Aftab Pureval, Cecil Thomas, David Mann.
Those are your top tier candidates in the May 4 Cincinnati mayoral primary. Not necessarily in that order.
And only two of them can survive the primary.
If the turnout is as low as it has been in previous mayoral primaries, there's no telling what might happen.
Nine potential candidates filed petitions with the Hamilton County Board of Elections by Feb. 18 to run in the primary, but the ranks are thinning out.
Cincinnati Council Member Wendell Young has already been eliminated; he failed to meet the threshold of 500 valid signatures of Cincinnati voters. And he failed by a long shot – he was short 151 signatures, according to the board of elections.