I voted today

I voted today at the Hamilton County (Ohio) Board of Elections, taking advantage of the free parking on Broadway in front of the building. I consider myself an independent and will vote for both Republicans and Democrats. Excluding judges, which are supposedly nonpartisan, 38% of my votes were for Republicans and 62% of my votes were for Democrats.

I voted for Obama/Biden, Sherrod Brown for Senator (a no-brainer) and Brad Wenstrup for Congress (Ohio Second District). Brad sounds like a Reasonable Republican (hard to find these days) and his opponent failed to complete the League of Women Voters questionnaire.

For Hamilton County races, I usually voted for the incumbent. Hamilton County government has downsized during the recession and the incumbents have already had to do more with less. I figure that if they're dedicated enough to continue with cutting their own budgets, they should be given the opportunity to do that.

One exception that I voted against Tracy Winkler as she mentioned her church in her League of Women Voters profile and she's endorsed by the Citizens for Community Values, both real no-nos for me.

The Hamilton County Sheriff was hard to choose as the venerable sheriff serving since 1987, Simon Leis, is not running. It appears that both candidates are qualified but Jim Neil got my vote because he was endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police. Politics Extra, a blog at cincinnati.com, explains the reasoning behind the endorsement.

As a general rule, I don't think judges should have to run for election and I usually vote for the incumbents when possible. However, for justice of the (Ohio) Supreme Court, I voted for two challengers, Mike Skindell and William O'Neill. This is due to the First Energy controversy. Although I can't tell you for sure that anything improper happened, it still sounds fishy to me, especially the timing of the donations.

State Issue 1: Call for constitutional convention - No. Let's not waste tax dollars on this.

State Issue 2: Letting citizens choose legislative and congressional districts - Yes. Both Republicans and Democrats make a mess when they do it.

I voted for three local levies (18 City of Norwood, 50 Senior Citizens and 51 Mental Health) as I usually vote for levies like this. It so happens that none of these will raise my taxes.

If you have any question about a race that I've skipped, send me an email or write a comment and I will explain my vote for that.