Shoulder to shoulder at Cranleyland

Jane Prendergast reports:

It's nearly shoulder-to-shoulder at the John Cranley party. Still no John, but other local politicians are starting to show up, including Cincinnati City Councilman Jeff Berding and Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune.

Portune couldn't be happier about the Democratic wins at the top of the Ohio ballot. He predicted more good news for Democrats Cranley and David Pepper, who is running for Hamilton County commissioner. If Pepper wins, the commission will have a Democratic majority for the first time in 44 years.

"We're going to be looking at reversing more than 40 years" of Republican leadership, he said.

"This is a great day for us. Already, it's a very exciting day. It's a very exciting day for Ohio."

Also at the party: Greg Boone, a business rep for the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, District Council 12 in Lockland. He wears his list of preferred candidates on his chest: a Ted Strickland T-shirt and stickers for Cranley and Victoria Wulsin.

He and other union members dropped leaflets and helped run phone banks for Ohio's governor-to-be. Mostly, he said, people talked about wanting to reverse corruption and job loss.