Jason Williams

jwilliams@enquirer.com

COLUMBUS – The Cincinnati mayor's race hit the road Wednesday night, and John Cranley took home the first big victory in what has quickly become a bitter battle.

Cranley received the coveted endorsement of the Ohio Democratic Party, which decisively voted to back Cincinnati's incumbent mayor even after his opponent, Yvette Simpson, implored party leaders to hold off. Before the meeting started in a Columbus hotel, Simpson handed out to executive committee members a flier attacking her opponent.

It didn't do much, though. The final vote, which also included endorsements for incumbent mayors in Dayton and Toledo: 73-3 with one abstention. As Cranley stood in the back of the room, Hamilton County committee members Tim Burke, Brigid Kelly and Jenny O'Donnell all voted to endorse Cincinnati's mayor.

"It means a lot to me,” Cranley told The Enquirer. “I’ve worked for this party my entire adult life.”

The endorsement allows Cranley to tout the state party's support in his campaign ads. It also gives his campaign the benefit of using the ODP's mail discount, which can save the endorsed candidate thousands of dollars.

Simpson, who sits on the party's executive committee, was one of the no votes. Cranley cracked a big smile as the final vote was announced near the end of a two-hour meeting. He then stepped into a hallway, where several executive committee members walked by one-by-one shaking Cranley's hand and congratulating him.

Minutes later, Simpson emerged from the meeting eager to take the race back to Cincinnati.

"Cincinnati should speak, and Cincinnati will speak," Simpson said. "I believe there are a lot of Democrats in Cincinnati who want change and they see me as that change.”

Rob Richardson Jr., the other candidate in the Cincinnati race, did not attend the meeting.

"The ODP won't determine this election," Richardson said via text message. "The people of Cincinnati will."

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The state party has been endorsing big-city mayors under Chairman David Pepper's leadership the past two years. It's part of Pepper's "Main Street" strategy to build a bench of strong local candidates in hopes the party will be positioned to compete better in statewide races. The standard practice has been to vote endorse incumbents in good standing in one motion, and the state party unanimously endorsed a slate of incumbent mayors in early 2015.

It's a bad precedent for the party not to endorse incumbent mayors, Pepper told the committee.

“We’ve said to them, ‘Thanks for winning’ and we’ve worked together for three years to do a lot of good work," Pepper said. "Do we, the minute they have an opponent in the primary, say, ‘Sorry, we’re neutral?' That puts the party in a nearly impossible position."

Columbus-area labor leader John Lyall called the motion to endorse Cranley and the other mayors. It was seconded by another labor leader, perhaps a reminder of the muscle unions have in the Democratic party.

But as expected, there was a call to separate Cranley out of the motion. O'Donnell called for the separate motion, sparking a debate about whether the state party should endorse before the local party has a chance to weigh in. Burke immediately stood up in opposition to O'Donnell's motion.

Burke told the committee how Cranley played a key role in helping Democrats grab key seats in Hamilton County government last year, another big step toward turning the county blue. Cranley helped Denise Driehaus in her bid for commissioner and Aftab Pureval in his race for clerk of courts, Burke said.

"He worked harder than any other candidate who wasn't on the ballot last year," said Burke, long-time Hamilton County Democratic Party chairman. "John Cranley deserves to be re-elected as mayor of Cincinnati."

In an interview with The Enquirer, O'Donnell did not disclose exactly why she ended up voting to endorse Cranley. She said she wanted to make a point that "local voices" need to be heard first on endorsements. Simpson just wanted the opportunity to have her voice heard by state party leaders before it made the endorsement.

"All I’m asking is for an interview," Simpson told The Enquirer. "This is not a fair way to lose."

Follow Enquirer politics reporter Jason Williams on Twitter @jwilliamscincy.