Roxanne and her new friend, Chris

The Charter Committee sent out an interesting mail piece last week - one that features two of their candidates, Roxanne Qualls and Chris Bortz, who are, as they say, "working together for Cincinnati's Future."

This joint campaign piece by one candidate who is assumed to be a sure winner (Qualls) and one who is fighting hard to win a second term (Bortz) may well be about settling a debt. Qualls doesn't particularly need to team up with Bortz to win, but Bortz will take all the help he can get.

And Qualls may owe him one.

After all, it was her appointment to council two months ago that, inadvertently, cost Bortz a cross-endorsement from the Republican Party.

When Jim Tarbell announced he was leaving council early, he made it clear he wanted Qualls, the former mayor who had always run as a Democrat with Charter support, to be his successor.

The way it works at city hall is that every council member, at the beginning of his or her term, files a "successor designate" form, in which he or she names the council member or council members who appoint his or her replacement in case of death or resignation.

Tarbell had designated Bortz, his fellow Charterite; and Bortz was bound by a pledge to Tarbell and Charter to appoint whoever they wanted to fill the vacancy.

Of course, that turned out to be Qualls.

When the appointment was made, Bortz was only a few days away from a meeting with Republican party leaders on the question of whether or not they would endorse his re-election bid. It seemed, at the time, pretty certain that they would.

Then, when he had to do his duty and appoint Qualls, the GOP dropped the idea of a cross-endorsement. After all, Qualls' presence on the ballot made it that much harder for Republican candidates to break through and win. The cross-endorsement was shelved.

Under the circumstances, a joint mail piece is the least Qualls could do for Bortz.