Saturday, December 11, 1999
Council candidates spent record $2.5M
BY HOWARD WILKINSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
This year's field of Cincinnati City Council candidates shattered a 4-year-old record by spending $2.5 million, with Republican Phil Heimlich becoming the first candidate to spend a half million dollars for a council seat.
Finance reports filed Friday with the Hamilton County Board of Elections showed that the 20 candidates spent $2,498,070 in this fall's council campaign, easily breaking the $2.32 million mark another 20-candidate field spent in 1995.
Mr. Heimlich, who finished fourth, broke the record for individual spending he set in 1997 by spending $504,176 this time around.
The Republican declined to explain his record-breaking spending beyond saying “TV is expensive.”
“I don't want to dissect the campaign; I really want to focus on the next two years,” Mr. Heimlich said.
Republican Pat DeWine, a first-time candidate and son of U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, was
the second-largest spender, with $363,176. He finished sixth, just behind Democratic first-time candidate Alicia Reece, whose surprising win cost only $65,180.
The explosion in campaign spending this year, which comes after a 1997 campaign in which contribution limits were in place and overall spending dipped, has campaign finance reform advocates in Cincinnati wondering what will happen two years from now, when there are separate elections for mayor and council.
“If someone is willing to spend a half million dollars to win a council seat, there's no telling how much candidates will be willing to spend in a mayor's race,” said Dell Heitkamp of the League of Women Voters and an activist in Cincinnati's campaign finance reform movement.
The first direct election of a mayor with greatly enhanced powers will occur in 2001. The new mayor will serve four years; council members will still be elected to two-year terms. Under the current system, the top vote-getter in the council race becomes mayor.
Those who favored the new method argued that separating the mayor's race from the council race will likely lead to less costly council campaigns.
“It's hard to tell if that will be true,” Ms. Heitkamp said. “But I think you can say that it is going to cost an awful lot of money to be elected mayor.”
The Democrat who was elected mayor last month, Charlie Luken, ranked fifth among the council campaign spenders this year with $184,343 — far less than other council candidates who were clearly aiming for the top spot, such as Democrat Todd Portune ($243,862), Republican Charles Winburn ($288,152) and Mr. Heimlich.
It was assumed that Mr. Luken, who was mayor in the 1980s and spent the last six years as a TV news anchor, would not have to spend as much as the others.
Mr. Portune said Friday he is convinced that the overall jump in spending in the 1999 election cycle portends even more spending in 2001.
“I think you could easily see a million-dollar campaign for mayor two years from now,” said Mr. Portune, who sponsored the campaign contribution limits law that was in effect two years ago. Courts overturned the law, ruling it was unconstitutional and an abridgement of First Amendment rights.
The jump in spending this year can be attributed in part to the fact that the campaign contribution limits that were in effect in 1997 — $1,000 from individuals, $2,500 from political action committees (PACs) — were lifted by council just in time for the 1999 campaign season.
The result was a set of campaign finance reports that showed numerous five-figure contributions from business and labor PACs and wealthy individuals.
Democratic candidates such as Mr. Luken, Mr. Portune and Forrest Buckley, who spent $127,961 in a losing effort, filed campaign finance reports showing large contributions from a wide range of labor unions.
“I've heard some criticism because of the size of some of the contributions I got,” Mr. Portune said. “I'll acknowledge that I played by the rules that are in place this time.”
A number of Washington, D.C.-based business PACs that usually are interested in congressional campaigns contributed to Mr. DeWine, the son of the U.S. senator, as did some Capitol Hill GOP legislators' PACs.
“I'm lucky my father has a number of friends,” Mr. DeWine said. “It is certainly good for the city to have city councilmen who have good relations with legislators.”
By far, the largest single contributor to council candidates was Cincinnati financier Carl Lindner, who gave $179,000 to eight candidates. Six of them won — Mr. Luken, Mr. Winburn, Mr. Heimlich, Mr. DeWine, Ms. Reece and Democratic incumbent Minette Cooper, who spent $108,279 in her eighth-place finish.
Councilman Jim Tarbell, who did not get a contribution from Mr. Lindner in his $111,125, campaign, questioned if it was good for one person to rain so much money on a local political race.
“I don't think there has ever been close to this amount of money spent on local politics,” Mr. Tarbell said. “There is a great cause for concern.”
But Mr. Heimlich and Mr. Winburn, who received $25,000 each from Mr. Lindner, and Mr. DeWine, who received $35,000, insisted Mr. Lindner makes no demands on them.
“He's never asked me to do anything; his basic thing is he wants good government,” Mr. Winburn said.
With the large contributions from individuals and PACs, this year's council election not only jump-started the spiraling cost of running for council, it continued the trend of recent years that council seats are won by candidates who have the bulk of the money.
Of the $2.5 million spent, 77 percent was spent by the nine winning candidates. The 13 unsuccessful candidates spent about $600,000 among them. Spending at all levels of politics has increased. In 1998, Roxanne Qualls and Rep. Steve Chabot spent $2 million in their 1st Congressional District race. Bob Taft and Lee Fisher spent about $18 million in the race for governor.
Robert Anglen contributed to this report.
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