Mallory's busy day no shield against jokes

Between being wooed by Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama, Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory managed to sit in on presentations this afternoon at the Chamber of Commerce from organizations seeking state capital bill money. Mallory’s on the committee that will narrow the list of projects before it’s sent to the General Assembly.

“It’s exciting,” he said of the eventful day. His focus during private meetings with Clinton and Obama today, he said, is to lay out Cincinnati’s priorities and discuss how the candidates' agendas would help the city.

“They want my endorsement. People say ‘It’ll really help you’ but I say ‘I’m doing just fine. I’m more worried about Cincinnati.”

Mallory’s status as most-sought-after-endorser-in-the-city, though, didn’t shield him from some razzing this afternoon for his recent not-so-flattering moment in the spotlight. In all fairness, though, Mallory started it.

Sharonville Mayor Virgil Lovitt had just finished a presentation on the expansion of the Sharonville Convention Center and asked if there were any questions.

“I have one,” Mallory said. “Was that you going down a water slide in your suit?” (In a recent event to promote CoCo Key, Sharonville’s new indoor water park, Lovitt went down the slide fully dressed. He hasn’t lived it down)

“Do I dare say this?” responded Lovitt with a gleam in his eye. “I knew no one’s ever going to ask me to throw the first pitch,” he said, and referred to the water slide incident as his “first pitch moment.”

The small crowd cracked up, Mallory included. “That’s it. Thumbs down on this project. Next!” Mallory joked. The mayors had a good chuckle over their respective media moments, shook hands and went back to work.