COURT RACES Fund raising favors GOP

COLUMBUS (AP) -- Fund raising in Ohio Supreme Court races slowed in the campaign's final weeks as Republicans, with a wide contribution advantage to begin with, headed to relatively easy victories, according to finance reports filed on Friday with the Ohio secretary of state's office.
Since before the March primaries, Chief Justice Thomas Moyer raised $1.3 million and fellow Republicans Justice Terrence O'Donnell and Judge Judith Lanzinger raised $1.4 million each. All three won Nov. 2.
The only Democrat to come close in fund raising over the campaign cycle was Lanzinger's opponent, Common Pleas Judge Nancy Fuerst of Cleveland, who raised $922,000 in the battle for the court's only open seat, to replace retiring Democratic Justice Francis Sweeney.
Fuerst's total includes $73,670 raised in the most recent reporting period, which covers the weeks since mid-October.