High-maintenance Heimlich

Even though he is running without an opponent in today's primary, Republican Hamilton County Commissioner Phil Heimlich still found something -- even if tongue-in-cheek -- to complain about.

"My name is on the back of the ballot," Heimlich said this afternoon. "It will look like nobody voted for me."

Hamilton County's new voting machines require voters to use an ink pen to color in boxes on the ballot that then is scanned into a machine to be counted. The ballot is one page but has candidates and issues on both sides of that page.

"It might look like the only ones who vote for me are my immediate family -- and even that is in question," Heimlich cracked.

Especially, he noted, because his family comes from what the commissioner said was a long line of "tax-and-spend Democrats."

"I was the first Republican my mom ever voted for," he said. "Wait, I take that back. No one knows what goes on when they get behind the curtain."

Heimlich will face a challenge for his seat in the November election from the winner of the race between Democrats Stephanie Dumas and David Pepper.