Ohio Supreme Court Justices
Voters will get two chances to decide the makeup of Ohio’s top court, which is currently comprised of seven Republican justices.
Craig Baldwin, a Republican who has served five years as a 5th District Court of Appeals Judge, was previously a judge in domestic relations court and director of child support enforcement in Licking County. He’s vying for a seat vacated by Terrance O’Donnell, who cannot run again due to age limits.
His challenger Michael Donnelly, a Democrat, has been a judge for 13 years hearing civil and criminal cases in Cleveland. On that court, he’s spent a good deal of his time on mental health cases for the last seven years. Before his stint on the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, Donnelly was an assistant county prosecutor. He also serves on the state Supreme Court’s Death Penalty Task Force, which has recommended reforms to Ohio’s capital punishment policies.
Republican Mary DeGenaro is the incumbent in another Ohio Supreme Court race. She was appointed by Gov. John Kasich in January to fill the seat of Justice William O’Neal, who left to seek the Democratic Party’s gubernatorial nomination. Her nomination made the court a seven-member Republican sweep. Prior to that, DeGenaro served in Ohio’s Seventh District Court of Appeals for 17 years.
Melody Stewart, a Democrat, is challenging DeGenaro. She has served on Ohio’s Eight District Court of Appeals since 2006. Stewart is a member of a state group, the Ohio Criminal Justice Recodification Committee, that is suggesting updates to Ohio’s criminal law. Stewart has also taken a stint as a visiting justice on the Ohio Supreme Court.
1st District Court of Appeals
Voters will also be able to choose between two candidates each in four races for spots on the state’s six-member 1st District Court of Appeals, which serves Hamilton County. Here are some details about each candidate. The Urban League of Greater Southwestern Ohio hosted a panel discussion in early October featuring appeals court candidates as well as Hamilton County courts candidates. You can watch that discussion here (part 1) and here (part 2).
The first of those races features challenger Pierre Bergeron, an appellate attorney with Squire Patton Boggs who has argued before the Ohio and U.S. Supreme Court, taking on incumbent Charles Miller, who has been on the bench at the 1st District court since last year. Miller has also appeared before the Ohio Supreme Court in his previous role as an attorney with Keating Muething & Klekamp. He also served as the head of the Hamilton County Public Defender Commission, which oversees the county ‘s public defender’s office. Bergeron has the endorsement of the Hamilton County Democratic Party, while Miller has grabbed the nod from the county GOP.
Another race has the Hamilton County Democratic Party’s endorsement defending her seat from a challenger who got the county GOP’s nod. Marilyn Zayas-Davis is touting her more than two decades of courtroom experience, her corporate experience at Procter & Gamble and her youth outreach work inviting students into the court. Her challenger, Dale Stalf is a self-described conservative and military veteran who spent time as an Army prosecutor and legal advisor to the Department of Defense before going into private practice in Hamilton County. Zayas-Davis spent time in June this year sitting on the Ohio Supreme Court as a visiting justice when another justice recused themselves from a case.
Voters will also weigh in on the race between incumbent judge Dennis Deters, who has been endorsed by the Hamilton County GOP, and his challenger Candace Crouse, who got the county Democratic Party’s endorsement. Deters was appointed to his position in March last year, his first stint as a judge, after losing his brief, appointed seat on the Hamilton County Commission to Democrat Denise Driehaus. Deters was appointed to the commission after former commissioner Greg Hartman retired. Deters, the brother of Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters, was previously a Colerain Township Trustee and private attorney. Crouse, meanwhile, has 17 years of legal experience, including time as a federal law clerk and work as a defense attorney for low-income clients. She’s litigated cases on a number of different issues at the state and federal levels. She is currently a partner at the law firm of Pinales, Stachler, Young, Burrell and Crouse.
Finally, Hamilton County Party-endorsed Ginger Bock is taking on Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas Judge Robert C. Winkler, who has the backing of the county GOP. Bock began her legal career clerking in the 1st District Court of Appeals. From there, she pursued work in private practice appellate law, eventually arguing case before the Ohio Supreme Court. For the last year, she has been an attorney at the Moore Law Firm. Winkler has served as a Hamilton County judge since 2006, and was previously a judge on the Hamilton County Municipal Court. He’s also spent time in private practice and as an assistant Hamilton County Prosecutor, a role he started in 1990.
This article appears in Oct 24-31, 2018.
