Mike Allen Saturday Mid-Day -- 11/1/25

Mike Allen rants about the latest politcal news. Candidates running for various positions within Cincinnati government join the show. Liz Keating, Steve Goodin, Corry Bowman, Josh Berkowitz, and Chris Smitherman all discuss their campaigns as we enter election week.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
News Radio seven hundred WLW Mike Allen and Saturday Midday
about cold Saturday morning. Well, I'll tell you what election
time is here. Of course, Tuesday is the election date.
People have been voting by mail gosh, I guess in
some cases for about thirty days. But the big races

(00:27):
here in the City of Cincinnati, of course, is the
mayor's race and the council races. So today I'm going
to do things a little bit differently. Today we are
going to speak with some of the candidates that are
running for City of Cincinnati council, the ones that I
think have the best shot at punching through perhaps. And

(00:49):
at ten point thirty we're going to talk to Corey Bowman,
who is a candidate for mayor. And Bill, I'll tell
you what, if ever there was one you would love
to see an upset in, it's that race. Of course,
Corey running against the incumbent in that matter, in that
whole thing, and mister Pureval, we'll see what happens. I mean,

(01:10):
when you got a city that's votes three to one Democrat,
it's an uphill battle. But you know, this year's different.
I mean, it just is with the downtown beat down
in the situation with the Chief of Police driving it,
so we shall see. But at any rate, Liz Keating
will lead it off at nine point thirty. At ten
o'clock we're going to talk to Steve Gooden, a ten

(01:32):
thirty Corey Bowman candidate for mayor, as I said, And
at eleven o'clock we're going to talk to Judge Josh Berkowitz,
and he is running to keep his seat on the
Hamilton County Municipal Court. And we're going to conclude at
eleven thirty with Christopher Smitheman. The only problem with all
this is I'm probably not going to have time to
take calls. I mean, if you feel compelled and something

(01:55):
that you really want to get off your chest, you know,
go ahead and call seven point nine seven one, eight
hundred the big one and I'll try to work you in.
But no guarantees. Again, I just think it's important that
we hear from these candidates on three days out from
the election. But at any rate, I wanted to talk
to you about something in the rant here, about something

(02:18):
I saw this week which just really kind of knocked
me on my butt in a good way. Let me
explain it to you. It was about an article in
this relatively new I think publication named Semaphore. I've got
it open here on my computer, and you know, I
looked at it this week and it looks like it's

(02:41):
pretty fair right straight down the line as far as reporting.
Looks like it's all political stuff. But that's where this
article was. That's where I found that. It's a new
for profit global news network. They have a really interesting website.
As I said, if you want to check it out.
This story in Semaphore is getting a lot of play. Okay,

(03:04):
here we go. They reported this week that a group
called Welcome, which is being labeled as a centrist Democrat group,
which I didn't know there are any more of them left,
they consulted. This isn't a poll. This is a study.
They consulted with hundreds of thousands of voters in the

(03:27):
past six months, and they also spoke with a lot
of Democratic legislators. And again, it's more than a poll.
It's a comprehensive study. And I'll tell you what. The
results are shocking, but really shouldn't be, not really that surprising.
But man, it just shows you where the Democrat Party

(03:48):
is at this point in time. Here's the introduction to
the report from this group called Welcome that you can
see in Semaphore. Just a couple paragraphs here. Then we're
going to get down to they gritty Democrats have badly
weakened their party with left leaning ideas and rhetoric growing
only the party growing only with self described white liberals,

(04:12):
while losing ground with other voters. Yeah, you know, normal people.
According to a new center left group's report that was
shared with Semaphore, the group called Welcome consulted hundreds of
thousands of voters over six months for its broad findings,
including listen to this one. If there's any bombshell in

(04:33):
this or although it really shouldn't be, it's this, seventy
percent of voters think the Democratic Party is out of touch.
Seventy percent. That's not seventy percent of Republicans, that's not
seventy percent of conservatives. That's seventy percent of voters who
think that the Democratic Party is out of touch. Now

(04:55):
we all know that it is, but to get that
big of a number, I think is a is something
that's important and noteworthy. Goes on. Most voters, the group
found believe the party, the Democrat Party over prioritizes issues
like are you ready protecting the rights of LGBTQ plus
you got to put that plus in there, plus Americans

(05:17):
and fighting climate change while not caring about securing the
border or lowering the rate of crime. Okay, they looked
at the rise in Democrat lawmakers. Now keep in mind
this is Democrat lawmakers. They looked at their support for

(05:37):
radical legislation. Here's just some examples. In twenty thirteen, only
one percent of Democrat lawmakers supported a study to determine
if reparations there it is reparations should be awarded to
African Americans. Only one percent in twenty thirteen. Check this

(05:58):
out in twenty twenty four, eleven years later, that new
number is fifty seven percent. So they go from one
percent of Democrat leaders lawmakers that think that we should
look at reparations all the way to fifty seven percent.
Okay and twenty thirteen. Also twenty thirteen, only four percent

(06:24):
of Democrat lawmakers supported inmate voting rights, which is a
burning issue for most of the Democrat party. Four percent
in twenty thirteen supported of Democrat lawmakers supported inmate voting rights.
In twenty twenty four, that number is now forty one percent.

(06:47):
So you can see the way that the Democrat Party
is going. And support among Democratic lawmakers for an assault
weapons ban grew from in twenty thirteen forty one percent
to now actually twenty twenty four, eighty eight percent of

(07:07):
Democrat lawmakers favor that. Again, you can see the drift.
You can see the drift leftward, drifting so much that
they just go over the edge on this thing. In
talking about the shift, this report went on to say
that the defeat or retirement of some conservative Democrats. I'm

(07:29):
just going to stop here. I have not seen a
conservative Democrat on the national level for god knows how
many years. The last one I remember is Scoop Jackson,
who was a Democrat senator. I forget what state. He
was very conservative on defense matters and other matters as well.

(07:50):
I defy anyone to give me the name of a
Democrat nationally who could be considered a conservative and on
the local level, last time you saw a conservative Democrat.
The last one that comes to my mind is somebody
who I think is a great man, Dusty Rhodes. You know,
since Dusty, they're just non existent. But at any rate,

(08:11):
to get back to the report. The defeat or retirement
of some Conservative Democrats explained some of the shift, but
not all of it. The report Study of National Democratic
Party platforms from the convention. You always have a party
platform at the convention. They used to be really important.
Not so much anymore. But the report Study of National

(08:33):
Democratic Party platforms from twenty twelve to twenty twenty four
found a surge in language about specific racial groups. That's
up eight hundred and twenty eight percent. About environmental justice,
whatever the hell that is, it is up three hundred
and thirty three percent. And about LGBTQ you know what,

(08:57):
they didn't put the plus here, trouble, And about LGBTQ
plus rights up one thousand and forty four percent. Mentions
of men fell by sixty three percent, and mentions of
fathers by one hundred percent, and mentions of the concept

(09:21):
of responsibility eighty three percent. So in twenty twenty and
twenty twenty four, party platform began with listen to this.
This just gives you a perfect example where the Democrat
Party is. In twenty twenty twenty twenty four, the party
platform Democrat Platform began with land acknowledgments for the Native

(09:45):
American tribes that have previously inhabited their convention sites. Who
the hell cares Native Americans? From everything that I've read,
they couldn't care less about this stuff. Only the Libs
in the Democrat Party do well. The report kind of
winds up by saying those shifts that I just read

(10:07):
up there don't win votes. The reports analysis of voter
data from a thing called Catalyst, which is a Democrat
data firm, showed Democrats losing some ground with non college
educated white voters, you think since twenty twelve, but this
is even better for us, far more with non white

(10:29):
voters meaning African American voters meeting Hispanic voters. They're losing.
The Democrats are losing voters in those two groups and
we're gaining. And the closes just to say that those voters,
no matter what their education level is, and it ends
by saying progressive language and politics meant to win those

(10:53):
non white voters simply didn't work. So there you go,
kind of in a nutshell. Democrat Party is in the
year twenty twenty five. But here's the thing. This is
getting down to the nitty gritty, and it's just my opinion.
This report is it appears to me to be very

(11:15):
well researched and very well reported. I mean, I'm not
just saying that. I did a pretty deep dive this
week into it. But it's all going to go over
like the proverbial lead balloon among the so called leaders
of the Democratic Party, the Chucky Schumers, the aocs, the

(11:36):
Jasmine Crocketts, YadA, YadA, YadA. You think those people are
going to embrace this study, There's no way even if
they wanted to, they can't because they are held captive
by the radical leftist wing of the Democrat Party. It
is as simple as that. And again, I mean, why

(12:00):
is it going to go over like a lead balloon?
As we all know, and I think I mentioned this
on the first show about twenty six, twenty seven years ago,
just kidding about eight years ago. What is the main
trait of a liberal or liberalism? What is the main trait?
If you don't know it by now, I'll tell you again.

(12:21):
It's arrogance, absolute unabashed arrogance. They're right, no matter what,
will never ever consider another point of view. They're right,
and if you don't agree with them, you're canceled, you're
out of here. You know, they could never be wrong
in their mind, and any dissent from this radical narrative

(12:46):
will be stomped down. And guess what, that only helps us.
So wanted to let you know about that study again.
It's in the online publication called Semaphore. You can get
it pretty easily now. The one thing is I'm playing
around with it. This always happens. After a while, something

(13:09):
pops up and says, hey, you got one more visit left,
and then we're gonna charge you. I don't know how
much it is, but I didn't have to do that,
but you know what I might, if it's reasonable, just
plunk down a little bit of money, because I think
it's very good. But it gives you an idea where
they're going. They can have all these studies. Carville was
a part of this study. They can have all these studies.

(13:31):
But if they're not, if the Denkuts an't going to
pay attention to it, more power to them. Man, they're
running themselves into the ground real quickly.

