Republican voters cast longer council ballots

Here's one reason that voters elected what Mayor Charlie Luken calls the most conservative City Council since the Gang of Five: Voters in Republican precincts vote for more City Council candidates, on average, than their Democratic counterparts.

That's another interesting statistic courtesy Republican lawyer W. Stuart Dornette, who's been analyzing City Council elections for three decades.

Cincinnati voters can vote for up to nine candidates -- but the average Cincinnati voter ends up picking only six. Dornette's analysis shows that Republicans (who make up about a third of the city, according to 2004 presidential voting results) are more willing to spread their votes around:

"Strong Democratic areas," Dornette notes, is usually -- but not always -- synonymous with African-American voters, where some leaders encourage "bullet voting" as a way to concentrate the power of the voting bloc.

The numbers also bring up a similar biennial dilemma for GOP leaders. Should the party endorse a slate of nine candidates and risk diluting the Republican vote? Or run a shorter ticket and have Republicans seek out conservative Democrats?

"The challenge for Republicans when they run a short slate," Dornette noted, is that they "train their voters into voting for Dems."

There were only four endorsed Republican candidates on the Nov. 8 ballot. So who got those extra Republican votes? Charterites Jim Tarbell and Chris Bortz finished high in East Side Republican precincts, while Democrats John Cranley and Jeff Berding performed well in West Side GOP precincts.

GOP leaders say that their voting power can't be measured by Republican candidates alone.

"I think Republican voters supported their own Republican candidates, and they supported the conservative Democratic candidates, and the conservative Charter candidates," said Hamilton County Republican Party Executive Director Brad Greenberg.