Photo By Matt Borgerding

Politicians, students and supporters gather around the running election results screen at the Board of Elections (BOE).

State Sen. Mark Mallory and Cincinnati City Councilman David Pepper finished neck and neck as the top votegetters in the Sept. 13 mayoral primary. The two now advance to the Nov. 8 general election ballot.

One will be Cincinnati's next mayor, but a close finish doesn't foreshadow who that might be. Pepper pulled in 13,321 votes, 31.16 percent of all votes cast, while Mallory won 13,106 votes for 30.66 percent.

"I feel fantastic," Mallory said as he rushed to the Hamilton County Board of Elections (BOE) from his party at the High Spirits Lounge in the Millennium Hotel downtown. "I think it's a great showing."

He said the close finish indicated that grassroots, neighborhood campaigning can overcome obstacles -- notably, a war chest about a quarter the size of Pepper's.

"I don't think there's ever been a case where a candidate was on TV and his numbers actually went down," said Mallory's campaign consultant Patrick McClean, referring to Pepper.

Pepper attributed that to damage from other candidates' negative campaigns.

"We figured it would be close," Pepper said. "I've been the recipient of about six weeks of heavy artillery from all the candidates."

He and his advisers are still trying to figure out who was behind the hoax phone calls touting Pepper as the "only white candidate" in the race. But his finish at the top shows that positive campaigning still wins out, Pepper said.

Though the two led for most of the night, the first numbers to trickle in after the polls closed actually gave the Rev. Charlie Winburn a much stronger showing.

Pepper held the top slot nearly all night, dipping briefly below Mallory until final results came in. But Winburn, the lone GOP candidate, sat in second place as the first numbers hit the TV monitors in the board of elections after polls closed.

He ended up finishing third, far behind Pepper and Mallory with 21 percent and just about 9,000 votes. Vice Mayor Alicia Reece trailed in fourth all night and finished with just under 15 percent of the vote.

The three other candidates never stood a chance. Independent Justin Jeffre won just 708 votes, 1.66 percent.

"That means 98 percent of the city voted against him," said Mallory volunteer Sean Mummert as he fed updates by cell phone from the BOE to blogger Brian Griffin.

Shoemaker Sylvan Grisco earned 130 votes, nine more than Sandra Queen Noble. Twenty percent of registered Cincinnati voters came out for the primary.

As they waited at the BOE for election returns, different candidates' supporters formed pockets of muted celebration or anxiety around various TV terminals. Other politicians and familiar activists turned out to analyze and hobnob.

Photo By Matt Borgerding

Jessica Wabler. Sophmore at Xavier University. PPP - philosophy, politics and the people. At the BOE.

"These are the hardcore people," said a jocular Councilman David Crowley.

Election night at the BOE, even when it's not his race, is a great time to pick people's brains, he said. Then to prove the point, he and Nick Spencer, a second time council candidate, launched into an analysis of the political implications of the election returns from wards 5 (Hyde Park) and 7 (Bond Hill).

The local Democratic Party won't be endorsing in the upcoming mayoral race since both Pepper and Mallory are Democrats, according to Chandra Yungbluth, the newly installed executive director of the Hamilton County Democratic Party.

"We've intentionally really kind of stayed out of it," she said. "We'll support both candidates."

"That's amazing, it was so close," said Councilman Jim Tarbell as he walked to Mallory's and Pepper's victory parties.

Tarbell, who had considered his own run for mayor, said he's still kicking himself for not getting into the fray.

"If I had run, the issue would have been 'Don't move,' " he said. "Stay where you are and fix where you live."

But Tarbell supposed the city might fare all right anyway.

"We'll be OK if we can just get a good team in there," he said.

Douglass McDonald, head of the Cincinnati Museum Center, carefully avoided being partisan or getting caught in a photo standing too close to anyone who was.

"We got two good people running," he said diplomatically. "It should be a quality race."

Outside the BOE, emotions flowed more freely as supporters broke down or broke out.

Five Winburn supporters, a couple with teary eyes, commiserated on the sidewalk.

"This city is just gonna go to hell," Winburn's deputy campaign manager, Sara Drier, was overheard saying. "Well, it already has, but moreso."

Photo By Matt Borgerding

Pepper talks to press. At Havana Martini Club.

Meanwhile, Mallory and Pepper boosters were duly ecstatic.

"He's the candidate who really kind of gets the whole creative class thing," said Mallory volunteer and Cincinnati Advance Director Barry Gee. "You can't shut out the arts, you can't shut out the environment. It can't be all crime, crime, crime."

At Pepper's party, Pete Witte, the Price Hill Republican who ran for council in 2003, said he hadn't gotten lost.

"I just support good candidates," he said. "I'm gonna be the first Republican in line to support David Pepper. He just needs to get away from the numbers a little bit and appeal to people's passion."

What Pepper lacked in passion, he made up for in preparation. His party at the Havana Martini Club downtown featured a ready and waiting stage for TV cameras.

Neither candidate plans to alter his course in the coming weeks.

"We're gonna keep talking to the people," Mallory said.

"We like the direction we're taking it in," Pepper said, who planned to launch a "Get It Done From Day One" van tour of the city Sept. 14. "Honestly, I don't see a huge challenge. We've got a lot of momentum."

Neither Winburn nor Reece could be reached for comment on election night. ©