Speaker 2 (13:41):
Here.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
I wanted to let you know this is no surprise here,
or shouldn't be. We also learned this week that the
Department of Justice is finally investigating the sanctified Black Lives
Matter organization. They're investigating the outright theft of millions and

(14:02):
millions of dollars that Corporate America threw at them. Black
Lives Matter in the wake of the George Floyd killing,
and we talked about that at the time, and Corporate
America threw money at them like you wouldn't believe. While
they're throwing money at BLM, they're throwing the cops under

(14:23):
the bus. It's one of the things that urinated me
off the most since I've been on this show. Story
in Fox News just a little bit of it because
we're running out of time here. Federal prosecutors are investigating
whether senior leaders of the BLM organization defrauded donors who
contributed tens of millions of dollars during the twenty twenty

(14:45):
protest mostly peaceful protests. Remember, while the reporter said it
was mostly peaceful, while something's burning, a car's burning behind him.
Will always remember that. The AP reported that the Justice
Department's ongoing in inquiry is based on the foundation's handling
of donations collected in the wake. As I said, of
the George Floyd killing, when the groups saw a surge

(15:09):
of more than ninety million dollars in contributions. I think
it's much more than that, and the probe is being
led by the US Attorney's Office for the Central District
of California. According to the APD investigation began during the
Biden administration. Now that surprised me, but has received renewed attention,
you think under the new Trump administration. The ap also

(15:34):
reported that the inquiry extends to other black led advocacy
groups that gained prominence during the nationwide demonstrations. Okay, so
they go to BLM to get a comment. They told
Fox News, quote, Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation is

(15:55):
not a target of any federal criminal investigation. Blatant, flat lie.
They know that, and it goes on their statement BLM,
we remain committed to full transparency, accountability, and the responsible
stewardship of resources dedicated to building a better future for

(16:15):
black communities. That, my friends, is a bald face, out
and out lie. They've known about this all along. You
may recall a couple of years ago we talked about
on this show, Patrice Colors cullrs her she spent millions

(16:36):
of dollars buying high end homes and condominiums for. We
never did find out who it was for. I saw
one of them. They said, Wow, we're using that as
our headquarters. Just outright theft. Well, they go on in
the statement, we are surprised at some of the incredulity

(16:56):
in our calculations. I'm sorry, that's not a statement BLM.
This is so too. After that, so too is BLM,
which suggests that if objections to wealth transfers of the
scale are rooted in are you ready white supremacy and

(17:17):
a pathology that black organizations didn't don't deserve to be funded?
Close quote, you can boil it all down and they're
blaming it on are you ready racism? What else could
it be other than racism? Trot that thing out when
you don't have anything else. But at any rate, I

(17:38):
really do hope the DOJ puts the pedal to the
metal on this thing. Hey, we got to take a
break from the news. But when we get back, we're
going to talk to I believe the last Republican elected
the city council, and that's Liz Keating. We'll do that
when we get back. Mike Allen, Saturday midday. Hey, we're back,

(18:03):
Mike Allen, Saturday, Midday, tell you what that kind of rocks?
Who is that? Liam? Blink two blink one eight two
blink one eighty two. I knew that, No, I didn't
at any rate. As I said all morning. This morning,
we are going to be talking about the city election

(18:25):
coming up, council members and the mayor and leading it
off is the last Republican. She was the last Republican
on Cincinnati City Council. Talking of course about Liz Keating,
she served on Cincinnati City Council from twenty twenty twenty
twenty four. Political philosophy, she will listen to all sides,

(18:46):
ask many questions, drive productive debate, and then work to
find the best possible solution, which sounds to me like
it was how she did it in her last council
term because she was the only Republican. Liz Keating, Welcome
back to Saturday mid Day. It's great to have you.

Speaker 3 (19:04):
Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
Let me ask you something, Liz, and you got into
it a little bit later than some of the others.
Why did you decide to run again this year?

Speaker 4 (19:15):
Honestly because I'm just fed up with everything that's going on.
I mean, it's almost been two years since I have
been off council. I finished in January twenty twenty four,
and during that entire time, I still fielded calls from
dozens of residents because they weren't getting their trash picked up.
They littered, was everywhere, It wasn't getting cleaned up. They
weren't hearing from the city. When we had that snowstorm,

(19:38):
you know, the streets weren't plowed, schools couldn't open. When
they reached out about concerns about crime, they weren't getting
any response from city council. And so they're calling me
for help. And you shouldn't have to know somebody who
knows somebody to get help at city Hall. This is
the job that city council was elected to do, and
they are failing. They are failing. They are not responding

(19:59):
to the resident and I am just tired of it,
and it's hurting the reputation of the city. And so
I decided to jump in because something needs, something needs
to change, It needs to be fixed, and I want
Cincinnati back on track.

Speaker 1 (20:12):
You know, I take it from what you're saying that
you're not in favor of city council getting involved in
issues like immigration and other things that have absolutely nothing
to do with the daily operations of the city of Cincinnati.
Is that a fair and accurate statement.

Speaker 4 (20:28):
Well, there's a lot of things that councils should be doing.
You know, there are issues that do impact Cincinnati immigration
in some ways. But if you're just debating the national
level politics of it and policies, that's not responding to
the residents. Well, you know what you can do. You
can work on workforce development because we actually have more
jobs in Cincinnati than we have people to fill them.

(20:50):
We have money coming in from the Railroad Trust for
infrastructure projects, and guess what, the city's not spending it
to pave your roads because they haven't figured out how
to deploy it. We could use a lot more people
getting trained to be able to fill those jobs and
actually pave the roads. But if you're not focused on
actual productive debate and getting things done in Cincinnative that
actually helped the residents, and all you're doing is complaining

(21:12):
about people at the federal level who you disagree with,
no one benefits, no one benefits. You have to focus
on actual solutions here.

Speaker 1 (21:20):
Absolutely, and based on what you said, I didn't realize this.
Are you saying that from that railroad money. None of
it has been spent spent yet on infrastructure, because I
mean that's one of the ways they solved this thing.

Speaker 4 (21:35):
Not none of it, very little has been spent. They
appropriated so much money through paving roads and there was
a report last month that said only four percent of
it had actually been deployed on actual projects. If you
can't get the money out of the door, there is
a problem. And guess what the one on council has
been figuring out what that problem is to actually deploy
the money. That's a huge, huge problem. I mean, our

(21:59):
roads and are an absolute mess. This should be something
that you're focused on because this is something that impacts
our residents. And right now we are not getting any
productive debate from our council members. They're all over the
place on things. They're saying everything is being run smoothly
and it's not. Residents know that residents are feeling the pain.

(22:19):
And as we've been out on the campaign trail the
last nine weeks, that's all we hear from people is
they are frustrated and they're fed up, and they're not
hearing from their council members. And that is what council
members are supposed to do. They're supposed to be responsive
to the constituents that they represent.

Speaker 1 (22:34):
Absolutely, and you mentioned road paving. I'll tell you what. Well,
with respect to snow removal, you can always tell Liz,
I live just outside the city now, but you know,
the townships, the county, others, they do a pretty good
job of it. But when you enter the city of Cincinnati,
you can tell you don't need a sign that says

(22:54):
corporation line. And one thing I think this is, I
guess kind of personal paving vades. Will you, because I
know you'll get a handle on it, will you please
have them look in to paving Sunset Avenue as you
turn left off a Queen City. It's unbelievable. It's like
a battlefield there. And I guess that's just an example

(23:18):
of what you're seeing throughout the city.

Speaker 4 (23:21):
Absolutely, I mean in some that is one that has
come up time and time again as we're out talking
to voters. And I mean something like that that shouldn't
be that hard to get done. There is so much
money now coming in. There's money coming in from the
federal government for other infrastructure projects, things like the Western
Hills viaducts and in the new Brunt Spence Bridge, Like,

(23:43):
there are so many jobs and so much money, tens
of millions of dollars actually hundreds of millions of dollars
coming in to do these projects. There is no reason
that we should not be prepared to fill those jobs
in to start paving roads, especially in this kind of
economy where people are hurting. We should get people on
those shops, get those paychecks going home, support families, and

(24:04):
take care of the roads. We can do it if
we have a council that is paying attention and actually
figuring out how to implement and implement it quickly so
that you can take care of the residents' needs.

Speaker 1 (24:15):
Absolutely. There something I got to ask you this question.
I think I know the answer, but I'm going to
ask you what do you feel is keating is the
most important issue facing Cincinnati City Council, and if elected,
what will you do to help alleviate that problem?

Speaker 5 (24:33):
Right now?

Speaker 4 (24:34):
It's crime. Crime is what we are hearing the top issue,
top concern from everyone. And it's not just crime, but
it's also the perception of safety too. And right now
we're consistently hearing from council members that, oh, crime's going down,
crimes going down. Everything is fine, everything is working. But
if you're hearing from voters everywhere in the city that

(24:55):
they are concerned about crime, they're concerned about public safety,
they don't want to go place because they don't feel safe,
you should be paying attention to that. We need elected
officials who are responding to constituent concerns and are working
relentlessly to get that crime number to zero. You should
not be satisfied until that number is zero. And it's
not just being tough on crime where you're getting you know,

(25:17):
you're filling the recruit classes, helping with retention to get
more officers walking the beats, and making the neighborhoods safe,
but you also need to be tough on the causes
of crime because if you can help prevent it, then
you don't need to worry about things and you're not
going to run into a problem when you are short
with officers. And there's so many programs that we can
do that I did before on counsel and we'll do again.

(25:38):
And that's things like youth jobs, that's expending expanding rec
center hours and programs for kids. That's you know, making
sure that we are implementing childcare programs so we have
safe places for kids. That's making sure that you know,
we're looking at housing and housing affordability to create more
stabilization for families. That's working with cps to be able

(25:58):
to make sure our kids and most at risk youth
are taken care of. There's so many things to do,
fighting the crime and fighting the causes of crime, but
we need council members who actually care about that and
don't just point to data that looks good for them
to say we're doing a good job.

Speaker 1 (26:14):
Let me ask you this, and I'm going to ask
everyone this. Do you feel that she Fiji was treated
fairly in this latest thing, the what I call the
downtown beat down? And I guess just overall, do you
think she's been treated fairly?

