CINCINNATI — The campaign to sell Cincinnati’s railroad to Norfolk Southern Corp. has spent more than $600,000 on TV ads promoting the sale, according to media buying records submitted by local stations to the Federal Communications Commission.
Critics of the sale claim that creates a conflict of interest for Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval, who stars in the ads and could benefit from media exposure as he prepares to run for re-election in 2025. In an interview with the WCPO 9 I-Team, Pureval said he has “no direct involvement” in Building Cincinnati’s Future, the pro-sale campaign he said is “largely funded by Norfolk Southern.”
But his critics are disturbed by another fact: Building Cincinnati’s Future and the mayor’s re-election campaign share the same treasurer.
“It might not be against the law, but it doesn’t pass the smell test,” said former Cincinnati Vice-Mayor Christopher Smitherman. “It is an absolute conflict of interest for his treasurer to be involved in this campaign. And I’ll even take the next step. I think it’s a conflict of interest for the mayor himself to be involved in a campaign like this.”
Pureval disagrees.
“I personally am getting no benefit from this,” he said. “Norfolk Southern is not a supporter of mine, is not a donor of mine. I have no intention of taking any Norfolk Southern campaign funds. I am in this specifically because I believe it’s in the best interest of the city.”
What’s on the ballot?
Voters will decide Nov. 7 whether the city should sell the 337-mile rail line connecting Cincinnati to Chattanooga. Norfolk Southern, which now leases the rail line from the city, wants to buy it for $1.6 billion. According to the ballot language of Issue 22, sale proceeds would be placed in a trust fund that would generate at least $26.5 million in annual investment proceeds that would reduce the city’s $400 million backlog on infrastructure needs, including roads, parks, recreation centers and fire stations.
Critics have attacked the proposal on several fronts, questioning whether the money will be invested and spent wisely, whether trustees of the Cincinnati Southern Railway could have gotten a better deal and whether the city should sell an asset it’s owned more than 150 years to the company that caused an environmental disaster with a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
Pureval said he supports the sale because it solves one of the city’s biggest problems.
“No one wants to talk about deficits,” he said. “But as mayor it’s my job to be a truth teller and to provide the hard truths to the community. And right now, we just cannot afford the footprint of the city that we currently have from a capital infrastructure perspective. And our ability to bring in new resources, diversify our resources, is critically important if we want to avoid raising taxes.”
But public support is one thing, political campaigns another. Cincinnati’s municipal code restricts a mayor’s involvement in ballot issue campaigns:
“Resources of the mayor's office shall not be used to support or oppose either the placement of an initiative or referendum issue on the ballot or the passage of the ballot issue. This provision does not prohibit research on the subject matter of a ballot issue, endorsement of a position on the issue, the creation of informational materials or similar efforts by the mayor or his or her staff provided that such efforts do not directly advocate for or against placement on the ballot or passage of the ballot issue.”
Chapter 119 of the municipal code also prohibits “acceptance of campaign contributions from persons with a financial interest in city business.” It adds: “Campaign means the mayor, each member of council, and their agents, including their campaign committees and associated political action committees.”
What the mayor told us
Hamilton County records show political consultant Jens Sutmoller became treasurer of Friends of Aftab Pureval in January 2022 and filed paperwork as treasurer for Build Cincinnati’s Future on July 14. It now uses the name Building Cincinnati’s Future on its campaign web site. In the I-Team interview, Pureval initially denied Sutmoller was his campaign treasurer, then revised his answer to say he “very recently” replaced a previous treasurer with Sutmoller.
“I’ve worked with him on previous elections, worked with him on my Congressional race and he’s been supportive of me throughout my campaigns,” Pureval said. “I consider him one of my unofficial advisors. I call him for advice on a whole host of issues.”
Pureval said he was not involved in hiring Sutmoller to run the rail campaign.
“It was Norfolk Southern’s and some other folks who were asking about, you know, ‘Who’s a person who would be well positioned to run a campaign?’ And Jens’ name came up. I had no part in deciding who would run the campaign, no influence about that. I’m completely separate from that,” the mayor said.
Sutmoller declined to be interviewed but responded to questions via email.
