Where will FC Cincinnati put its stadium, if it wins an MLS franchise? Here's a look at the three potential sites. Mark Wert/The Enquirer
Yep, another year-end list. Before we flip the calendar, let's take a look at Politics Extra's 2017 cheers and jeers:
CHEERS to ...
• Hamilton County commissioners Todd Portune, Denise Driehaus and Chris Monzel for consistently rejecting FC Cincinnati's aggressive demands that county taxpayers contribute tens of millions for a new soccer stadium.
• Cincinnati Republican women for stepping into the leadership spotlight. Walnut Hills grad Jane Timken, who now lives in Canton, emerged from a behind-the-scenes fundraiser and county party volunteer to become the Ohio GOP chair. Several Greater Cincinnati political leaders created "SHELeads," a group designed to help the GOP recruit more female candidates. Amy Murray decided to be underdog gubernatorial candidate Jim Renacci's running mate in the 2018 primary. It was a bold move by the city councilwoman, considering many Republicans had told Murray to "wait your turn."
• Brad Wenstrup for saving his fellow Congressman Steve Scalise's life on that D.C.-area ball field in June.
• Cincinnati Democratic Committee co-chairs Christie Bryant Kuhns and Anne Sesler for their leadership on the endorsement process in the City Council races. Local Dems are so divided that their endorsement process typically turns into an embarrassing public fight. But not this year. Kuhns and Sesler made sure the party endorsed a diverse ticket that represented both the establishment and urban progressives.
• Children's Hospital CEO Michael Fisher for calling out Cincinnati City Council members Yvette Simpson's and Wendell Young's out-of-the-blue, last-minute attempt to block the medical center's long-planned $550 million expansion project. In a memo to Council on Aug. 8, Fisher called the effort "highly disappointing" and "not acceptable."
• Christopher Smitherman for how he's handled his wife Pamela's battle with cancer. The city councilman has been Pamela's primary caregiver, performing tasks such as carrying her up and down stairs at their home. Still, Smitherman has consistently shown up at City Hall and made no excuses.
• Airport CEO Candace McGraw; Chairman Mike Schlotman and the CVG board; Kenton County Judge-executive Kris Knochelmann; and Gary Lindgren and the Cincinnati Business Committee for working together to bring discount carrier Southwest Airlines to town. CVG is thriving again, and these folks have led the way.
• University of Cincinnati officials for naming a new dorm in honor of Marian Spencer, local civil rights icon and former vice mayor.
• Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley for staying out of the mud as his political enemies hurled ugly and unfounded racially charged comments at him in fliers, mailers and on social media during the campaign.
• Successful rookie candidates who don't have big political names and aren't entrenched in the establishment. It's tough to win as a first-time candidate. It's even tougher when a candidate hasn't necessarily been part of the political in-crowd. Republican Jeff Pastor and Democrat Tamaya Dennard burst onto the scene and won Cincinnati City Council seats. Anti-establishment Republicans Jeff Capell and Jim LaBarbara knocked off long-time incumbents in Blue Ash and Sycamore Township.
• Ann Becker for keeping her cool after being asked what seemed to be a sexist question during a Butler County GOP endorsement interview to vet candidates for an appointment to the Ohio House. In response to a question about how she would manage her statehouse workload if her kids were in school, Becker simply replied: "Aww. Thank you. I do have three kids. My husband is very helpful."
JEERS to ...
• FC Cincinnati owner Carl H. Lindner III and team President Jeff Berding for a lack of transparency and inept public relations in their efforts to get public money to help build a stadium. Their Nov. 14 press conference pressuring the Hamilton County commissioners to give into the club's demands for up to $75 million in public money didn't play well. Lindner talked about what his family has done for Cincinnati in such a way it came off like the public owed him this. It was unbecoming of a local CEO, and certainly not something you'd ever hear from Reds owner Bob Castellini and co-owner Tom Williams.
• Yvette Simpson for her poor PR skills throughout the mayoral campaign. Some examples ... Simpson refused to disavow a campaign volunteer's racially insensitive Facebook comment about Cranley. ... Simpson described her effort to stop one of the region's top employers and world's best children's hospitals from expanding as "visionary." ... And after the November election, she issued a bizarre statement in which she refused to refer to Cranley by name and said "he will have someone chasing his tail again" if "he does not" do what she wants "him" to do. Gotta wonder whether Simpson's head-scratching PR skills undermined voters' confidence in her ability to lead the city.
• Clermont County Commissioner David Uible for filing a restraining order against constituent Chris Hicks. Apparently Uible was just really annoyed by Hicks' repeated questions and emails demanding the Republican be transparent about a plan to build a taxpayer-funded practice facility for FC Cincinnati. No evidence has surfaced that Hicks was physically or verbally threatening Uible, who later dropped the restraining order.
• Chris Seelbach for continuing to act like Donald Trump on social media. The Democratic city councilman woke up the day after his best finish in an election and decided to take a sophomoric swipe at the 16th-place finisher on Twitter. Later in November, he wrote a long Facebook post about being against spending city money on a soccer stadium. It was an insightful post – up until the last few lines. "If they get the taxpayer funded new stadium ... and into the MSL (sic) ... Guess what that does? Makes wealthy white guys ... more wealthy," Seelbach wrote. What does race have to with it? Since Seelbach likes to occasionally call out The Enquirer by posting #factsmatter, well, councilman, not everyone on FC Cincinnati's ownership group is a "wealthy white guy."
• Ohio Supreme Court for dealing a blow to the public's right to see public records. The court this month rejected The Enquirer's request for the Pike County coroner to release unredacted final autopsy reports for each of the of the eight people murdered in April 2016. On a positive note, none of the justices from Greater Cincinnati – Pat DeWine, Sharon Kennedy and Pat Fischer – voted in favor of this. Kennedy and Fischer wrote separate dissenting opinions. DeWine recused himself last spring.
• State supreme court Justice Bill O'Neill for bragging about his "approximately 50" sexual conquests on Facebook amid a nationwide flurry of sexual harassment allegations against politicians and celebrities. O'Neill, a Democrat who's running for governor, later apologized for the post, which included him boasting about having sex in a barn. Gross, dude.
• Franklin Township trustees for deciding not to have the state's only Robert E. Lee monument hauled off to Mount Rumpke. The trustees have promised to relocate the plaque after it was removed from alongside a rural Warren County highway. How about the bottom of the Ohio River?
• Delhi Township's Linda Caudill for classless Facebook trolling of then-gubernatorial candidate Jon Husted. The avid Trump backer might have hit a new low when Caudill sabotaged a post that one of Secretary of State Husted's former staffers made about her dead grandmother.
Politics Extra is a column looking inside Greater Cincinnati and Ohio politics. Follow Enquirer political columnist Jason Williams on Twitter @jwilliamscincy and send email to jwilliams@enquirer.com.