With most early votes and precincts counted, the Ohio Supreme Court’s makeup is poised to shift to one new Democrat — with Republican justices retaining a majority. Credit: Doral Chenoweth III | The Columbus Dispatch via Tribune News Service
Cleveland.com (Tribune News Service) — With most early votes and precincts counted, the Ohio Supreme Court’s makeup is poised to shift to one new Democrat — with Republican justices retaining a majority.
The outcome will prove significant because the next court will most likely have to decide cases on state legislative and congressional redistricting and maybe even gerrymandering after the conclusion of the 2020 Census.
The court currently has a Republican 5-2 majority.
Democrat Jennifer Brunner, a judge on the Ohio 10th District Court of Appeals and former Ohio secretary of state, appears to have enough votes to win the seat currently occupied by Republican Justice Judi French. With just over 4 million votes cast, she had 55.3 percent of the vote to French’s 45.7 percent in early results.
And with 4.1 million votes cast in the other Ohio Supreme Court race, Republican Justice Sharon Kennedy appears to have held onto her seat from a challenge by Cuyahoga County Court of Pleas Judge John P. O’Donnell, — 54.96 percent to 45.04 percent.
O’Donnell faced a hurdle in Northeast Ohio. African American activists launched a campaign in August to keep him off the court, upset he acquitted former Cleveland police officer Michael Brelo of manslaughter and other charges in the shooting deaths of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams. Brelo and a dozen other police officers fired 137 shots into Russell’s vehicle following a lengthy police chase. Russell and Williams, who both died, were unarmed.
In fact, one of the activists, the Rev. Eugene Ward, appeared in an ad for Kennedy.
Money and might came up in both Supreme Court races.
The most recent campaign finance reports showed the Republican candidates had outraised the Democrats nearly two to one.
However, several groups bought ads, mailed voters postcards and other activities independent of the campaigns— including the Ohio Democratic Party, Planned Parenthood, the Republican State Leadership Committee and the Ohio Business Roundtable.
On Friday, an Ohio Bar Association committee that tries to get candidates to pledge to keep campaigns clean and free of tactics that make people cynical of the judiciary criticized two separate television ads put out by the Ohio Democratic Party and Republican State Leadership Committee.
Even former President Barack Obama and his former Attorney General Eric Holder had eyed Ohio for expenditures from its National Democratic Redistricting Committee, though it’s unclear whether any candidate benefited from direct contributions. The final campaign finance report is due until Dec. 11. Over the summer, Karl Rove, the GOP strategist, even wrote a letter asking people to support French.
