Alicia Reece

Former Cincinnati council member and state representative Alicia Reece became the official Demcoratic candidate for the late Todd Portune's Hamilton County commission seat Thursday.

Former state representative and Cincinnati council member Alicia Reece appears to have won a narrow victory in a three-way Democratic primary to run this fall for Hamilton County commissioner.

Three women are vying for the Democratic nomination in the race to win a Hamilton County Commission seat. The death of Todd Portune essentially leaves the seat vacant, because his named successor, Victoria Parks, opted not to run.

All three candidates appeared on Cincinnati Edition to talk about their histories and their visions for Hamilton County.

Hamilton County Democratic Party leaders did something Saturday morning that is extremely rare in local politics – they yanked the party endorsement of an incumbent elected official – in this case, Sheriff Jim Neil.

There was a time, not so long ago, when the Hamilton County Democratic Party faced an upcoming candidate filing deadline with a sense of dread, as if it were a gigantic root canal and the anesthetic wasn't taking hold.

Former county commissioner Todd Portune got what he wanted from the Hamilton County Democratic Party's central committee Saturday morning – the appointment of his former chief of staff, Victoria Parks, to serve out the remainder of his term.

There's clearly something in the DNA of Democrats in Hamilton County that makes them unable, or unwilling, to believe that they are sitting in the catbird seat.

There was a time when the leaders of the Democratic Party in Hamilton County had to crawl on their hands and knees and beg people to run for county offices.

Two weeks ago, Hamilton County commissioner Todd Portune, a Democrat, held a press conference to announce that his cancer was spreading and that he would not be running for re-election in 2020.

Does the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) seriously think that Republican incumbent Steve Chabot is vulnerable next year in southwest Ohio's First Congressional District?

Apparently so.

PHILADELPHIA – As a vice chair of the Democratic National Convention here this week, State Rep. Alicia Reece of Cincinnati has had an inside view of how a mammoth operation like this works.

The debate over voting rights in Ohio rages on, unabated.  

Democrats argue that the Republicans in the legislature and the Republican secretary of state, Jon Husted, have done everything in their power to make it difficult for Democrats – particularly African-American voters – to cast a ballot.

Husted and the Republicans argue that you would be hard-pressed to find a state that gives its people more opportunities to cast a ballot, with its 28-day early voting period for both mail-in absentee ballots and early in-person voting at the state’s 88 county boards of elections.

On Friday night, at the Columbus Athenaeum, the Ohio Democratic Democratic Party will hold its annual "Legacy Dinner," one of the party's largest fundraising events of the year.

"Let's celebrate our 2014 talent,'' says the announcement on the party's website, ohiodems.org.

In other words, it is a "cattle call" for potential statewide candidates.