A 'sliding door moment' for Cincinnati: How PG Sittenfeld's arrest altered the future

On the morning of Nov, 19, 2020, Cincinnati's future changed.

That day, Cincinnati City Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld appeared to be on track to become the city's next mayor. The scion of a prominent Cincinnati family, he was a veteran council member, the top vote-getter in his previous two council races. The Ivy League-educated Sittenfeld was sitting on a campaign fund of more than $700,000. He was set to spend the day at council pushing popular items such as capping fees for delivery services and more frequent bus service.

Instead, Sittenfeld was arrested for corruption. It was what a prominent Democrat called "a sliding door" moment for Cincinnati − a moment when an alternate future emerged.

Today Sittenfeld could have been well into his first term as mayor. Instead, he's set to be sentenced Tuesday on charges of bribery and attempted extortion for trading favorable votes on development projects for campaign contributions. Prosecutors are seeking a prison term of anywhere from 33 months to 41 months. Sittenfeld's attorneys are seeking probation.

With Sittenfeld's arrest, Cincinnati's politics veered. Voters elected a city hall outsider as mayor and ushered in virtually an entirely new council, all of whom have pledged to clean up corruption. Sittenfeld was one of three council members arrested on separate federal corruption charges in 2020.

"P.G. was a runaway train toward the mayor's office," said University of Cincinnati political science professor David Niven, who keeps a close watch on Cincinnati City Hall. "It's hard to dispute ... this is a cinematic twist in the story. Not only would he have won the race but handily."

Opening a door for a different mayor

Aftab Pureval, then Hamilton County Clerk of Courts, hadn't planned to run for mayor. In 2018 he had run unsuccessfully for a U.S. House seat from Cincinnati. Like Sittenfeld, he was young, ambitious, photogenic and a new father.

With Sittenfeld fighting the charges and ultimately dropping out of the mayoral race, Pureval jumped in. He won in 2021 with 66% of the vote, becoming the city's first Asian-American mayor.

"It is a sliding door moment," said former Hamilton County Democratic Party Chairman Tim Burke. "There are a lot of us who believe P.G. never should have been indicted, that he never should have been convicted."

The city government's priorities themselves probably aren't that different from what might have been. Sittenfeld and Pureval shared roughly the same ideologies.

But where Sittenfeld was a Cincinnati insider, a graduate of Cincinnati's exclusive Seven Hills School, Pureval grew up in the Dayton suburb of Beavercreek, the son of parents who immigrated from India in 1980 to Xenia, Ohio. Sittenfeld went to Princeton and Oxford. Pureval went to state schools: Ohio State University and then the University of Cincinnati's law school. Sittenfeld had been on council for nine years when he was arrested; Pureval had never served in city office.

"They are similar in terms of the vitality they would have brought the mayor's office, but Sittenfeld would have arrived at mayor having carefully planned that as his destination, with a universe he built around him. Pureval arrived having accidentally stepped into the office," said UC's Niven.

Former mayor Roxanne Qualls said the primary difference would have been the personality emanating from the mayor's office.

“Aftab is very reflective and very thoughtful,” Qualls said. “He thinks through very carefully and decides what he needs to do and how he needs to do it and with whom he needs to do. My experience with P.G. is that he was a bit more impetuous.”

Pureval, she said, is a careful mayor. "There is an accountability built in," she said.

Where would Pureval be today?

Burke, who knows both men, said the two differ in style. But, they are "fairly similar" when it comes to their politics.

"Aftab is flashier," Burke said. "But both of them are very progressive politicians. P.G. certainly knew city issues better. But to Aftab’s credit, he's picked up things pretty quickly. P.G. for example, I think, would have been all for the sale of the railroad. Aftab of course is."

Burke said Pureval's own political trajectory could have been quite different. If Sittenfeld were mayor, Pureval may have run again for Congress in 2022. Instead, fellow Democrat Greg Landsman won the seat. With state maps redrawn to make the district more favorable to Democrats, it could have been Pureval who beat Republican Rep. Steve Chabot.

Pureval himself said he still works under the cloud left behind by Sittenfeld and the other council members who were arrested. He said the public still doesn't trust City Hall.

"The blatant and awful corruption from the past is embarrassing," Pureval said, while speaking at a meeting of Democrat precinct executives earlier this month.

"We worked very hard to rebuild the trust," Pureval said.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: What happened to PG Sittenfeld? Is PG Sittenfeld in prison?