Speaker 4 (26:30):
Liz Keating, No, this is absolutely terrible. You know what's happening.
Your tax sellers are being wasted on this because they
asked her to resign. If she didn't resign, and then
all of a sudden you have to bring in a
law firm spend fifty thousand dollars to investigate to be
able to figure something out. That is a waste of
tax payer money. There are so many things in the

(26:50):
city that we need to spend money on, and we
are short on money when it comes to the operation side,
and you're going to spend the money on trying to
find a reason to fire her after you get into
this mess. And yes, this is a city manager's decision,
but you know what, Council plays a role because council
appropriates the dollars. It takes two members of council to
call a special meeting, and not one of them has

(27:13):
teamed up with someone to call a special meeting. They
can call a special meeting and put the administration on
the hot seat and ask questions so that the public
can better understand what they're doing and why. And you
know what, if counsel disagrees with them at that point,
when they actually ask questions and better understand what's going on,
they can say, you know what, we don't agree with
the fifty thousand dollars. We're not going to spend it.

(27:34):
We're not going to allow you to spend it. Council
can step in and stop this witch hunt right now,
and they haven't done it. They're hiding from this, they're
not responding to anything, and this is the job of
counsel and they're failing right now.

Speaker 1 (27:48):
It's embarrassing. Let me ask you this. It is a
little bit off the cuff and not really in the
year two thousand and I know you weren't on city
council then Issue five that was on the ballot. It
was an issue to remove the Chief of Police, the
fire chief, and I think several other positions within high

(28:09):
positions within city government, to remove civil service protection for
those people. And it passed. It was a fifty two
to forty eight vote. I was one of the ones
working hard to make sure it didn't pass. Well it did.
You're familiar with the issue, I would suppose, Liz, aren't you? Yes, Uh, yep,
would you?

Speaker 4 (28:29):
I think it's a great debate to come back. Oh yeah, sorry,
go ahead.

Speaker 1 (28:32):
I'm just going to say, would you do what you
could do? I guess it's got to be a vote
to change the charter back, but would you do whatever
you could do to see that that thing gets on
the ballot and then work to pass it because if
we had that, it's my humble opinion, none of his
garbage would have happened with the chief.

Speaker 4 (28:53):
Yeah, I think it's a there's a really strong argument
to bring that back and to require and look at
it in a different way, not just the protections that
were there before, but the possibility of requiring vote of
council and maybe a super majority vote of council to
approve the firing, because then you have those protections in place,
a little bit more balance of power. But what it

(29:15):
does is that would give our leaders, like the police chief,
like the fire chief, maybe even potentially a city manager
and others a little bit more room to not get
caught up in the politics and actually do their jobs.
These professionals, they are experts in their field. Politicians are not,
and that gives them so much space to be able
to maneuver and make the right decisions, particularly in times

(29:37):
of crises, and not worry about the politics that are
at play and potentially losing their jobs. It gives a
lot more room, and I think there's a really strong
argument for it, and I think it is absolutely worth
bringing that debate back and understanding which scenario and if
you're going to revisit that, and what's the greatest outcome

(29:57):
to bring it back, and council members can do that.
Council members can put something like that on the ballot
with a ma or super majority vote right, and it
doesn't take a whole bunch of signatures to put it
on the ballot. So I think that should be one
of the top things that Council does when in the
new term.

Speaker 1 (30:14):
Absolutely, because you know, obviously I'm old as Mathuselo, but
I remember a time when Issue five was not in effect,
the so called protections of Issue five were not in effect.
And you go back in history the chiefs of police here,
Larry Whale and Tom Striker, there is no way on
God's green earth that they would have tolerated the abuse

(30:39):
that Chief Fiji has had to tolerate because they had
that civil service protection and they had to be fired
for a reasonable cause. Again, that's just my that's just
my opinion.

Speaker 4 (30:52):
It's true. And you know what this is going to
end up being, with all these lawsuits with the fire chief,
potentially with the police chief, taxpayers are going to have
to put the bill. It is going to be a
very very hapty bill and we are going to be
spending a lot of money that again should be going
to actual things that impact residents. And it's going to
be settlements because of poor, poor leadership, particularly on the

(31:16):
elected official side down the city hall, you know.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
And doing my research for this keating, I found out
that you are the last Republican not just in Cincinnati
City Council, but the last Republican council member of any
of Ohio's six largest cities. And I remember back to
your term that you've just finished off, and I always thought,

(31:40):
how is she going to do this? And from what
I could see, you did then what you say, if
you're elected, you're going to do now work with these
people so you're not on an island deserted out there
if you get back on council. Does that make sense?

Speaker 4 (31:57):
Absolutely? And it's so important to have a scenting voice
and actually drive up to debate. I mean, there was
many pieces of legislation that I disagreed with, but I
still worked hard. I still went in research day, better
understood all sides, and then made amendments to it so
I could make it a little bit better. Even though
at the end of the day and the final piece
did I voted no, I voted it down, but I

(32:19):
made a lot of amendments along the way just to
make it better, maybe less damaging to the city because
I strongly disagreed with something. Things like that are so critical.
Right now, we only we have one party rule. There's
not much debate. You hear a lot of speeches that
are you know, this is why I'm voting yes, or
this is why I'm voting no. But there's no there's
no debate into why are we even doing this? What

(32:40):
problem are we trying to solve? You know, do we
have weak points in this legislation, maybe we should be
fixing it. And the other great thing is if you
have somebody that is on the other side that is
Republican party, is the super majority veto proof legislators in
the state House, and you have no really relationship down

(33:00):
at city Hall with the majority party in the state House.
And that was another role that I played to be
able to continue to have strong and productive conversations with
what's happening in Columbus so they can better understand the
issues happening in urban areas. Because if there's no representation
in these major cities, these economic epicenters, it's a problem.
Then some of the legislation might not be may not

(33:23):
be the best thing for these areas, these big cities,
and we need that we need to have good conversations,
strong relationships that trust there and also be able to
drive productive debate locally where you know you are in
a super minority.

Speaker 1 (33:39):
Yep, this you got a minute. We got a minute left.
Anything that you want to say in that.

Speaker 4 (33:45):
Minute, licinnati. It is time for change. We have to
have people get out to vote. You can vote today,
you can vote tomorrow and early vote, or go vote
on election day. We deatherately need people to show up
to vote. If you are to see something different, have
a different direction for a city of Cincinnati. I love
the city way too much to let it continue the

(34:06):
way it is, and I know the rest of you
do too, So please please please get out to vote.
Do not vote all nine and make sure your voice
is heard. We've got to have change on city council.

Speaker 1 (34:17):
Very well put Liz Keating. I'm glad I got a
chance to talk to you this morning. And best of
luck on tuesday.

Speaker 4 (34:24):
Thank you so much. Okay, you have a wonderful day, you.

Speaker 1 (34:27):
Too, Thank you well. I tell you what, obviously, i'd
love to see her back on council. I really would,
And you know what, she's got a chance of breaking through.
I think as does. The next person we're going to
be talking to after the break, that's Steve Gooden, also
former Cincinnati City Council member. It took an interesting kind

(34:49):
of route in doing what he needed to do to
revive the Charter Party, which I think is good for
this city. Charters running a slate of candidates. And anyway,
when we get back, we're going to talk to Steve
about what he would do if he returns to count
Radio News Radio seven hundred WLW Mike Allen an hour

(35:10):
two of Saturday Midday talking to the candidates for Cincinnati
City Council and Cincinnati Mayor. I'll tell you what the
next guy, I know you're going to recognize him. I'm talking,
of course, about our political analyst, Steve good excuse me,
legal analysts also politics as well. Steve served on Cincinnati

(35:32):
City Council, was appointed twenty twenty to twenty twenty one.
Unfortunately that time he was not elected. He has the
endorsement in my humble opinion, but the only one that
matters these days of FOP Lodge sixty nine, as does
Liz Keating. I should have mentioned that, but I didn't. Steve.

(35:53):
Welcome back to Saturday midday in kind of a new
role here.

Speaker 2 (35:58):
Yay, good morning, Mike for having me.

Speaker 1 (36:00):
It's my pleasure. Hey, let me ask you this, Steve,
what made you decide to run again for Cincinnati City
Council knowing that the city is about three one democrat
now these days?

Speaker 2 (36:14):
Well, I got to a point, Mike where I just
couldn't take it anymore. You know, I live over in
the Clifton neighborhood. I have been involved in the community
council for a number of years. There is no more
left wing progressive neighborhood in the city than the Clifton
gas Light District. I am a lone conservative over the year,

(36:35):
but get along with my neighbors. And this neighborhood was
fed up with city council. This neighborhood was fed up
with aftab because of the uptick in violence and property
crimes that we saw, because of the hoss homelessness situation
that has developed, particularly in our park. They couldn't take
it anymore, and I couldn't take it anymore. And it

(36:57):
occurred to me that if this neighborhood was ready to
stand up and break with this council and break with
this mayor, both of whom got, like, you know, almost
eighty percent of the vote in this neighborhood. Then my god,
the rest of the city was sped up as well.
So I mean, this isn't some overnight thing for either
for me or for the city. This has been building

(37:17):
over the last four years. The city is more violent,
it is more divided, it is dirtier. It is just
a harder place to live in than it was four
years ago. And I don't care if you're a Democrat
or Republican or communist or whatever you are, Like, it's unavoidable,
and I think everyone's ready for some fresh voices. And

(37:38):
that's why I really have been pushed to do this
by people across the political spectrum, and it just felt
like it was time to step up. I mean, I'm
also in a position in my life where I'm not
trying to start some big, grand political career. I just
want to go down there, as I would say, I
want to bring some grumpy old man energy because I
really don't care. I'm not really politically correct about it,

(38:00):
don't really care what people think. We're not poll testing
anything that we say or do. We're just saying this
is what the city needs from a common sense standpoint.
If you love it, vote us in. If you don't,
that's fine. We'll go back to work on Wednesday morning
with a smile on our face knowing that we tried
to raise these issues, but we have gotten a tremendous,
tremendous response and we feel very good about it.

