Sunday, October 20, 2002

Hotseat 10/20/2002 Edition
Today's edition is a special covering the Hamilton County Commissioner's Race between Democrat Jean Siebenaler vs. Republican Phil Heimlich. Both candidates were present and were questioned by Peter Bronson, Eric Kearney, and Kathy Wilson. The show was handled as basically a traditional debate. The questions were generally fair from all present. Bronson showed his bias by allowing Heimlich and easy avenue to show his right wing stance on gay rights and abortion. The performances were interesting. I listened to this program on WVXU, so I did not see it on TV, but I would say Jean Siebenaler won the "debate". Phil seemed to be forcing his talking points into the conversation by bringing up the anti-gay issue and his endorsement from an anti-tax group. He sounded like a bigot by trumpeting "family values" as more important than worrying about repealing the anti-gay city charter amendment, and he went on further to tout his bigotry against gays in his closing remarks. Jean sounded good by being direct as to what county commission role was in the mix of local government, which is to just control a big pool of money, not pass "laws".

Phil will most likely win this race, with more money and more Republicans in the county. What is sad is that he has chosen to run his campaign on the right-wing social agenda of anti-gay rights and anti-abortion. Those are not issues that county commission has any influence over. He must be a little bit nervous about Jean’s stances on the issues, if he has to push his base to get out and vote. I was not going to vote for him before this debate, but I feel good about voting for Jean Siebenaler.

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