A council slate within a council slate

Cincinnati City Council field races are such cut-throat, dog-eat-dog affairs that the combatants generally go their separate ways and have little to do with each other, aside from the occasional handshake at a community council candidates' forum.

This year, there are 31 of them, as many candidates as Baskin Robbins has flavors; and they are tripping over each other in pursuit of one of the nine seats on City Council.

It is every man and woman for himself or
herself; and most of them wouldn't spit on an opponent if he were on fire.

Except for Wendell Young and Eve Bolton, who have formed their own campaign tag team. Both are endorsed Democratic Party candidates. But, generally speaking, the members of a party slate do little campaigning together; each pursues his or her own agenda and operates as a free agent.

But Young and Bolton have formed their own mini-slate, a slate within a slate.

When Bolton, a school teacher and former county recorder, gets up in front of a crowd at a community candidates' forum, she sings her own praises for a while, and then adds an unusual chorus - a pitch for her friend Young, a retired Cincinnati police officer.

And when Young's turn comes, he returns the favor.

So far, the two have sent out joint mailings to potential absentee voters, collaborated on a 50-point program called "Uniting to Save Our City,'' and are out raising money for TV campaign commercials that will feature both candidates. On Tuesday, they lunched at Bacall's Cafe on the Avenue in College Hill to meet with an unlikely adviser on their crime plan: former GOP mayoral candidate Charlie Winburn.

"I know it's kind of unusual, but Wendell and I found out we had a lot in common,'' said Bolton. "People seem to like it when they see two candidates they can elect who get along with each other.''

This is more than a mutual admiration society, though. There are some practical political realities that helped make this marriage.

Bolton will need substantial support from African-American voters if she is to win one of those nine seats; Young's base of support is in central city neighborhoods like Avondale, where he once walked the beat as a Cincinnati cop.

Young, on the other hand, could use a little help introducing hmself to the voters in predominately white, West Side precincts where he has never had particularly high visibility.

"We're both people who have some experience in life,'' said Bolton, a College Hill resident who has taught in the Wyoming school district for 32 years. "There are plenty of thin-and-thirty candidates. We're the team with experience."