Speaker 1 (38:22):
Well, let me kind of dovetail that with something of
you and I have talked a little bit about what
went into and why did you decide? And I know
it's just not you, but you're the guy that did it.
Why did you decide to kind of re energize the
Charter Party, which again I think is a fantastic idea
given the history of Charter in this city and the

(38:44):
good things they've done through the years. What made you
decide to do that?

Speaker 2 (38:50):
Well, a couple of things, Like I've always been Look,
I'm a registered Republican, but I've always been involved in
the Charter Party for many, many, many years, and it
was my turn to be chairman a couple of years ago,
and it just seemed to me the best vehicle to
reach the most people. I mean, the Charter Party has
always been the good Government party. It's been around since
nineteen twenty four. You know, we're the ones that basically

(39:12):
the Charter Party created with Murray Season Good that the
actual current form of government that we have that I
guess still does need to be continually tweaked because you
have every season Good would tell you as it always
has to evolve to deal with the times. But they
were the anti corruption party. They ended Bosses and they
took on Boss Cox, they took on what was at

(39:33):
the time very corrupt single party rule back in the twenties,
which ironically were Republicans. And as we looked at city Hall,
you've got just you know, we've had three corruption based
arrest in the last five years. You have an all
democratic council and a democratic mayor, a city manager who
is clearly not acting independently as is required under the Charter.

(39:54):
And it felt like that is the heart of the problem.
But we also as the Charter tik it does not
take positions on national issues. So and I think that's
one of the things that's always killed common sense candidates
for city counts on the last couple of cycles is
where they nationalize the issues and trying to make it
all about Donald Trump or the last time it was
all about abortion and all these things, and we just

(40:16):
don't get involved. We're here that the old Charter you
know joke is that there's no Republican or Democratic way
to fix a pothole. At the end of the day,
somebody just wants a pothole fixed. And we also realize
too that the Charter Party has a really good history
of working with people in the black community, whether it
be you know Beck and the day Ted Berry who
was the first black mayor, Marriott Spencer all the way

(40:39):
up through ty Yates and kind of bridging gaps between
Republicans and Democrats because we have a mix, you know,
in our fig Committee and a lot of folks in
those neighborhoods. We're hearing from a lot of whom the
black neighborhoods have the same concerns that they haven't Clifton,
that they have in High Park, that they have in
the west Wood and Price Hill. And the joke that
we've been saying is we're doing the same speech whether

(41:01):
we're in Bondhill or Price Hiale, or we're getting the
same reaction. People just know what it's like not to
be listened to. So we thought the Charter Party was
absolutely the right way to go with it. And we
have all these candidates that are on that ticket are
all aligned on getting more cops on the street, and
there was a public safety like that's too nice. We

(41:21):
need more police on the street, probably up to three
hundred and fifty more if we're really going to seriously
police the city the way it needs to be. And
also we want to get rid of all this kind
of crazy zoning stuff, including this connected Community thing that
they've done, which will just absolutely got our neighborhoods with
a bunch of garbage housing that nobody wants. Yeah, so
you know, we're aligned on those issues, and it just

(41:43):
felt like the right way. There's a lot of people,
you know, who are going to vote for Charter people
and Democrats and Republicans, and we think that's the way
this government works best when you got everybody represented, Steve.

Speaker 1 (41:53):
I got to ask you this question. I'm asking it
at every one. I'm pretty sure I know the answer.
What do you think is the most important issue facing
the city, and if elected, what would you do to
make that problem go away or make it go away
as best you can.

Speaker 2 (42:09):
Look, we have a police staffing crisis, like period full stop.
It's been building for years. Back when when Smitherwin and
I were on council, we tried to address it by
taking some of the COVID federal money and putting it
aside so we could do three knee recruit classes. That
didn't hold. A council has a spending problem. They spend
money on stupid pet projects millions per year, things like

(42:33):
urban gardening and dance lessons and all these things that
are almost too ridiculous. When I talk about it, people
think you must be kidding. I'm not. I mean, there
really is a council member who thinks that we can
stop gun violence by handing out fruit and vegetables to
young men who might be I'm not kidding, like he's
a really ripe tomato, don't shoot the guy. It's absurd,

(42:53):
And they've spent millions on this stuff rather than putting,
you know, putting that money into the police recruit classes
and recruiting laterals and getting our staffing levels where they
need to be. I mean, it's an absolute disgrace. You know,
what's occurred here and what they've allowed to occur. We
need at least three hundred, maybe four hundred new police

(43:14):
officers over the next two years if we're even going
to be keep up with the retirements that are going
on and actually do the kind of beat policing that
we know works. So that is the number one priority.
You cannot have a city, You cannot have a civil society,
you know, if you don't have an adequate police force.
And that is our situation here. Our police officer's name

(43:34):
Morales and a toilet. We don't even really have a
chief right now. Politics is everywhere in the department, the
rank and file officers, despite their contract, and see how
the chief is being treated and how everyone and the
other command staff being treated. It is just a terrible, terrible,
terrible way to run a city and it needs to
be fixed top to bottom or we're not going to

(43:56):
have a city to talk about.

Speaker 1 (43:57):
I think you just addressed the next question I was
going to ask if you thought that Chief Fiji had
been treated fairly. I think clearly I'm hearing your answer
that would.

Speaker 2 (44:07):
Be no, absolutely, yes, absolutely. Look, I mean I had
big issues with Chief Fiji's performance down the stretch. I
mean I have big issues. I do believe that over
time should become kind of part of the problem in
my view, particularly on this issue about police statistics. I mean,
I mean, the mayor and council have a gigantic The
biggest problem is a credibility problem, because they spent all

(44:29):
summer telling us we didn't have a real uptick in shootings,
we weren't really seeing more gun violence. It's all the
statistics will bear this out. It's really not what it seems.
And then all of a sudden they got to a
point where they couldn't deny it anymore. So they basically
spent the summer lying, and the chief was kind of
part of that. I have to say it, and I
mean I was very critical of her at times, but
I'm just saying this, And you were in the army too,

(44:50):
you know how it is to be an officer. This
isn't how you remove someone. This isn't how you deal
with the change of command. Even if they have a
case against her, which they really do. I mean, I
think really what she did was implement these policies they
told her to implement them. When they didn't work, they
cut her loose, and that's I think that's really what
happened here. But even if they even if she had

(45:11):
done something actually wrong, This isn't the way you do it.
You don't play this out in public. You have to
be mindful of the impact as will have on the
morale of the rank and file. It just shows that
these folks have no real experience in the real world,
either in law enforcement, military, or even just basic business experience.
This isn't how you manage a large urban police department.

(45:35):
So I do feel for her. There was no need
to humiliate her a treat her the way they have,
and I'm sorry. As a lawyer, I can tell you
they're going to end up paying it at the end
of the day, with taxpayer dollars. She's going to get paid.
That's the only way this happens, otherwise if they don't
pay her. I'd love to see the trial where she
lays out all these private conversations she had with our
mayor and the chief and the council where they talk

(45:56):
about these goopy progressive policies that just you know, have
almost ruined the same.

Speaker 1 (46:00):
You're right, and I'll tell you what. They're going to
have to back up the Brins truck to city Hall
for that settlement, as well as the fire chief. I
got to ask you this, it's very important to me
and I think others, and I should mention that you
did receive the FOP endorsement Issue five back in two thousand.
You're familiar with it, hunch, you steve what it was.

Speaker 2 (46:21):
Yep, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (46:22):
Okay, here's my question, if elected, re elected or technically
I guess not re elected, if you go back to council,
will you do what you can do to see that
that either gets back on the ballot or at least
it is clipped somewhat. Because I'm telling you right now,
I'm old enough to know this. If Issue five did

(46:43):
not succeed in the year two thousand, we wouldn't be
going through all this nonsense with the police chief. Will
you do whatever is in your power to see that
that is put back on the ballot.

Speaker 2 (46:56):
Yeah, Mike, absolutely, It either needs to be straight out
repealed or significantly reworked. And I mean, just to remind
your audience, really, what it did was Issue five gave
the mayor really and the city manager the ability to remove,
basically remove the police chief from civil service protection. You know,
the rank and file police officers have a contract, they

(47:18):
have a process. You can't just fire them. And that's
because police officers face false charges all the time. I mean,
people claim that they were injured and arrests and they
were not. It's just it comes with the job, so
they have to have some protection against false claims. But really,
what Issue five did is put the police chief at
the burgscity of the political leadership. At the time, that
was hailed as this big reform that would make the

(47:39):
police department more responsive to the civilians and to voters,
et cetera. But we also see now it has led
to a scenario where, you know, where political pressure can
be brought to bear and just to absolutely demoralize the
police department. So it absolutely needs to be revisited. I
also believe that at the end of the day, though,
we cannot talk about this without also talking about the

(48:00):
city manager. For years, the Charter Party has been saying
that you ought to be able to remove that that
the city manager should also be able to be right
now can be removing the mayor should be able to
be removed by a majority of council as well. That's
the only way to make the city manager more responsible
and in the chain of command. Really, the city manager
is the one who is directly over the police chief.

(48:21):
So I think if we're really going to bring accountability here,
rather than having the police chiefs more at the mercy
of the politicians, is to actually be the city manager
who should have to answer more directly to council and
to have some checks and balances to keep this sort
of nonsensical situation going on. Right now, you can tell

(48:42):
from the public record that there are backdoor conversations going
on about personnel matters there in particularly regards to the
police chief, that are just inappropriate bad business, and we
need to make that more transparent and open. So an
Issue five is a big part of that. And whether
or not the city manager can be fired by council
is another big part of that. You're a puzzle.

Speaker 1 (49:01):
You're absolutely right, Steve, And the city of Cincinnati was
at least until Issue five, unique in that the chief
of police, fire chief, and I think some other officials
had that civil service protection. And I can guarantee you,
I mean, I've been around long enough to know to
make this statement definitively, had you had a chief striker,
chief Whalen, that those chiefs did not have to do

(49:23):
what the issue of ISU five, you wouldn't have this
crap that's going on in the city now. I mean
I feel very confident saying that.

