Summit County’s musical judicial chairs won’t end with the November election.
With four judges elected to seats in other courts, replacements must be appointed to fill their current spots. After the appointments, the county will have new judges in nine of 30 of its elected judicial posts or 30 percent.
Several retirements and the appointment of a judge as a federal magistrate created a higher-than-usual number of open seats in the Nov. 8 election, prompting numerous existing judges and magistrates to run for seats in another court.
The judges who were elected to other posts and now must be replaced are Akron Municipal Court Judges Katarina Cook and Joy Oldfield and Summit County Common Pleas Court Judges Lynne Callahan and Tom Teodosio. Cook will move to Summit County Domestic Relations Court, while Oldfield is headed to Common Pleas Court. Callahan and Teodosio are joining the 9th District Court of Appeals bench.
When the judges assume their new seats in January or February, the Summit County Republican Party will recommend potential candidates to fill the seats, with Gov. John Kasich then making the appointments. The appointed judges will have to run in 2017 or 2018 to fill unexpired or full terms, with the Summit County Democratic Party likely fielding candidates against them.
“With the opportunity to make recommendations comes the responsibility of getting them elected,” said Bryan Williams, the county GOP’s Executive Committee chairman.
While Summit County judges run as nonpartisan in general elections, they have partisan primaries. The political parties recruit candidates and then try to get them elected.
As the local parties choose candidates, they likely will consider the results of the latest judicial races. These included:
• Women still rule: Female candidates, who historically do well in Summit County judicial races, continued this trend, with five wins and one loss, including two races where they ran unopposed. In two races, the female candidate won by 7 to 9 percent over her male challenger.
“I think the party leadership will pay attention to the gender of candidates, because this clearly is a trend in the county,” said John Green, who heads the University of Akron’s Bliss Institute of Applied Politics. “It’s clearly no disability to be a female candidate and certainly may be an advantage.”
Green, however, said the parties also will consider other factors, including legal and campaign experience.
• A first-time candidate can win: Akron Municipal Court Magistrate Alison Breaux, a Democrat, scored an upset when she unseated incumbent Summit County Common Pleas Court Judge Todd McKenney, a Republican.
Green said he was surprised by this outcome, especially because Breaux hasn’t run previously and McKenney had superior name recognition. It’s also generally tough to beat an incumbent judge.
Overall, the county Democratic Party had three wins in contested judicial matchups in the November election, while the county GOP had one. The Republican Party, however, had the only two uncontested judicial races, with Callahan facing no opposition for the 9th District Court of Appeals and Donna Carr winning re-election to the appellate court with no competition.
Williams was pleased with Cook’s win for Domestic Relations Court, especially running against domestic court Magistrate Ron Cable, who significantly outspent her. Cook will be the first Republican judge in the 75-year history of the county’s domestic court.
Pete Nischt, executive director of the Summit County Democratic Party, said this was a tough loss, especially because Cable and his supporters worked very hard.
“They should be proud of what they did,” he said. “They reached a lot of people.”
Nischt, however, said the party was pleased by its other victories.
“You are happy anytime you win,” he said. “It’s disappointing to not win all.”
Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at 330-996-3705, swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com and on Twitter: @swarsmithabj .