Reece keeps campaign money in the family

Steve and Barbara Reece pose in front of their Bond Hill office and apartment building shortly after purchasing it in 1988. Daughter Alicia Reece pays her father rent to live there -- and her campaign pays him rent for her campaign headquarters in a neighboring building.

Of the $44,661 that Alicia Reece spent on her mayoral campaign in the last reporting period, $12,600 of it went to business interests controlled by her father, according to campaign finance reports filed Thursday.

Steven Reece Sr. owns the Bond Hill building where Reece has her campaign headquarters, and the campaign has paid him $2,000 a month in rent since she opened the campaign office in April. The campaign also spent $472 to fix up the building.

The campaign has purchased $4,600 in radio and television advertising through Steve Reece's advertising agency, Communiplex Services.

Steve Reece has said the expenditures were necessary because the city's election laws prohibit him from giving more than $1,000 in non-cash, or "in-kind," donations to his daughter's campaign. He said Communiplex has always served as a pass-through for advertising buys on local radio and television stations.

The reports also show that the campaign spent $1,500 in fees to attorney Rasheed Simmonds to defend Reece against a residency complaint. The Board of Elections threw out a complaint last week that alleged she did not live where she was registered to vote, in an apartment building behind the campaign headquarters.

Steve Reece said he could prove his daughter pays rent to live there -- he owns the apartment building, too.

(Photo by Dick Swaim/The Cincinnati Enquirer)