Christopher Smitherman weighs in on Cranley Primary Victory

From Cincinnati City Councilman Christopher Smitherman:

The mayoral primary victory on Tuesday by John Cranley was very significant. Political insiders predicted that Cranley and Qualls would be the top two vote-getters. However, it was not expected that Cranley would get more votes than Qualls. And no one expected him to win by a 19% gap.

In general campaigns often spend money ($20,000 or so) to poll a sample (500) of voters before voting day. Most likely, Qualls did a poll prior to the Sept. 10 primary, probably learned she was losing, then released her dishonest TV ad.

Qualls and her team are attempting to diminish the significance of the primary results. I want to share that John Cranley performed well in most communities. The ballots of 11,000 voters is a greater poll than calling 500 citizens. Because of the magnitude of her loss, the only commentary Qualls and her supporters could make is, "The primary is insignificant."

The reality is that voters understand that Qualls led the effort on a parking deal which undermines the business districts of all 52 neighborhoods. They also understand that Qualls led the effort by defining the parking deal as an emergency as a strategy to block all 52 neighborhoods from voting on the parking deal. This vote, compounded with the streetcar, has citizens rejecting her as a candidate for mayor.

The primary results are showing that citizens do not like the direction in which the City is going.