A test for POWR PAC

Tonight, we will see just how much power POWR PAC has.

This is the first mayoral and council election for POWR PAC - Partnership ofWest Side Residents Political Action Committee - and the coalition of West Side neighborhood leaders has spent about $20,000 to push David Pepper's mayoral campaign and the campaigns of six city council candidates they hope will be elected and pay particular attention to West Side concerns like crime and neighborhood blight.

Thousands of households in Westwood, Price Hill, East Price Hill, Riverside and other West Side neighborhoods recently received flyers in the mail asking them to go to the polls Tuesday and support not only Pepper, but the POWR PAC council slate - incumbents John Cranley and Chris Monzel and challengers John Eby, Leslie Ghiz, Jeff Berding and Cecil Thomas.

Late Thursday afternoon, Pete Witte, the Price Hill Civic Association president who came up with the idea for POWR PAC, was standing outside the polling place at St. Williams Church on E. 8th St. in Price Hill, talking to voters as they came in and out of the polls.

"The good news is that I've seen a lot of people walking in to vote carrying their POWR PAC mailers,'' said Witte. "That's real encouraging.''

POWR PAC is hoping to have an impact, too, on Issue 9, the Cincinnati ballot issue that would roll back property taxes. The last time it was on the ballot it failed, and backers of the issue believed it was because West Side voters failed to support it.

This time, the issue had POWR PAC backing. State Rep.Tom Brinkman, R-Mt. Lookout, the author of Issue 9, said he believes POWR PAC "is capable of turning that around this time.''

-- Howard Wilkinson