Speaker 2 (49:32):
Oh absolutely, And I think one of the things that
we've lost here is that the police chief under that
system had the independence to push back against the election officials,
you know, and say, hey, look good it, we're not
staff properly, your kind of your lack of enforcement of
low level crimes isn't working. Your friends, mister mayor and

(49:52):
council members over at the courthouse are letting people out
the archives arrest within twenty four hours with guns. She
would have an independent chief as the ability to push
back and raise those issues. I mean, right now, politics
has crept into every last part of the upper achelon
of that department over there. And I mean, look, there
were times when Chief Deiji was forced into a position

(50:14):
or she had to provide political cover for the city
manager and for the mayor. And it's an absolute corruption
of our system. It's not the way it's supposed to work.
She's supposed to be out there for the rank and
file officers and to protect the public and to really
talk bluntly about what we need and don't need in
terms of staffing and resources. And she was not. She
was part I have to have used to introduce her

(50:36):
as quote, part of their team, and that's not the
way it's supposed to be. The police chief is supposed
to be with the police in the public.

Speaker 1 (50:42):
Yep, Hey, Steve, Unfortunately we're out of time, but best
of luck on Tuesday. I think you've put yourself in
a position to get back on there and we wish
all the luck in the world.

Speaker 2 (50:52):
You know, it feels really good. We're going over to
the Board of Elections to remind everyone you can still
vote early through tomorrow afternoon at four pm to come down.
It is kind of cold, crappy out, but come on down.

Speaker 3 (51:04):
We'll be there all weekend.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
All right, Thanks Steve, take care, thank you? Okay, all right,
that was Steve Gooden, a charter candidate for city council.
I think he's got a shot at breaking through. Even
as we've been saying in a three to one Democrat city,
I think Steve's got a chance of cracking that nine.
We shall see. Hey, we got to take a break.
Button we get back, We're going to be talking to

(51:27):
Corey Bowman, who I'm sure y'all know is a candidate
for mayor. I think he's done an incredible job. I
think he's done an amazing job. We're going to talk
to him about what he would do if he is
elected mayor of the City of Cincinnati. We'll do that
when we get back Mike Allen. Back Mike Allen, Saturday midday,
moving on with our discussion with candidates for city council,

(51:52):
our next best candidate for mayor, and we're going to
talk to Josh Berkelewitz next Judge joshsh Berkowitz about his
re election efforts. But with that, I want to talk
to Corey Bowman. He is the founding pastor of The
River Church in Cincinnati, co owner of King's Arms Coffeehouse.
He's an Ohio native, graduate of the former School of

(52:13):
Business at Miami and I should mention before I forget
he is also FOP endorsed. Corey. Thanks so much for
checking in with us this morning.

Speaker 3 (52:24):
Mike.

Speaker 6 (52:24):
Thank you so much to you and your listeners for
having me. I'm sorry for any noise in the background.
Work in the West End today volunteering at Saint Vincent
DePaul for their food panter.

Speaker 1 (52:34):
There you go. The weekend before election is one that
candidates who are serious are out there working it and
I think Corey, you have run an incredible campaign. I
think when it was first announced, a lot of people thought, hey,
you know, here's the cannon fodder for our mayor candidate.
Nothing could be further from the truth. You're working it

(52:54):
hard on a lot of people's opinion, You're talking about
the right issue. So with that, I wanted to ask you.
I know I know the answer to this question, but
I'm going to ask you anyway, what do you feel
is the major issue facing Cincinnati City Council and the
mayor at this point in time.

Speaker 6 (53:15):
Well, I think we've got to eliminate the opinion that
Skyline's better than gold Star, because gold Star is a
clear winner on this thing, and that's what people really
care about.

Speaker 3 (53:24):
My gallum.

Speaker 1 (53:25):
You know what, Thank you for correcting me. What would
you say that is the second most important issue?

Speaker 6 (53:32):
By the way, I love gold I love the Skyline
as well.

Speaker 7 (53:35):
I love them both.

Speaker 6 (53:36):
But I definitely think that people it's obvious that the
issue at hand is public safety. Public safety, public safety,
that is what people care about. That's why our FOP
endorsement so vital in this Because we've had the conversations
with cops. We've had the conversations with the people that
know how to get the job done. We know what's

(53:56):
happening that is preventing that from taking place in our city,
and that's what we're going to be focusing on as
mayor of Cincinnati.

Speaker 1 (54:03):
If elected, Mayor Corey, what will be the first thing
you do? I mean, the mayor's got some power, more
than ordinary council members, which was the history for a while,
but the mayor's got some clout and got some Jews.
What will be the first thing that you do on
the crime issue?

Speaker 6 (54:22):
Well, the first thing is obviously we have to be
able to work with everybody at City Hall. And so
going into January, we're going to have a new council
or whatever the elected council is. That's what we're going
to be going into to work with. We have to
be able to assess the city manager's office properly. We
have to be able to assess all of the boards
and committees to make sure that the right people are

(54:44):
in and from my perspective, this isn't about Republican or Democrats.
This is about making sure that people are in these
positions to have a heart for our city. And that
don't have a heart for their own personal agendas or
their own political careers. Now, once we get past that,
we've got to do three things. We've got to allow
the officers to do their job. I know that that

(55:05):
sounds very simple and overly simplified, but the reality of
it is that when we see the litigation that's coming
forth from Chief CG and the details of that, that
is confirmed that from the top down, these officers and
even the chief have been not able to do their
jobs properly as far as enforcing the low level crimes

(55:25):
de espalation tactics and making sure that they do things properly.
Number two, we've got to bring the complement levels up.
We are twenty percent understaff right now. That has to
be a priority, not in an election year, not during
the summer. That has to be a priority from day one.
We have to implement lateral hiring.

Speaker 3 (55:44):
And once the.

Speaker 6 (55:45):
Lateral hiring class realizes that we have strong leadership in place,
we're going to make sure that we have the proper
staffing in our police department. And then finally, we have
to put pressure on the judges privately at first, and
if they do not comply, we have to do it
publicly and make sure they know we have the whole
criminals accountable. We have to make sure our streets are sife.

Speaker 1 (56:07):
You know, just as in aside. I'm about ninety percent retired,
but I do have a couple of cases left. I
was there in the courthouse this week and I couldn't
believe it. I mean the lack of cases that not
only in the municipal Court but in Common Police Court
as well. Cops just aren't being proactive and aggressive like

(56:28):
they used to be. When I say that, I mean
appropriately proactive and aggressive. What can you do, Corey Bowman
as mayor to address that issue? So the cops are
out there again like they used to be, being aggressive
and being proactive, what do you think you could do
as mayor to get that back to where it was.

(56:50):
I know you weren't around then, but I was. And
it's just amazing the drop in the number of cases
in both Common Police and Municipal Court.

Speaker 3 (57:01):
Well.

Speaker 6 (57:01):
Also, let's we have to mention too that the jails
are empty. We have two hundred beds and empty, and
then that's not including the two floors that are locked
down that haven't been used. So a lot of people say, oh,
the jails are overrun.

Speaker 7 (57:13):
No they're not.

Speaker 6 (57:14):
But what we have to do it might seem simplified.
But when the cops, the officers, the police chiefs and
everybody knows that they're strong leadership in place that will
back them up, they will enforce the law. Now, this
isn't trying to go against the collaborative agreement, This isn't
trying to go against the common sense of accountability and
transparency that has to be on our officers. But whenever

(57:38):
they feel like they're on pins and needles with every situation,
they can't approach, they can't just ask simple questions. They
don't feel like the city has their back. They don't
feel like city Hall has their back. That's going to
change from day one of our administration, whether it be
with public press Thompsons, whether it be with meetings with
the entirety of all the officers, letting them know that
we've got their back and our policies are actually going

(58:03):
to back that up as well. Our hiring is going
to back that up, our funding is going to back
that up, and our pressure on the courts is going
to back that up.

Speaker 1 (58:11):
Absolutely. Let me ask you this, I'm asking all the
council and mayor candidates this, do you think Chief Fiji
was given a fair shake by the city administration in
all the hubbub of the last I don't know six
weeks or a month or so, yeah.

Speaker 6 (58:28):
And I think that you know what we saw over
the summer months. There was a lot of people in
my comments sections that were telling me to call for
the resignation.

Speaker 3 (58:36):
Of the firing of Police Chief Sigi.

Speaker 6 (58:38):
But I told people that the only person I'm calling
to be fired is that to have purval on November fourth,
and once we get in place there we can actually
see what's going on. Our suspicions, which have been confirmed
by this litigation from Chief Figi, is that the chief
was actively trying to fight crime in practical ways with
pressure on the courts, with other things when it came

(59:01):
to enforcing low level crimes, and she got a flat
out no from City Hall, from the City manager's office.
And when you look at the letters and the messages
that have come from the City Manager's office to the
police chief, that is not allowing a police chief to.

Speaker 3 (59:16):
Do their job.

Speaker 6 (59:17):
That is a gag order, that is non disclosure agreement,
that is fear tactics, and that cannot happen. We need
a chief to be able to know that, no matter what,
they are going to do their job properly and they're
going to have the backing of City Hall.

Speaker 1 (59:33):
That is so important I think, and I know a
lot of other people think that as well. We're also
discussing with all the candidates the matter of Issue five
back in two thousand. I know you weren't here then, Corey,
but I'm sure you do know about it. If elected
as mayor, would you do everything within the mayor's power
to see that that is put back in front of

(59:56):
the voters of the City of Cincinnati to reconsider it.
Because I've been around long enough Corey Bowman to know
that if Issue five had not passed and the chief
of police, and let me mention too, I was reminded
by a former chief of police just she texted me,
not only the chief, the assistant chiefs lost civil service

(01:00:17):
protection when Issue five passed in the year two thousand.
I guess it's all a long way of saying, will
you do what you can to get that back before
the voters.

