Too often, when voters go into the voting booth and glance over the ballot, its length is daunting, and there are too many names at the bottom where the judicial races are found. That’s why there’s a steep drop-off in the number of people voting on top-of-the-ticket candidates such as governor and U.S. senator, and for judges.
But it’s hard to overemphasize the impact of these judicial races and the importance of educating yourself about who the candidates are and voting in these races.
Democracy, women’s rights and LGBTQ+ rights are literally on the ballot in the Ohio Supreme Court races. Currently the state supreme court is 4-3 Republican. Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor has reached mandatory retirement age and isn’t running again. She was the swing vote that found the gerrymandered maps were unconstitutional, a decision the corrupt lawbreaking GOP members of the redistricting commission chose to ignore. (She has said that after retirement, her main focus will be on fair districts to restore democracy to Ohio.)
All three of the justices who felt that giving the finger to the law, the voters and the state constitution was OK as long as it cemented outsized Republican power ARE on the ballot — and one of them, Sharon Kennedy, is running for chief justice. (Patrick Fisher and Patrick DeWine are running to retain their current posts.)
Running against Kennedy is another current justice looking to be elevated to the chief spot. Jennifer Brunner is a highly respected former judge from the Columbus area who served one term as Ohio Secretary of State from 2007-2011, during which she repaired Ohio’s elections system following the massive debacle in 2004, driven by her predecessor Ken Blackwell’s blatant partisanship. Read more about her here.
Given that Kennedy joined with Fisher and DeWine in saying it was ok for Republicans to ignore that voters overwhelmingly wanted fair maps, she’s a poor choice for the top spot. The chief justice sets the tone for the court, including deciding what matters the court will take up. Fair elections obviously wouldn’t be at the top of Kennedy’s list.
Since both Fisher and DeWine thumbed their noses at the idea of drawing districts that represent the voters rather than protect politicians, neither deserves reelection. — and both have strong challengers.
DeWine is being challenged by Hamilton County (Cincinnati) appeals court judge Marilyn Zayas. Zayas, born and raised in Harlem, came to Cincinnati to work with Procter & Gambel, went to law school in Cincinnati and worked as a lawyer there for a wide range of clients for 20 years in before being elected to the bench in 2016. DeWine felt that keeping the GOP’s unearned advantage in legislative and congressional elections was so important he ignored an outrageous conflict of interest — weighing in on redistricting while his father sat on the redistricting commission. That he failed to recuse himself is enough reason to vote him out even if Zayas wasn’t as strong a contender as she is. Learn more here.
Meanwhile, Fisher’s mealy-mouthed reasoning in the redistricting cases is enough reason to replace him with Columbus area Judge Terri Jamison. Originally a coal miner from West Virginia (highly unusual for an African-American woman!), she moved to Columbus where she ran her own insurance agency for 16 years prior to getting her law degree. She was elected to the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas in 2012 and moved up to the 10th district court of appeals in 2020. Learn more about her here, and view the CoolCleveland VIDEO ENDORSEMENT of Judge Terri Jamison here.
Now is a good time to bookmark Cuyahoga County’s Judge 4 Yourself website, which combines the ratings of six different local and state bar associations in contended judicial races (It doesn’t rate candidates who have no challenger.) It has already posted ratings for county judicial races, which we’ll get to in coming weeks.
It’s also rated the candidates for the state supreme court. It agrees with us in rating Brunner and Zayas superior to their opponents; it rates Fisher and Jamison tied. But the shattering of democracy and fair elections in Ohio is such an overarching issue, impacting literally everything else happening in the state in a negative way, that justices who tied themselves in knots to find excuses for redistricting commission Republicans who defied the 70+% of voters who put new district-drawing rules in the state constitution shouldn’t be considered for reelection by any voter who values Ohio’s future.
One Response to “It’s Time to Vote Out State Supreme Court Justices Who OK’d Gerrymandering”
Penny Jeffrey
Absolutely correct, Ms Pantsios. Voting for the R candidates is voting for gerrymandering, and the D candidates are excellent.