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Friday, May 04, 2007

AP's take on Melanie Bates


From the Associated Press:


Campaign Becomes Personal
Husband’s death becomes campaign issue for City Council candidate

By Terry Kinney
The Associated Press


CINCINNATI – School board member Melanie Bates devoted much of her adult life to education. Then a gun-toting mugger in her driveway ended her husband’s life and changed her priorities.


“Education has always been a big passion of mine,” said Bates, who decided to run for Cincinnati City Council to campaign against gun violence. “The deck got shuffled and I was dealt a card I didn’t expect to be dealt. Now public safety has become a priority not just for me but for the city.


“Phil’s death certainly was a tipping point.”


Philip Bates, a 55-year-old chemist for a suburban pharmaceutical company, was returning home one night last August when he was shot in the chest a few steps from the front porch of his family’s century-old home in the racially-mixed North Avondale neighborhood. He later died at University Hospital. A suspect is awaiting trial on murder and robbery charges.


Melanie Bates, 53, expected a heightened crackdown on gun violence after her husband’s shooting. Instead, city officials tried to reassure residents that Cincinnati was safer than most big cities. It seemed – to the Bates family – that officials made little distinction between the killing of a public official’s husband, in a residential neighborhood, and frequent drug-related shootings in the inner city.


Some of Bates’ anger was directed at Mayor Mark Mallory.


“When Mayor Mallory called and said he was going to have a press conference on crime, I didn’t even question it because I assumed it was to announce that he was going to assume some leadership in crime prevention, not telling the city that we really are safe and Phil Bates’ death was an anomaly,” she said.


Bates served on the State Board of Education for seven years and has been on the Cincinnati Board of Education for six. She is keeping her position there while campaigning for City Council.
In a race where voters can mark nine names out of a probable 25 candidates, and many people are just looking for names they know, said Gene Beaupre, a Xavier University political scientist.
“Melanie’s already got good name recognition, and the issue of safety will resonate. More than any other candidate, she is linked to that issue ... with the coverage she’s gotten in her office and the events in her life,” Beaupre said.


Bates, a hospital liaison with the nonprofit Life Center Organ Donor Network, talks daily with her three adult children, a daughter who is a teacher and two sons who are in college. They encouraged her to run for City Council.


“We’re putting our lives back together,” Bates said. “School board was my thing. This is our family’s thing.”


Her campaign has given some meaning to her husband’s death, she said, and reassurance to people who stop her on the street.


“We were told by our leaders that as long as you were a law-abiding citizen, not involved with drugs or guns, you’re safe in the city,” Bates said. “When that happened to Phil ... there were people out there wondering if they were going to be next.”


Mallory has called fighting crime the city’s top priority, and has signed onto New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns program. He and Bates both support the Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence, a program based on one introduced in Boston in the ‘90s to reduce violent crime and homicides by identifying and counseling gang members and other chronic offenders.


Mallory, who is not elected by council or facing re-election this year, remains steadfast in his belief that most shootings are drug related and Cincinnati is overall a safe city, but he acknowledges that crime is a potent issue.


“Keeping the city safe will always be a campaign issue,” he said.
THE CANDIDATE: Melanie Bates, age 53
CHILDREN: Emma 24, Jonathan 22, Griffin 19
OCCUPATION: Hospital liaison for LifeCenter Organ Donor Network
PUBLIC SERVICE: Ohio State Board of Education 1995-2001; Cincinnati Board of Education 2003 to present
OFFICE SOUGHT: Cincinnati City Council


14 Comments:

at 7:22 PM, May 04, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Emulation is the highest for of flattery !

The obsessive, Bates strikes again !

Some may be offended by Bates, but, "bold endeavors" are always more interesting than the posts of not to bold endeavors!

Bates doesn't find it offensive every time we put it to their intellect !

Bates, in fact, comes back begging for more !

Thanks or playing "follower" the "LEADER" !

PATHETIC !

HAD ENOUGH, VOTE DEMOCRAT 2007 !

 
at 10:57 PM, May 04, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Melanie Bates can't run the city schools effectively, what makes anyone think she can run the city any better?

 
at 8:23 AM, May 05, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

bold pring guy, your posts never make any sense

 
at 9:43 AM, May 05, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

She is shameless.

 
at 10:15 AM, May 05, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Saying education has always been a priority for Bates is really misguided. Bates abandoned children and education as a priority when she joined anti-taxers in 2004 to oppose a much-needed operating levy renewal that did not raise taxes.

Bates should have been removed from the school board by the voters in 2005, but help from other republicans like Tom Brinkman kept her on. It's a shame that an enemy of public education has a seat on the board, and may win a seat on council. If you want to do the right thing for Cincinnati's kids, do not give this anti-tax reactionary one more ounce of power. Do not vote Bates in November.

 
at 12:25 PM, May 05, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ap acts like Bates has been galvanized by her husband's death to run for office. Except, she was already in one office, (CPS Board), held another (State Board of Ed), and ran for one other (County Recorder in 2000).

 
at 5:19 PM, May 05, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Once again an Enquirer article prommiently features Bates (and you posted a color photo on the front of your local section)with no mention of the fact that she ran for Council once before and lost, and has been running for office over the past 10 years. Her personal tragedy is hardly her motive to serve on Council, although I'm sure all her commercials and campaign lit will say otherwise.

Bates could do much more in her capacity as a school board member to prevent crime.

The Enquirer should cease with its puff pieces.

 
at 6:22 PM, May 05, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is very sad.. . Can't wait to see the commercial - Bates crying, black and white photos of police scenes.. It will be interesting to see, Ill promise that. Crime crime crime... what a great platform. :(

 
at 10:53 PM, May 05, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Like I said this city sucks and it's priorities are in the wrong place.

You pay for crap, you get crap.

And they wonder why we racial profile??????????????????

 
at 3:13 PM, May 07, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Strangely Bates is a registered Democrat running as a Charterite.

 
at 8:41 PM, May 07, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

"It seemed – to the Bates family – that officials made little distinction between the killing of a public official’s husband, in a residential neighborhood, and frequent drug-related shootings in the inner city."

How pretentious of the Bates family to assume that such a distinction is in order. A life is a life. Part of our city's problem is that "frequent drug-related shootings" are seen as nothing but a nasty nuisance and PR issue.

Also, the last time I checked, "the inner city" includes "residential neighborhoods" as well. Families of gun violence victims there suffer as much as Ms. Bates - but receive a fraction of the public attention that she is getting.

 
at 1:53 PM, May 11, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

I commend the Widow Bates for 'taking a stand' as it were, but where was she on crime issues when her husband was alive? Was she one of many that would watch the local news/fright shows mumbling to herself there but for the grace of God go I ? Nevermind the fact that the arrest of the 'shooter' is suspect at best....

 
at 6:21 PM, May 11, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

"crime crime crime.. what a great platform". Of course that is a great platform,unless you would want our public officials to hide from it. Perhaps her husbands death was a motivation to run, should that be a negative. Her ability, and personal strength, to step forward and take on the crime issue should be applauded not bashed.

 
at 6:28 PM, May 11, 2007 Blogger MATT said...

Since when is it pretentious to point out the unmistakeable difference between a 55 year old family man being shot to death on his front porch protecting his wife and the equally untimely and tragic death of a young criminal. neither life was more precious however one was protecting the community while the other was damaging it.

 
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