CINCINNATI — Ballots have been counted and the results of a packed Cincinnati city council race have been determined.
Officially elected are:
- Jan-Michele Kearney
- Greg Landsman
- Reggie Harris
- Meeka Owens
- Victoria Parks
- Scotty Johnson
- Jeff Cramerding
- Mark Jeffreys
- Liz Keating
The newly-elected council is comprised of 8 Democrats and just one Republican: Liz Keating.
The pool of candidates running for council was 35 people deep — in 2017 there were only 23 candidates on the ballot. This year, every seat on council was up for re-election.
Of all the candidates who filed, only one was an incumbent: Previously-seated council member Greg Landsman.
Jan-Michele Kearney, Liz Keating, Betsy Sundermann and Steve Goodin were all appointed following either a member's resignation or the removal of previous members after corruption charges.
Former council member Amy Murray stepped down in February 2020 to take a political appointment in the U.S. Department of Defense. She was replaced by Betsy Sundermann in March 2020.
FBI agents arrested former council member Tamaya Dennard on Feb. 25, 2020, and she later pleaded guilty to honest services wire fraud that June. In Nov. 2020, a judge sentenced her to serve 18 months in prison. She was replaced by Jan-Michele Kearney — an appointment made by PG Sittenfeld after Dennard stepped down, but before Sittenfeld himself was arrested.
Former councilman Jeff Pastor will face trial in May 2022 after he was arrested by the FBI in November 2020 on charges that he took $55,000 in bribes during his first term on council. He faces charges of conspiracy, honest services wire fraud, bribery, attempted extortion and money laundering, which, if convicted, could send him to prison for several years.
Pastor was replaced by Steve Goodin, appointed by Judge Ralph Winkler in Nov. 2020.
PG Sittenfeld will face trial not long after Pastor, in June 2022. He became the third council member arrested by the FBI on public corruption charges in 2020. Before his arrest, Sittenfeld was considered the front-runner to win the Cincinnati mayoral race this year.
A 20-page indictment charged Sittenfeld with two counts of honest services wire fraud, two counts of bribery and two counts of attempted extortion. He was replaced by Liz Keating, who was appointed as an interim replacement by Winkler.
View full results below:
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