Dems may unendorse Berding, Fischer

Cincinnati Democrats will go at it Saturday - less than two months before the election - over whether two of their own deserve to keep the party's endorsement.
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Some want Councilman Jeff Berding and council challenger Tony Fischer – an Iraq war veteran once highly touted by fellow Democrat Mayor Mark Mallory – removed from the list of endorsees. Both candidates chose to not support the Mallory-led plan to plug the last of the city’s $28 million budget deficit by pressing unions for concessions. Berding and Fischer wanted to save cops’ jobs above others and did not insist the union give up anything.

Berding already has been removed from the AFL-CIO’s list. He was replaced by former television reporter Laure Quinlivan, who says she likes “being on the mayor’s team.”

Berding said Friday afternoon he fully expects to lose the party endorsement, blaming Mallory and fellow Democrats on council for the move against him.

"I'm going to get up and speak my piece; they are going to vote and I will lose,"’ he said. "Then, I'm going to go coach my son's soccer game."

Hamilton County Democratic Party chairman Tim Burke said that he, too, believes the Cincinnati Democratic Committee will pull Berding’s endorsement.

"I am going to get up at the meeting and say that I think this is a very bad idea," he said. "But, in all honesty, I think I am going to lose this one."

Burke also said that he expects the CDC, once it yanks the endorsement from Berding, to give it to Charterite council member Roxanne Qualls, who ran as a Democrat when she was mayor in the 1990s.

A local party hasn't yanked an endorsement since 1989, when Republicans dis-endorsed Guy Guckenberger after he backed the unions in a dispute over paying prevailing wages for downtown construction projects. The loss didn't hurt much. Guckenberger finished second in that election - his strongest finish since he joined council 18 years before - and was soon back in the Republicans' good graces.

Vice Mayor David Crowley urged Burke and the two leaders of the Cincinnati Democratic Committee, Catherine Barrett and Dan Ticotsky, last month to let the party discuss "issues of party integrity and loyalty on City Council" before campaign material and sample ballots were printed. He wrote that the e-mail was sent on behalf of himself, Mallory and incumbents Laketa Cole, Cecil Thomas and Greg Harris. Crowley had heart surgery Friday and won't be at the meeting.

Berding has been the subject of a party endorsement fight before. But when the party announced its endorsements in April, Mallory stressed that the list was his ticket and said the issues between him and Berding had been smoothed over.

That was before Berding opposed Crowley's environmental justice ordinance in June and before he sided with two Republicans and a Charterite to oppose the budget plan pushed by Mallory and the council majority. The plan required union concessions and got them from the police and middle managers, but not from AFSCME members.

"You can't tell me that protecting families is not a Democratic value," Berding said Friday. "The fact is that I put people first, not party politics. They're punishing me because I'm an independent. I'm not going to stop being a Democrat. But I'm an independent Democrat. And I think that makes me a good council member."

Fischer could not be reached for comment Friday. On his campaign Web site, however, he says he's honored to be a Democratic endorsee and is "a proud supporter of Mayor Mark Mallory's vision for the city."

Chris Bortz, a Charterite, said he hopes his party would consider discussing offering endorsements to Berding and Fischer if the Democrats take their endorsements away. Charter, he said, welcomes divergent ideas – "at a time in Cincinnati when we should be rising above things like party politics."