Speaker 7 (01:00:28):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (01:00:28):
Well, so I think that we have to hear from
the voices of the cops. We have to hear from
the voices of those that actually have stake in the matter,
and when you hear them, that's what I'm hearing right now.
I would continue to have more conversations to make sure
that we're hearing from every group and every perspective. But
what we're hearing right now, based on conversations I'm having
right now, is the issue five was a major issue

(01:00:51):
that has caused problems for the leadership in Cincinnati PB,
and we got to be able to look at that.
And if they're a ballot initiative needs to be put
out to be able to give people the choice, then
we would do everything we can to give people that choice.

Speaker 1 (01:01:05):
That's what needs to happen. I'll tell you what I mean.
I don't know a lot about a lot, but I
think I know a lot about a little. And when
that thing passed and I think it was fifty two
forty eight, I mean it was really close. I said
to myself, this is going to be an absolute disaster.
It took a while for the disaster to set in,
but it certainly has. And I know from talking to

(01:01:28):
Ken Kobert that the FOP is jassed up to get
it back on the ballot if that's possible. So I
appreciate your comments on that. I wanted to ask you too,
did you see I guess it came out yesterday, reported
yesterday some new videos of what I call the downtown
beatdown the way The Inquirer had their headline how new

(01:01:49):
videos of downtown brawl shake up Cincinnati's mayoral election. First
of all, did you see it? If you did, what
do you think?

Speaker 6 (01:01:59):
Yeah, and start for the noise in the background here.
But I saw it, and I actually called a press
conference on Forth and Elm last night to discuss it.
I wanted to make it very clear that, you know,
whenever we get to be mayor of Cincinnati next year,
one of the biggest things we have to run on
is transparency.

Speaker 7 (01:02:18):
There's a very big.

Speaker 6 (01:02:19):
Difference between telling the public that the details will come
out and that the investigation is ongoing, versus purposely withholding
information that could diffuse a situation in our city. In
the summer months when this fight happened, there was so
much division and unrest between groups of people, between people
living downtown, even from a racial aspect, and a lot

(01:02:42):
of this stuff could have been diffused if all the
information could have been brought forth. Now we're hearing that
the mayor didn't even want to see the full footage,
and then when the city was asked to present these
videos to the media, they were rejected. Now said two weeks,
three weeks after the today, I understand. Let the investigators

(01:03:02):
do their job well when it's months afterwards, and this
is critical information that could help ease the division and
the unrest in our downtown area. But you're allowing that
to just be hindered. Then that shows me that in
an election year, you're just trying to divide people and
you're just trying to get people to be stacked up
against each other. As a mayor, I know that everybody

(01:03:23):
sees as a Republican or Democrat. You're not voting for
Republican or Democrats with Corey Bowman, You're voting for a
Cincinnati and I'm going to fight for people that hate me.
I'm going to fight for people that live in our city.
And that's what we need from city hall. We don't
need this partisan battle that copy and paste from national politics.
We need people that can have safe streets, clean streets,

(01:03:45):
and prosperous streets and that's what we're going to focus on.

Speaker 1 (01:03:48):
Gotcha, Hey, we got about two minutes left, Corey Bowman,
what would you like to say in those two minutes?
As we are three days out from the election.

Speaker 6 (01:03:59):
I would say that if you were a person that
has not gotten involved in these elections in the past,
because you haven't seen anybody that represents you on the ballot.
This year, we have twenty seven strong candidates for council
and we have an option for mayor of Cincinnati. And
I would encourage people, if you haven't gotten out to
vote and these off your elections, get out to vote.

(01:04:21):
And then for those that might be iffy about who
to vote for, I would encourage you vote outside your
comfort zone and consider that new leadership in place that
has a heart for this city and that knows how
to surround themselves with the people, to have a heart
for the city and practically can implement policies that can
protect our people, then vote for Corey Bowman for Mayor

(01:04:43):
of Cincinnati. We're in the final days right now. We've
got early voting that's happening today and tomorrow. There's no
early voting on Monday, and then Tuesday, the polls are open.
This is one of the most critical elections in the
history of our city, and everybody's got to participate.

Speaker 1 (01:04:59):
Absolutely. Bowman really appreciates you taking time out from your
very busy day to talk to us about all this
and good luck on Tuesday.

Speaker 6 (01:05:08):
Hey, we're meeting at Price Hill Chili at one pm
today to go drop literature. If anybody wants to meet us.

Speaker 1 (01:05:14):
There, there you go. Thanks Corey Miellan. Okay, all right,
that was Corey Bowman, candidate for mayor. You know I
should have told him to Price Hell Chili. I put
them in the top three of chile in the City
of Cincinnati. But hey, that's just me. Seriously, though, I'll
tell you what, when he was announced as a candidate,

(01:05:35):
all that well, you know what, he'll make a name
for himself and maybe run for counsel at some point.
I completely turn that around. He has done an amazing
job of articulating the issues that I think people in
the City of Cincinnati are talking about. Again, you got
a three to one voting advantage for Democrats in the

(01:05:56):
City of Cincinnati. But this is a different kind of election,
this is different kind of year. I think Corey's got
a shot at breaking through and man, how that would
improve this city. Hey, we got to take a break.
Butt when we get back, we're going to switch gears
a little bit and talk judicial with Judge Josh Berkowitz.

(01:06:16):
He's of the Hamilton County Municipal Court. He's up for
election on Tuesday as well. We'll do that when we
get back. Mike Allen, Saturday Midday News Radio seven hundred WLW.
Mike Allen with hour three, which is the third and
final hour of Saturday Midday, going to do a little

(01:06:39):
segue here. Been talking about mayor and council all morning,
but we want to talk about Municipal Court District four
and Judge Josh Berkowitz is the judge in that position,
and he has been since two thousand and fifteen, ten
years experience as a municipal court judge. And I can
tell you over that ten years, I've yeared before him

(01:07:00):
any number of times representing clients and he is incredibly
fair and that's all you can ask for out of
a judge. He was the former law director of the
city in Norwood, an assistant Hamilton County and Franklin County prosecutor. Judge,
thanks so much for joining us. This morning.

Speaker 3 (01:07:21):
Thanks Mike, thanks for having me on.

Speaker 1 (01:07:22):
Hey, can you briefly explain your judicial district and how
the districts work. I don't want to take a lot
of your time, but I don't think a lot of
people understand that it's not, and it hasn't been for
a long time, a county wide election, right.

Speaker 5 (01:07:39):
So, municipal court in Hamilton County are we have fourteen judges.
We take cases from all over Hamilton County, but we
run in districts, seven geographical districts. There's two judges elected
from each district. My district is kind of the southeast

(01:07:59):
of the county. So if you imagine a map, Norwoods
right in the middle, and you move east from there
through kind of the east side of Cincinnati, Oakley, Hyde Park,
Mount Lookout, Mount Washington, and then all of Anderson Township, Marymont, Newtown,
kind of the east end along Kellogg and the Ohio

(01:08:21):
River there, kind of bending into downtown.

Speaker 1 (01:08:25):
Gotcha. I appreciate you doing that and in your opinion
the importance of municipal court. I've heard it referred to
as the McDonald's of the justice system, not in a
negative way, in a positive way, because you all got
to deal with everything, and it's the court that most
citizens I think get their impressions of the judicial system.

(01:08:47):
Would you have anything to add with that or do
you agree with it?

Speaker 3 (01:08:51):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (01:08:51):
Absolutely, I mean we are the people's court. This is
a really and this is a really exciting moment. You know,
here we are days before the election and this year,
I mean municipal court. You can't overstate the importance to
public safety.

Speaker 2 (01:09:07):
It is.

Speaker 5 (01:09:07):
Public safety is absolutely on the ballot right next to
me on Tuesday, and that's why this race is really critical,
critically important. The contrast could not be more stark between
myself and my record over ten years as a judge
and as you mentioned, eight years as an assistant prosecutor

(01:09:28):
in two different counties, and my opponent, who is absolutely
part of the progressive political left. And that's what they
want to bring to the court or more of it,
and no doubt, no surprise, they don't want to talk
about public safety. I mean, that's that's just not a priority.

(01:09:50):
That's not what you're seeing them talk about. Her supporters,
the people who put who put this candidate up against me,
they want to hear and talk about anything but public safety.

Speaker 3 (01:10:00):
The and that that shouldn't.

Speaker 5 (01:10:01):
Surprise anybody, because the reality is, uh, that progressive kind
of political and judicial philosophy, you know, it now dominates
the courthouse and the criminal justice system, as.

Speaker 3 (01:10:12):
You know, Mike.

Speaker 5 (01:10:13):
Uh, They've got the prosecutor, they've got the sheriff, they've
got a majority of the Common Pleas Court, the entire
Court of Appeals, they've got you know, Cincinnati police leadership
and meaning city Hall. Uh, they've got the Public Defender's office,
and the appeals court. The municipal court has really been
kind of the last hold out there where we have judges, uh,

(01:10:36):
such as myself. You know, my record has been consistent.

Speaker 3 (01:10:41):
It's equal justice for all.

Speaker 5 (01:10:43):
I don't buy into uh, these these terms. The terminology
that you hear that sounds packaged up, real, real nice,
like uh, smart justice. I mean, who would be opposed
to smart justice or you know, restorative justice. But uh,
you know when you when you kind of break it
down just a little bit and scratch just below the surface,

(01:11:05):
you figure out real quick that that kind of terminology
is just the same old kind of social justice replay
that we've seen in this community and around the country
kind of percolate up through colleges and law schools, and
now it's in the court system and it's been a
disaster everywhere. So specifically, what I'm talking about are things

(01:11:30):
like no cash bail, which has created the revolving.

Speaker 3 (01:11:35):
Door at the jail that you're familiar with.

