What happened to Justin Jeffre?

Cincinnati mayoral candidate and pop singer Justin Jeffre, a member of the rock group 98 Degrees, poses inside his campaign office Aug. 23. (Photo by Al Behrman/The Associated Press)

There's probably not much point in a postmortem on the fifth-place finish of an independent mayoral candidate. Then again, Justin P. Jeffre was never your typical also-ran.

Some of the more interesting perspective on the 98 Degrees singer's political defeat this week came from the entertainment media. Joal Ryan of E! Online talked to Hamilton County Democratic Party Chairman Timothy M. Burke:

"He didn't put together a campaign," Tim Burke, chair of Ohio's Hamilton County Democratic Party, said Wednesday. "I think he assumed he was far better known than he was."

To Burke's eye, Jeffre's get-out-the-vote effort consisted of "huge -- and I mean huge -- yard signs."

Terry Kinney of the Associated Press quotes Jeffre as saying he's not throwing away those signs yet:

"We're going to collect our big yard signs and leave the door open for another run," Jeffre said Wednesday. "Don't be surprised if you see JJ2k9 (Justin Jeffre 2009)."

Jeffre, 32, said he accomplished what he set out to do in his first run for mayor of his hometown.

"A lot of what we wanted to do is turn people on to this process, people who have been disconnected or don't buy into what they see as a spoiled or corrupt system," he said. "It was my way of bringing a little bit of fun and pop culture into what is usually thought of as a boring process."

Former Enquirer staffer Gil Kaufman, writing for MTV.com, noted that Jeffre wasn't even the first member of his band to think about running for Cincinnati mayor and making a reality television show about it:

Maybe Nick Lachey should have run after all.

Even with fund-raising help from his 98 Degrees bandmates, Justin Jeffre couldn't overcome voter skepticism -- and let's face it, with only 20 percent turnout, voter apathy -- about his campaign for Cincinnati mayor. The singer, 32, who announced his unlikely candidacy in April at his hometown alma mater, came in a distant fifth place in the nonpartisan primary held on Tuesday, garnering just 2 percent of the vote.

Finally, United Press International spun the loss as a good thing for 98 Degrees fans:

Justin Jeffre of 98 Degrees lost Cincinnati's mayoral primary, but fans of the former boy band have won because the campaign has spurred a reunion. ...

But a non-singing 98 Degrees reunion at a rally earlier this month got the guys talking and now, Jeffre said, they have plans to reunite in the near future and start working on their next project.

For all his international fame, Jeffre had fundamental problem for a politician: Cincinnati voters didn't know his name. A July 19 WCPO/Survey USA poll found his name recognition three percentage points higher than Sandra Queen Noble's. Even some of his 708 voters remembered him only as "Nick Lachey's friend," or "the kid in the boy band," or "Jeffries."

"I voted for Jeffries, believe it or not," said Christine Brown, 55, as she voted in Bond Hill Tuesday. "I saw him on WCET when they were debating the issues. He had some new, innovative ideas, and that's what Cincinnati needs. It wasn't so much a protest vote. I know the others will probably win. But if he has enough votes, he might think he has enough support and might run for City Council."

Voters found Jeffre unprepared to be mayor, but there's another City Council campaign in two years. Will he consider JJ2K7?