Fundraising, arts and Midwestern hospitality

These things from a conversation over coffee this morning at Enzo's in Over-the-Rhine with Charterite council candidate Joan Kaup:

1. She was shocked when someone told her she'd need to raise $200,000-plus for a successful campaign. She thinks it makes more sense to only spend what a council member makes in a year. That's a little over $60,000.

2. Her first fund-raising mailer, out in the next couple of weeks, will be a letter from Vice Mayor Jim Tarbell, whom she has worked with on arts issues for years. Not surprisingly, she supports his $3.8 million plan for arts spending, which would give $800,000 each to the Cincinnati Art Museum, Music Hall, Cincinnati History Museum and the Underground Railroad Freedom Center and would create a $600,000 fund for small arts groups to share. She calls those big four the city's arts anchors, but the smaller ones the "flavorings, the seasonings" that make the city's arts offerings more diverse and attract different customers than, say, an opera does.

3. A former official of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, she thinks Cincinnati could do better in marketing itself as a cultural tourism spot. A cultural tourist, she says, spends more money - on symphony tickets, dinner and maybe an overnight hotel stay - than, for example, somebody on a trip to Kings Island. "We are full of Midwestern Hospitality."

4. She wants to look into doing more of what she calls "reverse privatization," or marketing city expertise to outsiders. An example: The parks department has some contracts to maintain recreation areas that aren't in the city. "We can make some money that way."

Her Web site, www.kaupforcouncil.com, might be up as soon as today.