Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati

Just take a look at how many Republican judges are unopposed in Hamilton County.  In a year with record-high voter registration in the Black community and tons of Democratic voters likely to be casting ballots, the Hamilton County Democratic Party couldn’t find any candidates to oppose all these judges.  Isn’t that extraordinary?  Or, isn’t it indicative of the kind of back-room deals people like Todd Portune engaged, securing his own employment while leaving people like Joe Deters unopposed. Though Proportional Representation would not affect judicial races, these deals by established Democrats show the need for implementing the system here in Cincinnati.

At the end of the day, voters are not given a choice in Hamilton County—not when it comes to the judges.  Just look at the races where Republican judges actually do face opposition, and ask yourself how it ended up that way. 

Republican Pat DeWine faces opposition from Democrat Norma Davis, a former president of the Cincinnati NAACP. 

Interestingly, DeWine broke with his party to oppose last year’s Super-Sized Jail Tax.  And several former presidents of the Cincinnati NAACP broke with the vote of their membership driven organization to support the jail, while the NAACP itself led the drive to put the thing on the ballot and take it down. 

Doesn’t it look like the Democrats are able to find candidates for the purposes of punishing those who defy the status quo?  Meanwhile, the rest of the slate of Republicans are left with a walk-in to their seats?

It just goes to show that Hamilton County, including the City of Cincinnati, does not have a culture of providing choices for voters.  Instead of people choosing the candidates that represent their interests, we have shifting political allegiances designed to secure continued employment for those who play the game according to its unspoken rules.

Consider the fact that the Republican Party opposed Issue 8 (the initiative for PR).  Don’t they realize, as the minority party in the City limits, that PR could help them gain more representation?  Then why did they oppose it?

My sources say it’s because Joe Deters is pissed at Smitherman and the NAACP for saying bad things about him—and allegedly what Joe says goes inside the local leadership of the Hamilton County GOP.

Job security for politicians and political vindictiveness are not supposed to be the inspiration for providing what limited choices voters have at the polls.  The local political establishment’s County Club will be broken up if PR passes, and quite frankly that’s the best argument I can conceive as to why you should vote Yes on Issue 8.

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