Sunday, January 14, 2007
Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
 Photo courtesy of Flickr.
The relationship between Hamilton County and the Bengals keeps making corporate news, but why does the name “Jeff Berding” never appear in the new reports? Jeff Berding worked for The Bengals at the time the deal was negotiated, and he even gave advice to Bob Bedinghaus for how to defeat Todd Portune in his first run for County Commission. During the last City Council campaign season, the Democrats discussed not endorsing Berding because of that very relationship. More recently, Berding was a point person for getting David Pepper elected, and his name does not get mentioned in the latest stories about this ongoing conflict between the County and the Bengals. Why?
Some History
There are so many key articles at both the online versions of The Enquirer and The Post that have disappeared, one must wonder if there is some kind of censorship campaign happening behind the scenes. On April 18th, 2005, Kevin Osborne (who then worked for The Post) wrote a story entitled “Dems may not endorse Berding”—about Berding’s rocky relationship with the local Democratic Party. Today, you can only find this error message. However, thanks to research databases like Newsbank, the article can still be accessed by anyone with a library card.
Here are some excerpts:
By some standards, Jeff Berding is the ideal Democratic candidate for Cincinnati City Council.
Berding, who is sales and public affairs director for the Cincinnati Bengals, already has raised $75,000 in the four months since he launched his campaign, using an extensive array of business and civic contacts.
With high-powered friends like Bengals owner Mike Brown, Mayor Charlie Luken and local Democratic Party Chairman Tim Burke in his corner, Berding is focused on getting the Democratic endorsement in the next few weeks.
The endorsement is considered crucial in the overwhelmingly Democratic city.
But many rank-and-file Democrats—including members of the party’s nominating committee—say they have serious concerns about Berding.
They cite Berding’s ties to the Bengals and the fact that he pushed for the 1996 half-cent sales tax increase to build a $458 million stadium for the team, a deal that has since alienated many voters and strained the county’s finances.
Even more troubling, they said, is that Berding campaigned for Hamilton County Commissioner Bob Bedinghaus, the Republican incumbent, against Democratic challenger Todd Portune in the heated 2000 campaign, and advised Bedinghaus how to attack Portune.
Bedinghaus lost the race, and now he—like Berding—works for the Bengals.
“I think that would give some people pause as to whether that means (Berding) isn’t a Democratic loyalist,” said Tina Williams, a member of the Democratic Party’s nominating committee.
“It certainly gives me pause about giving the nomination to someone who professes to support the Democratic platform,” Williams added. “It makes me wonder if he’s just giving lip service to it so he can get an endorsement.”
Portune initially told Berding he wouldn’t oppose an endorsement. That pledge only came after Berding assured Portune that he didn’t personally campaign on behalf of Bedinghaus.
An October 2000 e-mail from Berding to Bedinghaus that was found stored on Bedinghaus’ former county computer, however, shows Berding took a more active role—a role that Berding defends.
According to the e-mail, which The Post obtained using Ohio public record laws, Berding told Bedinghaus to attack Portune about a deal Cincinnati struck with the Bengals for a guarantee to buy tickets and offset the team’s lost revenue.
(...)
Portune is disturbed by the e-mail, because he said Berding told him during a private meeting in December that he wasn’t involved with Bedinghaus’ campaign.
“But the fact is Jeff told me one thing, and we now know at least in so far as the one memo is concerned, he did exactly the opposite,” Portune said.
Darren Tolliver, a Democratic nominating committee member, said the 2000 race was an important one, allowing the party to elect a county commissioner for the first time in nearly 40 years.
“Todd Portune is the best public servant in our area, bar none,” Tolliver said.
Berding called Bedinghaus a friend who deserved his allegiance during the campaign.
The Story Today
In today’s Enquirer, Dan Klepal and Kimball Perry filed a report entitled ”The 10-year feud.” The article includes a box entitled “Key Players”:
Bob Bedinghaus: Former Hamilton County Commission president during lease negotiations. Now Bengals employee.
Todd Portune: New Hamilton County Commission president, critic of lease deal.
Troy Blackburn: Bengals vice president, director of stadium development during lease negotiations.
Stuart Dornette: Bengals lawyer. Negotiated the lease and handles the Bengals’ lawsuits.
According to this item from The Enquirer Politics Extra Blog, Troy Blackburn and Stuart Dornette (who is also reportedly very active in Republican politics) gave money to David Pepper’s campaign. The blog item also reports this:
Dowlin’s name was on a full-page Enquirer ad for two days last weekend where a group call “Citizens for Good Government” urged Heimlich’s defeat.
Dowlin admitted he was encouraged to participate in the ad by another former Republican Hamilton County Commissioner – Bob Bedinghaus.
Bedinghaus was the commissioner who pushed for the 1996 sales tax increase to pay for the stadiums.
He also negotiated the lease with the team, a lease Heimlich blasted as “an outrageous giveaway,” that resulted in Bedinghaus being voted out of office.
After his defeat, Bedinghaus took a new job – with the Bengals, as director of development for Paul Brown Stadium.
So, that pretty much covers all the key players—except for Todd Portune (who still opposes the deal) and Jeff Berding (who opposed Todd Portune when this all started happening).
More Connections
As of this publication, David Pepper’s campaign website still features his thank you letter to supporters:
A heartfelt thank you to all of our supporters! Special thanks to all of you who passed out literature, worked the polls, made phone calls and put up yard signs— and a special thanks to all those elected officials (Commissioner Portune, former Commissioner Dowlin, Mayor Mark Mallory, State Representative Tyrone K. Yates, Councilmember Jeff Berding , former Reading Mayor Earl Schmidt, North College Mayor Dan Brooks and others across the county) who energetically supported the campaign.
There’s Dowlin (who states in the Enquirer Blog that he was urged to oppose Heimlich by Bedinghaus), and Berding (a guy who almost lost the Democratic endorsement for his work against Portune on behalf of Bedinghaus).
Oh, what a tangled web we weave!
Phil Heimlich was clearly the target of some retribution from the Republican Party (a position with which we have no problem), but the convergence of one-time political adversaries in the election of David Pepper to County Commission is noteworthy, indeed. Particularly when you consider that Jeff Berding has become a bit of an architectural ghost, as the corporate media facades try to disappear his fingerprints.
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