“There is absolutely no conflict of interest here,” he wrote. “There are strict rules governing campaign finance and holding multiple roles in campaigns is not unusual. As always, stringent accounting practices and legal counsel always guide my actions.”
Sutmoller said Chapter 119 of the municipal code does not apply to the rail campaign because Build Cincinnati’s Future is not “an associated PAC” for the mayor and its “ads are not advocating for any candidate's election.”
Sutmoller, who served on the railway board from 2013 to 2018, said he sought legal guidance on this year’s campaign.
“Legal counsel to the Build Cincinnati’s Future PAC has affirmed that my role as treasurer and the participation of elected officials in ads supporting Issue 22 are entirely within the confines of the law, pose no conflicts of interest, and do not cross any ethical boundaries,” Sutmoller wrote.
Interview excerpts
During the one-hour interview, Pureval repeatedly stressed his lack of involvement in the campaign.
Here’s one example from an interview excerpt about polling:
Q: You haven’t seen any poll numbers?
A: The campaign has shared with me some polling numbers. I don’t have them memorized. But it is a close race right now.
Q: What’s the support like in the Black community?
A: I don’t know. I didn’t look at the cross tabs. I just saw the top number.
And campaign finances:
Q: Who’s paying for the campaign?
A: Yeah, the campaign is largely funded by Norfolk Southern.
Q: How much are they spending?
A: I don’t know
And his appearance in TV adds:
Q: Isn’t there a restriction on the use of public dollars in political campaigns?
A: Yes.
Q: And that includes public employees not being allowed to be involved. But you’re the spokesperson for this campaign.
A: I wouldn’t say that I’m the spokesperson, but I have been very, very clear that I’m supportive of it. But I’m deriving no financial benefit from the campaign, whatsoever.
Foes and friends react
“Well, I’m sure he doesn’t get paid by the railroad,” said Todd Zinser of West Price Hill. “But they are paying for TV ads that the mayor appears in and that’s a lot of good publicity for the mayor, who is probably going to be running here in a year or so.”
Zinser is a former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Commerce. He joined a coalition of groups opposing the railroad sale because he thought the process that led to it lacked transparency.
“The question that remains is whether the mayor has a sufficient arms-length relationship with Norfolk Southern,” Zinser said. “And just the appearance of his campaign treasurer being the campaign treasurer for Norfolk Southern really has to raise red flags for the voters and have them wonder whether we’re really getting an objective proposal from the mayor.”
Smitherman, who won’t rule out a run for mayor in 2025, said he would have acted less like an advocate and “more as a referee” if he were mayor when the rail sale was proposed.
“I think the mayor wanted to be the face because he understood the size of the budget,” Smitherman said. “He knew that he was going to be up for re-election in a year and that he wanted to increase his profile 12 months out from the election, take these in-kind contributions and not have to disclose it to the public.”
Former Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley calls such criticism “cheap shots” aimed at distracting voters from the merits of the argument that Pureval is making. Cranley sees no difference between Pureval’s campaign ads and Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s campaign ads against State Issue 1, which would add abortion rights to the Ohio constitution.
“There’s a longstanding precedent that campaigns have First Amendment protection and can use who they believe to be the best spokesman possible,” Cranley said. “I support the rail campaign. The mayor’s very popular and is a good spokesman for the deal. And it’s a private decision as to who they believe should be the spokesman.”
Cranley endured a similar controversy in 2015, when critics questioned a $200,000 donation to a political action committee that advocated a property tax increase for city parks. Cranley appeared in TV ads for the campaign, which received – then returned – a donation that the Cincinnati Park Board made through a political action committee formed by former Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken.
The donation was returned after Tom Brinkman, a Republican state lawmaker at the time, threatened a taxpayer lawsuit. Eight years later, Brinkman is a critic of the railroad sale that Luken helped to negotiate, after being appointed by Cranley as a trustee of the railway board in 2018.
In 2015 and again this year, Brinkman objected to the use of taxpayer funds to promote a ballot issue. But he has no problem with Pureval’s connections to the rail campaign.
“He’s trying to show leadership. I’m not going to criticize him on that,” Brinkman said. “He’s going to benefit if it gets passed. He’s going to take the detriment if it fails.”
