Pattern of uncontested judicial races spans decades
Political leanings, financial considerations among several factors.
There were eight semi-local judicial races on the ballot throughout Butler County in this year’s general election, but Butler County voters only had one candidate to choose from in each race.
All of those candidates were endorsed by the Butler County Republican Party, and each candidate won their seat uncontested, either as incumbents or newcomers to judicial elected office.
John Forren, the chair of Miami University’s Department of Justice and Community Studies, said this sort of pattern in judicial elections is “not unique” to Butler County.
“Statewide, lots of judicial candidates run unopposed, and here in Butler County, that is the norm rather than the exception,” Forren said. “None of them had opposition, and that is absolutely the pattern we’ve seen going back decades here.”
Forren said there are several reasons why the landscape for elected judicial offices is like this, attributes that are specific to the nature of judicial work and ones that are specific to Butler County.
One of those reasons, Forren said, is simply that Butler County has overwhelmingly voted for Republicans for decades now. This year, no county-wide race went in favor of a Democrat and the county voted heavily in favor of every Republican vying for a seat both statewide and federally.
“We’re a heavily Republican county,” Forren said. “Someone who’s qualified to run as a judge as a Democrat may just look generally at electoral patterns here and conclude that it’s not worth running, essentially.”
Forren said thatqualified Democrats, by nature, would already be working within a tight-knit, Republican-dominated Butler County judicial system, which inherently brings tension, should the challenger lose.
“If someone would file to challenge a sitting judge, that would be a difficult thing to do career wise, especially if you’re making the calculation that, ‘I’m gonna run, I probably will not win, and after that election’s over I’ll have to go back to sometimes appearing in front of that judge in court,’” Forren said. “That might be a disincentive.”
Forren noted that, generally, the voting public shows less interest in judicial races, too, which in turn forces candidates to jockey for support “within the legal establishment” of the county.
“If the legal establishment here
locally is pretty pleased with how the courts are performing, that may be another reason not to challenge,” Forren said, adding, “The Butler County judiciary is well respected, even though it’s one party. Which is one of the reasons why they don’t attract a lot of challengers either.”
Financial considerations come into play, too, Forren said. Would-be candidates meeting the right sort of qualifications might not be attracted to the salary of an elected judge.
In Ohio, common pleas court judges are set to make $158,206 in 2023. Bluntly, Forren said that legal professionals in the county that are respected enough to make a solid electoral bid often make more than that in their private practices — which ditches another incentive for would-be challengers.
“There are several factors all leading someone in the direction of saying, ‘Why would I do that?’” Forren said.
As far as impact goes, Forren said the nature of a judge’s work limits the amount of impact that partisanship can have, even in a court system that is so heavily dominated by one party.
“Especially at the trial court level, the vast majority of the job is simply applying pre-existing rules,” Forren said. “The law is settled, you are simply keeping the trains running, in terms of processing cases.”
Still, Butler County Republican Party Chair Todd Hall said his organization places “a premium on recruiting highly qualified candidates for judicial races” and endorsing those candidates for upcoming elections, an aspect that Kathy Wyenandt, the Butler County Democratic Party chair, hopes to be able to do in upcoming elections.
As a result, the route for candidacy for qualified candidates filters directly through county political parties, whether candidates’ political ideology can have a major impact on court proceedings or not.
In April, the Journal-News reported that two Republican assistant prosecutors were in the hunt to replace Democratic judge Kathleen Romans, who had to retire due to age limits. The Republican party’s resounding endorsement of Dan Phillips over Jim Monk caused Monk to completely back away from his campaign.
“It’s tough to win in this county when you’re against the endorsed candidate and there’s a slate card. So, after a couple of days I thought about it and I wasn’t going to spend any more time or money on my campaign,” Monk said.
Hall described the recruitment and endorsement process involves “screening candidates for proper qualifications,” along with an “in-person endorsement vote,” where candidates can speak on their own behalf and field questions from a GOP committee. Candidates must earn 60% support of the committee in order to be endorsed by the Butler County GOP.
Hall said, in his opinion, this recruitment and endorsement process is the reason “our county has the best group of judges in the state of Ohio.”
This election, every judge on the county ballot passed this mark, along with two others at the State Court of Appeals 12th District. They were all unopposed.
Wyenandt said a top priority for the Butler County Democratic Party is to contest those judicial races in elections down the road. She said the party, which has struggled to find candidates for many races in the Republican-dominated county, will work toward creating recruitment processes and bringing forth an awareness that “we are recruiting, training and supporting candidates.”
“The essence of democracy is to have a vote and a choice and to have your say,” Wyendandt said. “Whenever there’s just one candidate on the ballot, you don’t get much of a say.”