The Democratic Party's nominating committee has recommended a slate of nine Cincinnati City Council candidates that does not include a former mayor and councilman - David Mann - who is running again 21 years after leaving council.
Dan Ticotsky, the chairman of the Cincinnati Democratic Committee's nominating committee, said the new candidates to be recommended for endorsement are Greg Landsman, who heads the Strive Partnership and worked in former Ohio governor Ted Strickland's administration; Shawn Butler, an aide to Mayor Mark Mallory; and Michelle Dillingham, a community activist in Kennedy Heights with strong labor support.
The six incumbent Democrats on council will also be recommended for endorsement, Ticotsky said - Wendell Young, Laure Quinlivan, Yvette Simpson, P.G. Sittenfeld, Chris Seelbach and Pamula Thomas, appointed this week to take the place of her husband, Cecil Thomas.
Mann, a former mayor and congressman who served on council from the 1970s to the early 1990s, was passed over by the nominating committee. Hamilton County Democratic Party chairman Tim Burke said Mann missed an endorsement by one vote among the 19 nominating committee members.
Also interviewing with the committee and failing to get a recommendation were Cincinnati school board member Vanessa White, who has an endorsement from the Charter Committee; Kevin Johnson, who worked for former council member Laketa Cole; Mike Moroski, who was recently fired from an administrator's job at Purcell Marian High School because of his support for gay marriage; and Peter Draugelis, a lawyer who is president of the Oakley Community Council.
The recommendations will go to the full Cincinnati Democratic Committee, which is made of about 280 precinct executives from around the city. They will meet Thursday, May 2 at the Letter Carriers Hall in Northside may or may not accept the nominating committee's recommendations.
"I'm sure there is going to be a lot of lively discussion over this,'' Ticotsky said. "There will be some disagreement."
