Tom Brinkman - Local Politics

Local Politics

Brinkman worked for several Republicans' successful campaigns for Cincinnati City Council: Phil Heimlich, Steve Chabot, Charles Winburn, and Pat DeWine. He also worked for John Kruse's unsuccessful bid.

In 1999, he founded the Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes (COAST), which actively opposes tax levies in southwestern Ohio. Brinkman actively worked against many tax levies and bond issues. In his Congressional campaign he declared:

I have been relentless in my pursuit of lower taxes, reduced spending and elimination of waste in the State of Ohio. No one else in this race has my record of saying "NO" to taxes. Every candidate in this race will tell you that they are "conservative" but when the rubber hits the road, I am the only one with a proven voting record.

Brinkman opposed numerous tax increases. In 1999, he campaigned against Hamilton County's proposed levy to build a new communications system for the fire and police departments. He said the county already had the money: "Commissioners are the ones politicizing the basic issues of public safety. They're putting it on the ballot instead of taking care of it like they should." Even a tornado in 1999 that showed weaknesses in the current system could not change his mind.

When the Hamilton County Commissioners proposed spending $300 million on the Albert Sabin Convention Center in 1999, Brinkman protested. "All of these projects keep on growing, and they're creating a huge tax burden on us. But when the economy goes sour, they will leave a tremendous burden." (When Brinkman went to the state legislature, he voted against legislation to pay for the expansion.)

In 2006 Brinkman was one of the leaders of group called Equal Rights Not Special Rights (ERNSR). This group started a petition drive to overrule a recent Cincinnati City Council vote that included sexual orientation and gender identity as proteced clasess under the city's Human Rights Ordiance. ERNSR ended up withdrawing the petitions when Citizens to Restore Fairness presented a challenge to the petitions. Equality Cincinnati continued to investigate the petition fraud and the evidence was sent to the Hamilton County Grand Jury. The jury did not find a reason to have any charges brought against Brinkman, even though he admitted to changing over 1000 address on the petitions to make them valid. Two women were charged by the Grand Jury and on Wednesday, July 18, 2007, at their plea hearing Hamilton County Common Please Judge Robert Ruehlman reprimanded Brinkman from the bench. Ruehlman called him the "real criminal" in this case. Ruehlman stated, "It's terrible. It takes away a right to the democracy. It takes away the right for people to decide the issues when you cheat like that." He even suggested that Brinkman should be charged with complicity to election fraud, acted without ethics and that the Ohio State House of Representatives should remove him from office.