Cincinnati Enquirer Wrongly Reports Oh-01 U.S. Rep. Chabot Not Seeking Reelection: Despite Newspaper Goof, Republican Chabot Is Running

Cincinnati Enquirer Reports Chabot Not Running

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- This morning's Cincinnati Enquirer somehow omitted U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot, a fixture in the city's political scene, from its list of candidates who filed to run for election in 2012.  That is an epic mistake.  If anybody actually paid attention to the newspaper today, they would have been led to believe the Republicans had given up on Ohio's 1st Congressional district.  There was no GOP candidate listed among the four shown seeking the congressional seat.  So much for being a newspaper of record.  Meanwhile, officials at the Hamilton County Board of Elections confirmed that Chabot had filed his petitions to seek reelection.  The petitions were in by the deadline Wednesday.  And Chabot's name appears on the board of election's listing of all who have filed for office in the 2012 Hamilton County primary. The complete list of 2012 candidates is available here.

The list has a few surprises.  Sitting Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Pat DeWine is going to try to move up to the Ohio Court of Appeals.  DeWine has a job and two years left in his term.  But he wants to bail out early.  He doesn't have to give up the lower court judgeship while he seeks the higher court post -- it's a process the pols call "running safe."  DeWine has a Democratic opponent in Bruce Whitman, a skilled and well-known lawyer who can put together a campaign that will have the resources to make the race competitive.   DeWine is the son of Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine.  Whitman will make sure that DeWine has no cakewalk to appeals court.  And there is this: Every seat on Ohio's First District Court of Appeals is held by a Republican.  Whitman is out to break that mionopoly.

[UPDATE 12/9 8:26 a.m. -- Today's Cincinnati Enquirer prints a correction on Page A 2 and admits it omitted Chabot's name, along with two others who filed petitions.  The was no explanation offered about how the error was made -- sloppiness, technology, incorrect information, deadlines.  The newspaper could be a bit more transparent on that score.  Still, it did the right thing to set the record straight.]