County Democratic Party needs to explain its endorsement of O’grady

Re “Columbus taxpayers to pay $610K to settle two federal lawsuits,” Sept. 21: Columbus City Council paid $210,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging that Municipal Court Judge James P. O’grady created a hostile work environment by making sexist, racist and abusive comments to a former court employee for years.

This is more reason the Franklin County Democratic Party should explain to the public why it endorsed O’grady for reelection this November.

With the complainant against O’grady being an African-american female, support for the Blacks Lives Matter and #Metoo movements should have led the party to investigate the woman’s allegations and tell the public why the endorsement was made despite those allegations. The same should have been done if the complainant had been another race or gender, based on decency and common sense.

Additionally, O’grady was elected to the court in 2011 and 2015 as a Republican. He switched to the Democratic Party last year. The Franklin County Democratic Party has not indicated to the public that it investigated why he switched or determined whether he’s just a Democrat in name only hoping to win in an increasingly Democratic county.

The party’s leadership apparently didn’t look into or care about the serious allegations against O’grady or the question of whether he’s truly a Democrat. And they think voters shouldn’t care either, which is absurd.

Including O’grady on the party’s sample ballot renders the whole thing suspect. Voters would be better off making their own decisions instead of relying on the party’s endorsements.

Joseph Sommer, Columbus