incumbent Judge Marianna Brown Bettman reported raising $133,000. Republican challenger Ralph Winkler -- now a common pleas judge -- has raised $121,170.
Republican Thomas Lipps, appointed earlier this year to a juvenile court judgeship, has raised $60,851 for his bid to keep the seat. Challenger John H. Burlew, a Republican lawyer running as an independent, has raised $30,780.
In the race for a seat on the Domestic Relations bench, incumbent Judge Deborah K. Gaines, a Democrat, has raised about $15,000. Republican challenger Susan Laker Tolbert, an assistant prosecutor in the Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office, has raised about $104,000.
In the fight over whether to keep the village of Cleves on the map, the group pushing to dissolve the village has raised more than $4,252. The group fighting to preserve it has raised $1,985.