Speaker 5 (01:11:39):
We're talking about defunding the police, and people say, well,
defund the police that never came to Cincinnati or you
know as well as I do, and Ken Kobra will
tell you Cincinnati Police is one hundred and forty officers
below where their contract says that they're supposed to be.
When you're one hundred and forty officers, and that's an improvement,

(01:11:59):
by the way, it was two hundred officers earlier in
the year. One hundred and forty officers below where the
contract says they should be.

Speaker 3 (01:12:07):
That's defund the police.

Speaker 5 (01:12:09):
That means you're not devoting the resources necessary to fully.

Speaker 3 (01:12:13):
Staff your law enforcement.

Speaker 5 (01:12:15):
You know, the when you talk about smart justice or
restorative justice, Well that's the two or three hundred empty
beds at the Hamilt's County Justice Center. And it's been
that way for five years. Judgment policies are year years
in the making.

Speaker 1 (01:12:31):
I'll tell you what I mentioned this before. I'm about
ninety percent retired. I've got two cases left. I was
there at the courthouse this week. I couldn't believe it.
It was like a damn ghost town. Not just unicourt
courtrooms because I got into a couple of them, but
common pleas as well. It's stunning how the cases have dropped.

(01:12:54):
And as you just pointed out and others have said,
there's plenty of room at the end so to speak
at the Justice Center. How do you explain that? And
I know you got to be careful what you say
as a judge, but is there anything you would have
to offer on that point?

Speaker 5 (01:13:09):
Yeah, I mean, look, there's no question there's been these
changes in philosophy from the bench in terms of bond
setting and in terms of sentencing, both in our court
and the Common Police Court.

Speaker 3 (01:13:22):
And there's been.

Speaker 5 (01:13:24):
Major changes in enforcement, particularly at City Hall. I mean
there's no question that they have, and they've essentially acknowledged
as much recently that they were telling officers to reduce
the number of arrests for what they call minor offenses.

(01:13:44):
They changed the way that they wanted officers to enforce
the law, to be less proactive, to be less and
to be more reactive, more responding to calls for assistance,
and less proactively forming the law, whether you're talking about
traffic law, whether you're talking about you know, going after
illegal drugs or illegal guns, or trying to get at

(01:14:08):
the people who are actually responsible, uh for the lion's
share of the violence in our community. And and and
in replacement of all that, you know, you hear this again.

Speaker 3 (01:14:18):
You hear this.

Speaker 5 (01:14:18):
Flowery language like root causes, and I hear that from
my opponent and her supporters, uh that well, we need
to address the root causes all this. When you hear
somebody talk to you about root causes, you better hold
on to your wallet, Mike, because the reality is that
what that translates to is absolutely no one will be

(01:14:40):
held accountable for criminal conduct, and you're gonna pay for
it in the form of taxes going to all these uh,
all these treatment providers, all these service providers. You know,
they're gonna they're gonna make money off of the situation,
and no one's gonna be held accountable. And who gets

(01:15:00):
entirely forgotten in that situation the victims of crime.

Speaker 3 (01:15:05):
Yep, absolutely ignore.

Speaker 5 (01:15:06):
You're not going to hear anything about the victims of
crime from the people who promote this progressive agenda.

Speaker 1 (01:15:12):
Let me ask you this, judge, we've got about four
minutes left. We got the election in just a couple
of days. Would you like to make a closing argument,
so to speak, in those about four minutes, about what
you want to do if and when you're reelected, which
I hope and pray that you are.

Speaker 7 (01:15:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:15:34):
I mean, Mike, I've been consistent as a judge and
before that as a prosecutor. Public safety has always been
a priority of my career and it should be. I
mean it should be when you take the bench. We
have a direct impact through things like bond setting. You know,
the opposition would have you believe that municipal court does nothing,

(01:15:55):
but you know, jaywalking and littering tickets.

Speaker 3 (01:15:59):
I mean, it's really ridiculous.

Speaker 5 (01:16:02):
We set bonds on more than a thousand cases every week.
And when you have judges who bring a political agenda
to that process and they're not just applying the law
as it's written, and they're not treating victims with the
seriousness that these cases demand, then you get absurd results.

Speaker 3 (01:16:23):
And that's what we're seeing.

Speaker 5 (01:16:25):
When I do my job correctly, and I'm proud of
my record over the last ten years. When we do
our job correctly as judges, we have the opportunity to
deter criminal behavior. I mean, you don't hear about that,
but jail deters criminal behavior. There are people who have
come back to see me, who have thanked me, who
have said that they didn't want to go back to jail,

(01:16:45):
and so they got sober, so they got a job,
so they turn their lives around. That happens. It happens
more than anybody in the media or in politics would
want to believe or want you to believe. Jails indentivize
people to get help, to get to get treatment. We
have an opportunity to intervene directly to disrupt cycles of

(01:17:08):
violence and cycles of abuse and trauma. I mean, these
are important opportunities. And we also show victims and witnesses
that our system works, that it's functional, that it's fair,
that they have a real opportunity.

Speaker 2 (01:17:24):
To get justice.

Speaker 5 (01:17:25):
And you know, the flip side of that is when
people see the revolving door and they see no cash bail,
and they see that there's not police in their neighborhoods
and that people aren't being held accountable. You know, the
message gets sent real quickly that there's no consequences for

(01:17:46):
criminal misbehavior, for criminal conduct and just anti social behavior
in general. So we have a strong we have an
opportunity to send a really strong message not just to
all the judges, but to all those offices that I
mentioned that this community expects and demands that public safety

(01:18:07):
be treated as the priority that it is to everyone.

Speaker 3 (01:18:09):
This is not a you know, it's.

Speaker 5 (01:18:11):
Not one neighborhood out of another, or you know, a
wealthy neighborhood thing, uh, Indian Hill or Hyde Park. I mean,
this is across the county. I really believe that people
are fed up with this. People who live, especially in
high crime neighborhoods, they want to see some accountability. They
want they want to they know who the dangerous people

(01:18:32):
are and they want them held accountable and taking off
the streets.

Speaker 3 (01:18:36):
Uh. People who want to get involved.

Speaker 5 (01:18:38):
I mean, this is a tremendous opportunity the last three
days UH to get involved. And you can do that
right now. You can go to keep Judge Berkowitz dot com.
You can sign up to help on election day, you
can donate, you can share with your friends. Don't ever
assume that people know this stuff or people have an opinion.
A lot of people are going to show up on

(01:18:58):
election day and they have and they really don't know
where I stand or where my opponent stands. The ballot
doesn't tell them anything about party affiliation. It doesn't tell
them anything that I'm the judge or the incumbent and
that and that my opponent has never held elective office before.
It doesn't tell them anything about you know, who's endorsed

(01:19:19):
me or or who's endorsed my opponent. So we've got
to reach those folks.

Speaker 3 (01:19:24):
Ahead of time. And when you.

Speaker 5 (01:19:25):
Send a text message or an email and you link
my website or my YouTube video, uh, that goes a
tremendously long way towards getting that message across. This will
be a low turnout election. We know that, uh, And
so every single vote takes takes a tremendous amount of significance.

Speaker 1 (01:19:45):
All right, Judge, I really appreciate you coming on. I
know how busy you are this weekend, and best of
luck on Tuesday.

Speaker 3 (01:19:53):
Thanks Mike. I really appreciate your time. This is this
is exciting. We're going to get it done, and I
really appreciate your time.

Speaker 1 (01:20:00):
My pleasure. Thank you, youre honor all right. That was
Judge Josh Berkelewitz. And again I can only say what
my experience has been, and he's been an incredibly fair judge.
And I don't know that you can say anything more. Hey,
we got to take a short break, but we will
be back. Mike Allen Saturday Video seven hundred WLW Mike

(01:20:21):
Allen in the closing a half hour of Saturday Midday
and batting cleanup today, which I think is appropriate. Is
Christopher Smitheman. Christopher served on council. He also served when
he was on Council on the Law and Public Safety Committee.
I think that's going to serve him well as he

(01:20:43):
goes back to Cincinnati City Council. Has a Master's in
Counseling from Bowling Green, bachelor's and criminal Justice in the
Ohio State University. And he's very well versed on crime
and the crime issues. And he's one heck of a
financial advisor. I will add last thing I want to
say before I turn it over to Christopher. He is

(01:21:04):
enthusiastically endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police. Christophers, thanks
for taking time out of what I know is a
busy day for.

Speaker 8 (01:21:11):
You today, Mike Allen, thank you so much for allowing
me to be on These are what we would call,
in your space as a lawyer, clothing argument.

Speaker 7 (01:21:23):
Yes, right, and the jury is in the box, and
we hope that they've been listening to all of the
evidence that we've been putting in front of them, that
we can make a change in the city and that
things are not on the right track. And so I
think we've presented a pretty good case for citizens and

(01:21:44):
it's now time for them to show up and vote.
You know, my concern is that voter turnout is low.
There's apathy out there. You know, I'm dropping in Camp
Washington today as an example, and we're just trying to
encourage people to participate in the political process. Because all
fifty two neighborhoods, we're all one year. This is one

(01:22:05):
Cincinnati to our regional partners, you know, the core is everything.
So we want people to come to the air and
off and we want them to come down to Jeff Rubi's.
We want them to come to the banks and enjoy
the the you know, the Bengals and Reds games and FC.
There's so much going on in our city. But if

(01:22:26):
crime continues to hit in the direction it is heading in,
our partners will not feel safe. Capital we're talking investment
dollars will be deployed other places because there are other options.
They can go right over across the bridge. They can
go to Indiana as an example, they can go to Chicago,

(01:22:46):
they can go to Florida if they want to. So
if we don't turn things around to our city residents,
money will not come here, development will not happen, and
we will hit in that track and start looking like Chicago,
which I have no desire to look like Chicago. But
how do you think Chicago got the way it was?

(01:23:07):
It was incremental. It wasn't just overnight, So it was
an incremental process over time where crime got out of control,
the criminals started running things, and people began the flight,
move out of the city, move out into the suburbs.
We don't want to have that happen. We've done a
great job turning things around places like OTR in the Mohawk.

