Outgoing Cincinnati Council Member Christopher Smitherman is officially running for Hamilton County commissioner next year. The Board of Elections has verified enough signatures on Smitherman's petitions to allow him on the ballot (although official certification by the full BOE will come later).
Smitherman will run against Democrat Stephanie Summerow Dumas, the only commissioner up for re-election next year.
Smitherman is running as an Independent.
"It's hard to find a home in this very partisan environment that we live in," he says. "I mean, if you're not 100% on one side or you're not 100% on the other side, you really just don't have a home. I just believe that most people are really in the middle — that compromise is not a dirty word."
Smitherman needed more than 3,000 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. Candidates running with a political party need only 50 signatures.
This is Smitherman's first campaign for a county-wide job.
"The uniqueness of my position is to really bring a better partnership between the county and the city," he says. "Those relationships, whether the public understands it, are incredibly strained. And so I don't feel like I'm gonna come to the county exacerbating those things."
Smitherman is the only candidate to file signatures for the November 2022 ballot so far.
