Races for Ohio Supreme Court seats pivotal in 2022
The most important election contests in Ohio this year aren’t necessarily for the governorship or Rob Portman’s Senate seat. Instead, Campaign ‘22’s key battle arguably will be for three Ohio Supreme Court seats, given an out-of-control legislature and a Public
Utilities Commission of Ohio drowning in fine print.
If anyone wonders why the court is pivotal, look no further than the Supreme Court’s pair of 4-3 rulings killing brazen gerrymanders – by the legislature’s GOP leaders – of new congressional and General Assembly districts.
In each instance, the Supreme Court’s three Democrats joined with Republican Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor to junk districts that Senate President Matt Huffman and House Speaker Robert R. Cupp, both Lima Republicans, drew to favor their fellow Republicans.
O’Connor must leave the Supreme Court in December because of Ohio’s age limits for judges. Competing to succeed O’Connor as chief justice are Democratic Justice Jennifer Brunner, once Ohio’s secretary of state, and Republican Justice Sharon Kennedy of Butler County.
Brunner joined with O’Connor and fellow Democratic Justices Michael Donnelly and Melody Stewart in killing the Hffman-Cupp gerrymanders. Voting to uphold them were Republican Justices Kennedy, Patrick Fischer and R. Patrick (Pat) DeWine
— Gov. Mike DeWine’s son.
Had the gerrymanders been allowed to stand, Republicans might easily have captured 13 of the 15 U.S. House seats allotted to Ohio. As for the legislature, the gerrymander likely would have guaranteed Republicans 60-odd seats in Ohio’s House compared to the roughly 54 seats the Supreme Court said fair districts would produce.
Also on this year’s ballot are Justices DeWine and Fischer, who must win re-election to remain on the court for another six years. DeWine’s Democratic challenger is Judge
Marilyn Zayas, of the Cincinnati-based Ohio Court of Appeals (1st District), which encompasses Hamilton County. Fischer’s Democratic challenger is Judge Terri Jamison, of the Columbus-based Ohio Court of Appeals (10th District), which encompasses Franklin County.
In 2020, Brunner unseated Republican Justice Judith French, pruning a 5-2 GOP Supreme Court majority to 4-3. A win by Jamison or Zayas could give the Supreme Court a 4-3 Democratic majority, something highly unwelcome to the insurance and utility lobbies.
It’s long past time for the Ohio Supreme Court to end its get-along, go-along approach given the General Assembly’s antics. The legislature has trampled municipal home rule, made Ohio a gun peddler’s paradise, and second-guessed medical experts fighting COVID-19.
Somewhere at the Statehouse are people who need to be the adults in the room — a role the Supreme Court just played, and needs to keep playing, to rein in an addled legislature.