(01:23:32):
We want to make sure we continue to have that
kind of investment in our court. Now that's not saying
that our other fifty one neighborhood's like a bond Hill,
who was very concerned about low income housing that's been
placed there that's impacting their equity and their homes where
they've been investing lots of money, and they're very concerned

(01:23:53):
about what's happening there, or what's happening in Evingston, or
what happened in Hyde Park and Mount Lookout, what's happening
in Camp where north Side. You know, the housing has
gotten so expensive that people are now moving into the
Camp and that neighborhood is having a transformative time right now.
My point is that Cincinnati, whether it's Mount Washington, whether

(01:24:16):
it's California, whether it's Columbia Tusculum, we could turn things around,
but we cannot allow our core to fall. We can't
have people shooting our Fountain Square, shooting off of Fountain Square.
We can't have youth that are thirteen and fourteen carrying
guns on the banks. We put lot. I put a

(01:24:36):
lot of time and energy in the creation of the door.
I don't want this to implode because parents can't keep
control of their kids. We need our cops. I've been
listening to your show, Mike Allen. Look, we clearly have attrition.
We've got two hundred cops and drops. We know that
that's going to continue to accelerate. One of the things

(01:24:57):
you'll see me do is go in and reassure those
cops that are thinking about retiring that I have their
back and that we need them, and that we need
them to train the new cops that we are hiring,
because that institutional memory is so important when those young
cops come out of training and they're in that six

(01:25:17):
month probation, we don't want to lose all that institutional memory.
So you'll see me going to roll calls. You'll see
me doing our ride along. You'll see me talking to
the FP and the police chief, trying to write the
ship and send the message to our officers and our
firefighters that when things are bad, I have their back.

(01:25:38):
When things are good, they're back, and that we need them.
If we don't get a hold of crime, none of
these things that we're talking about matter.

Speaker 1 (01:25:46):
Mike Allen, you're so right, and you're also so right,
Christopher in saying that we've got to protect the core.
I live downtown for about twelve years, and it's been
a while. It's even better now. What we have down
there and on the riverfront is amazing. It's like no
other city in this country, and we're in danger of
losing it if we still have the issue of crime

(01:26:09):
that's persistent. And I think if you are elected to council,
you can be the point person on that. I mean,
hopefully you get some more down there that will be
with you and other like minded people. But I guess
we'll have to see on that. I think Christopher, being honest,
of all the non incumbents running, based on your background

(01:26:31):
and based on your grasp of the crime issue, you
have the best shot of getting back on counsel. That's
just my opinion, now it's also the opinion of many others.

Speaker 7 (01:26:42):
Well. I appreciate that, Mike Allen, and I'll tell everybody listening, Look,
we have a great opportunity here and I view politics
and the love for our city. When I say our city,
I'm talking Mike Allen, all your listening audience, and anybody
that lives in our core, in our region. And the
reason I say, look, politics can be selfish, but I'm

(01:27:03):
just not a selfish politician. That's why I talk about
a Liz Keating who's running for city council, and I
don't want to just get elected. I want I want
a group of people to get elected. So somebody like
Liz Keating, great choice. I think a good is a
great choice. Great lawyer, great depth, smart, cares about the city,

(01:27:24):
lives in Clifton. Another great person. I really like a
Linda Matthews. Nice person, you know, solid, understands not just
politics but the running of the city. What about a
Dondry House, blue dog Democrat from the west side of town,
you know, very interested in housing and what's happening in

(01:27:45):
our in our housing stock, across our fifty two neighborhoods.
Great person to have on council, and the blue dog
Democrats are dying in the party. And that's why he's
a good candidate to get elected, because he's that he
that Tom Lucan, that Charlie Lucan, that John Cranley out there,
that's so important to the political process. So I talk

(01:28:08):
about a Dondreehouse. What about a Lakita Cole. You know,
she's a Democrat there, she's usually endorsed by the Democratic Party,
but they've abandoned her. I would say that a Latria
Cole could say the Democratic Party left her. She didn't
leave the Democratic Party, but she's out there working incredibly hard.
Somebody to really look at who can easily take one

(01:28:29):
of these seats, because you got four or five members
of council that people don't even know who they are.
They're not out here communicating, they're not out here knocking
on doors. And even right now is his video showing
the corruption at the highest levels. Please listen to what
I'm saying. I served on council. There's no way that
a video like that exists, and I don't know about it.

(01:28:51):
I'm gonna say that again. There is no way a
video exists that three c DC has that was just
released and I don't know about it. And so there
was a motivation here, I think, to divide the electric
racially different. Hard for people to hear. They wanted African
Americans to go in and be emotionally charged and believe

(01:29:14):
in some way they have been slighted. And so the
way Democrats tend to do that is they divide us
by race. And we've got to stop this madness. You know.
That's why I run as an independent because so often
the answers for most people are in the middle. They're
not on either side, and this is that sick part
where we have nine members of council wore Democrats, a

(01:29:36):
Democratic mayor, a Democratic administration, and all of them were
hiding the football like Charlie Brown. I'll say this to
you so clearly. I went to the School for Creative
and Performing Arts. This mayor and this council collectively, not individually,
but collectively collectively, remind me of the Scarecrow, no Brain.
They remind me of the ten Man, no Heart, They

(01:29:59):
remind me of the of the Lion, no courage. They're
the greatest trilogy of all. How do you have somebody
like Sarah Hearringer and her husband Patrick murdered in OTR
and this mayor doesn't reach out. How do you have
a Ronda Win where you have Cassandra Winn shot in
the back walking down the street in downtown Cincinnati at

(01:30:20):
nine or so in the evening. Not only has the
mayor not reached out, but we haven't even found out
who murdered her five children. Roder Winn is suffering out
here like crazy. My point to you is, we have
these high profile murders around us, and we have a
mayor that acts as if he doesn't have a heart.
We have a council collectively that doesn't have the courage

(01:30:42):
to stand up to that bully and tell him, listen,
you're not going to push us around. We're not going
to engage in corruption, and we have the right to
have independent opinions away from what the mayor has both
For Corey Bowman, absolutely, people have asked me, why are
you supporting Corey Bowman. We've got to hit a direction,
you know, as an independent, I believe that we I

(01:31:03):
don't look at party Mike Allen, I don't look at
any of this stuff. I'm into what is the best
for the city of Cincinnati. That's it. I don't care
about anything else. One day I might run for mayor.
Maybe I don't ever run for mayor, right, but the
point is, I only care about what is right for
the fifty two neighborhoods in Cincinnati, in our core. Because

(01:31:27):
indian yill places like Mason Right, places where we would
think about Anderson those them is naming some of our
surrounding areas. Their community will not drive into our core
if they don't feel safe and they don't think the
leadership has it on the ball. That's why I'm asking
you to vote for Smitherman for City Council. And those

(01:31:49):
are my closing arguments to the jury.

Speaker 1 (01:31:51):
All right, Christopher, we've got about three and a half
minutes here. I wanted you to talk a minute. I
have heard that the number that they're expecting the turnout
is like ten to fifteen percent, which is incredible, incredibly bad.
If you could address that, and if you have any
thoughts on how people should vote and what they can

(01:32:12):
do to help you in the closing days of the campaign,
and you got four weeks.

Speaker 7 (01:32:17):
We still need yard sign locations. We still need contributions
to our campaign, Smitherman for Cincinnati. They can drop them
off at seventeen oh three Deal Road in bond Hill,
which is where my financial planning practice is located. There's
a twenty four hour box there that they can put
a check in there. Our number there at seventy five
one three, eight eight eight. The apathy that is happening

(01:32:42):
in our city, meaning people feel like they are defeated,
and we've got to turn that around, and so every
vote counts. Because the voter turnout is so low fifteen
to twenty percent, that means we knock on ten doors
today of registered voters and only two of those houses
are coming out. The other eight are staying home. And

(01:33:02):
so we're trying to turn that around because there are
a lot of traditional voters, Mike Allen, and they don't
vote during the thirty days. They've flagged outside their houses.
Their families have served in the military or in the
police department or some way, and they feel like, I'm
only gonna vote on election day. Well, if that's where
you're gonna vote, we need you to show up in

(01:33:22):
heavy numbers on Tuesday between six thirty and seven point
thirty at your local polling location and let's see how
this thing turns out. Never vote for nine people for
city council. It's up to nine. I've given you a
lot of examples today of good people that are running
with good heart. I think four or five of those.
Let me also say Gary Favors is out there running,

(01:33:44):
good guy. But there are a lot of good people
out there running. Pick four or five of them and
stop there. You're looking just for a majority. Never vote
for nine people for city council. And I promise you,
if people listen that that one tool, we will absolutely
flip city council and and we will absolutely impact what's
happening in the mayor's office.

Speaker 1 (01:34:03):
There you go. I'll tell you what wise advice. Christopher.
We're out of time here, but thank you for being
so available to us, and good luck on Tuesday. I
think you've put yourself in a position to get back
on that thing.

Speaker 2 (01:34:17):
Mike.

Speaker 3 (01:34:17):
Here's my last promise.

Speaker 7 (01:34:19):
When I'm elected on Tuesday night, you will have the
exact same access to me that you have now in
good times and in battle, right, and so I'll bake
myself available for you to question me, question my votes,
question my decisions, and question what's happening. Too many of
these elected officials are hiding. And I also bought those
commercials during your show to extending you the respect that

(01:34:42):
I know that you deserve. And I'm so thankful the
access you've given me.

Speaker 1 (01:34:46):
Thank you, Christopher. Really a pace you might, Okay, I'll
talk to you probably before Tuesday, but if I own
good luck, Thank you brother. All right, all right, Christopher Smithman,
I'll tell you what man that young man gets back
on council. Whether he's got Republicans to work with, Charter rights,
he's going to make an impact in everything, but especially

(01:35:08):
especially in the crime issue, which is obviously the biggest
issue facing us, and you know, fifty percent of the vote.
I've never understood that. And as Christopher said, you don't
have to vote for nine. We shall see what happens. Hey, listen,
I'm out of time. I want to thank my great
producer Lian Liam Tomlinson, who keeps me out of trouble.