For Cincinnati City Council candidates, forums at the city's 50 community councils are a necessary — if painfully monotonous — part of the campaigning process.

        Though illuminating for voters, candidates find the forums a grind. They often get just two or three minutes to speak. There are usually more candidates than voters. And — worst of all — they have to listen to each other's speeches.

        But one of the most lively forums on the circuit is in Mount Lookout, where candidates get three minutes to speak, followed by three minutes on the hot seat.

        On Monday, Mount Lookout residents peppered one candidate about his prominent name — asking him, in so many words, whether he was born with a silver spoon.

        “I think that's inaccurate, and the more you get to know me, you'll see that's not the case,” said Democrat David Pepper.

        He said his dad, John Pepper, didn't become chairman of Procter & Gamble until he was in college.

        The 30-year-old candidate was also forced to defend why he wasn't a Republican.

        Questioners also pulled no punches in asking Akiva Freeman about the finer points of the Genesis Redevelopment scandal, Jim Tarbell about plans for Mount Lookout Square, and several candidates about City Council's handling of the April riots.

        But the question on the mind of most residents was whether the city should move forward on a study to consider commuter airlines for Lunken Airport. Residents are fearful of increased traffic and noise and declining home values.

        Each candidate was skeptical of the plan, but none was more blunt than John Cranley:

“There is hardly any neighborhood as good for the city's quality of life — and quite frankly, for our tax base — as Mount Lookout,” he said. “If we sacrifice that, we should have our heads examined.”

        Never mind: Lebanon businessman and agitator John McComb, who sued a couple of months ago to force the city cable system to accept political ads, has decided not to run any, he said this week.

        Mr. McComb, a former councilman who is not running for City Council, had reserved $5,250 worth of air time — that's 2,100 spots at 30 seconds a pop — for the two weeks before the election.

        Three of the eight candidates — incumbent Amy Brewer and challengers Norm Dreyer and James Norris II — also reserved time, but so far only Mr. Dreyer has taken any further steps, Telecommunications Director Jim Baldwin said last week.

        “With all the hubbub about the lawsuit, I'm kind of amazed there's only one person now going ahead with the ads,” he said.

        Cincinnati Councilman Phil Heimlich confirmed Tuesday he is attempting to drum up support for a bid to the Hamilton County Commission.

        “I haven't announced anything yet,” the Republican councilman said, acknowledging he has sent out e-mails seeking future campaign contributors. “I am looking to see what kind of support I have.”

        Mr. Heimlich, who can't run for re-election in Cincinnati because of term limits, said in July that he was giving “serious consideration” to running for the seat now held by Republican Tom Neyer Jr.

Mr. Neyer said he is not going to seek reelection.

        Given that he backed GOP maverick Tom Brinkman for state representative last year, Mr. Heimlich has not always followed the party line. But the GOP thinks that with his anti-tax, anti-spending message, Mr. Heimlich could keep the seat.

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