Inside Pitch

Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls - who was Cincinnati's mayor in the 1990s - will formally announce her candidacy in the 2013 mayoral race Thursday morning in Walnut Hills.

The current mayor, Mark Mallory, who is term-limited out in 2013, will accompany Qualls at a gathering at a pottery factory on Gilbert Avenue in Walnut Hills.

Mallory's 2009 campaign manager, Jens Sutmoller, will run Qualls' 2013 bid for the mayor's office.

One other candidate, also a Democrat, has announced his candidacy for mayor - former council member John Cranley.

Former Hamilton County commissioner David Pepper will join activists from a pro-Obama coalition in Roselawn Saturday to push for an end to Bush-era  tax cuts on those making over $250,000 a year.

The only relatively close ballot issue in Hamilton County in the Nov. 6 election - Issue 4, which sets Cincinnati city council terms at four years instead of two - picked up votes in the official vote count released this morning and passed easily.

President Obama, too, picked up votes and widened his lead over Republican Mitt Romney in Hamilton County.

When all the provisional ballots and overseas and military ballots were added, Issue 4 passed with 51.4 percent of the vote. The unofficial election night total had the issue passing with 51 percent.