OHIO SUPREME COURT Democratic candidate says challenger lacks experience

The Republican challenger downplayed the criticism that she is a politician.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Judge Tim Black says the choice will be clear when voters go to the polls Nov. 5 to cast ballots in the Ohio Supreme Court race that pits him against Lt. Gov. Maureen O'Connor.
The choice, he says, is between himself, a judge with nine years of experience, and O'Connor, whom he categorizes as a politician with less than two years of judicial experience.
"We want our justices to be judges and not politicians," Black, a Democrat, said Monday during a meeting with The Vindicator. "The notion that [the Republican Party] is taking the lieutenant governor and saying she'll be fair is causing me some pause. She's a partisan politician."
O'Connor, a Republican who served less than two years as a Summit County Common Pleas judge and four years as a county prosecutor, leads Judge Black, a Hamilton County Municipal Court judge since 1994, by 12 to 15 percentage points in most state polls, with a large undecided vote.
Response
"I've heard this rhetoric from him before," O'Connor said. "He wants to harp on my two years as a common pleas court judge. I'd venture to say that my two years were packed with more consequential decision-making than he's seen thus far in his career."
Judge Black said he has authored four leading judicial decisions related to domestic violence that were published by the Supreme Court, and O'Connor has none.
The two are seeking to replace Judge Andrew Douglas, who cannot seek re-election this year because of the court's maximum age restriction of 70.
Judge Black, who failed to capture a Supreme Court seat in 2000, said he was surprised that the Ohio Republican Party is supporting O'Connor, who has served as lieutenant governor since January 1999. Judge Black said he expected the Republicans to support a state appellate court judge for the seat.
"I think they're trying to pack the court by sliding the governor's No. 2 person into that spot," he said. "They needed a place for her. ... The last thing we need to do is send someone to that court with a big ego and a political agenda."
O'Connor acknowledges she is a politician but says there's nothing wrong with that.
"The last time I looked, Mr. Black has run for political office; that's how you get elected," she said. "For him to try to claim he's not a politician, well, that's how we get into office to do public service. It's an invalid criticism."
O'Connor says partisan politics have never been a factor in how she handles her duties as lieutenant governor.
"It's just a baseless accusation," she said.
O'Connor is critical of the current Supreme Court, saying that if she is elected, her presence will completely change its philosophy from an activist court to one that believes in judicial restraint and does not legislate from the bench.
"She's saying the things she's saying because she thinks it's popular," Judge Black said. "She's doing it because of her lack of experience as a judge."
For the most part, Judge Black said he is "comfortable" with the court's decisions during the past two decades.
Judge Black says he will spend about $1 million on television commercials in the state's seven major TV markets, including the Mahoning Valley. O'Connor hopes to spend about that amount.
"The polls show that 70 percent of voters have no idea who they'll vote for," Judge Black said. "The challenge is to get through the clutter and get the message out that there are two different candidates. My allies are concerned about the polls. I'm not."
The other Supreme Court seat up for grabs in the Nov. 5 election is between Judge Evelyn Lundberg Stratton, the incumbent and a Republican, and Janet Burnside, a judge in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court and a Democrat.