Eight people applied for Mahoning County Court judicial job

By David Skolnick | December 8, 2018 at 12:02a.m.

Gov.-elect Mike DeWine will select Judge David D’Apolito’s successor

BOARDMAN

Eight people applied to be appointed to succeed Judge David D’Apolito in Mahoning County Area Court .

Friday was the deadline to submit applications to the county Republican Party for the position that won’t be vacant until Feb. 8.

Judge D’Apolito, a Democrat, was elected last month to a position on the eight-county 7th District Court of Appeals, beating Judge Kathleen Bartlett, a Republican appointed by Gov. John Kasich in March to fill an empty seat on that bench. He had served on the area court bench in Austintown.

While Judge D’Apolito’s term on the appeals court doesn’t start until Feb. 8, Kasich, a Republican, asked the local Republican Party to start the search to get the process going.

Kasich won’t make the appointment, however. Gov.-elect Mike DeWine, also a Republican, takes office Jan. 14 and will select Judge D’Apolito’s successor. The seat is up for election in 2020.

A local Republican screening committee will interview the candidates and recommend three finalists to DeWine.

“We have a terrific group of well-qualified candidates, and I suspect our job of selecting which three to send to Columbus will be a challenge,” said Mahoning Republican Chairman Mark Munroe. “With the upcoming holidays, it’s likely we will postpone the interviews until early January.”

Those applying for the appointment are:

Judge Bartlett, who lost the appeals race to D’Apolito by only 2.1 percentage points in the eight-county district. But she lost in Mahoning County by 26.9 percentage points.

J.P. Morgan, who finished fourth in a six-person race last month for a different county court judicial seat.

A. Ross Douglass, who finished last in that same Nov. 6 county court race.

Ronald Knickerbocker, a county Republican precinct committee member who unsuccessfully ran for a county court judicial seat in 2000. He was a member of the party’s screening committee that recommended finalists to Kasich for an open Youngstown Municipal Court judicial position earlier this year.

Robert Harvey, a county Republican precinct committee member.

T. Robert Bricker, also a county Republican precinct committee member.

Mark Hanni, who unsuccessfully ran last year as an independent for Youngstown Municipal Court judge and also failed to get an appointment for an open seat on that court earlier this year.

Jeffrey Joseph.