A brief history of the vice mayor's office

Democratic Mayor-elect Mark Mallory's decision to reach across party lines to pick Charterite Jim Tarbell as vice mayor is unusual -- but not unprecedented.

From 1926 to 1971, the mayor and the vice mayor came from the same political party. Because Democrats rarely fielded candidates of their own, whichever party got the most seats elected all the officers -- including the mayor, vice mayor, president pro-tem and committee chairmen.

That changed in 1971, when the Charter-Democratic coalition took control. The deal-making that produced that coalition often led to one-year mayors and cross-party vice mayors. Democratic Mayor Thomas A. Luken took on Charterite William J. Chenault as vice mayor. Charterite Bobbie Sterne served two stints as mayor, both times with Democrat David S. Mann as vice mayor. And who do you suppose was vice mayor when Democrat Jerry Springer was mayor? Then-Charterite J. Kenneth Blackwell, now Ohio Secretary of State.

That deal-making continued through Mayor Charlie Luken's "Gang of Five" days from 1985 to 1987, when Luken was elected mayor and Blackwell -- then a Republican -- was made vice mayor. (Blackwell insists to this day that he was the power behind the throne -- not because he was vice mayor, but because he chaired the powerful Finance Committee and headed the conservative caucus.) The city has had Democratic mayors and vice mayors ever since.

Few vice mayors have used the position as springboard to higher office. Of the 26 vice mayors since the 1925 charter, only seven have become mayor. The city's first woman mayor, Dorothy N. Dolbey, was vice mayor when Mayor Edward N. Waldvogel died. Some histories still record her as "acting mayor" for five months in 1954.

If the mayor's job was considered mostly ceremonial under the "weak mayor" system through 2001, the vice mayor's job was even more so. The first vice mayor under the "stronger mayor" system was Alicia Reece, who tried to raise the profile of the job by becoming a "national ambassador" for Cincinnati at a time when some civil rights groups were urging a boycott of the city.

But Reece said she had her own constituency, and didn't see herself as Mayor Luken's chief lieutenant on City Council. "Your first obligation is to remember that you're elected as a council member," she said. "The vice mayor is an additive."

A list of Cincinnati vice mayors, courtesy the Clerk of Council's office:

	Vice Mayor	Party	Years
	Stanley Mathews	Charterite	1926-1931
	John H. Druffel	Charterite	1932
	Edward B. Imbus	Charterite	1932-1937
	Nicholas Klein	Republican	1938-1939
	Edward N. Waldvogel	Charterite	1940-1941
	Willis D. Gradison	Republican	1942-1947
	Edward N. Waldvogel	Charterite	1948-1953
	Dorothy N. Dolbey	Charterite	1954
	Albert C. Jordan	Charterite	1954-1955
	Theodore M. Berry	Charterite	1956-1957
	William Cody Kelly	Republican	1958-1959
	Walton H. Bachrach	Republican	1960-1961
	Joseph L. DeCourcey	Republican	1961-1963
	Eugene P. Ruehlmann	Republican	1964-1967
	Willis D. Gradison Jr.	Republican	1968-1971
	William J. Chenault	Democrat	1971-1975
	David S. Mann	Democrat	1975-1977
	J. Kenneth Blackwell	Charterite	1977-1978
	David S. Mann	Democrat	1978-1980
	Thomas B. Brush	Charterite	1980-1982
	Arn Bortz	Charterite	1982
	Peter Strauss	Democrat	1982-1983
	Marian Spencer	Charterite	1983-1984
	Sally B. Fellerhoff	Democrat	1984-1985
	J. Kenneth Blackwell	Republican	1985-1987
	Peter Strauss	Democrat	1987-1993
	Tyrone K. Yates	Democrat	1993-1997
	Minette Cooper	Democrat	1999-2001
	Alicia Reece	Democrat	2001-2005
	James R. Tarbell	Charterite	2005