Cuyahoga County Democratic county prosecutor, Democratic incumbent common pleas, appeals court judges are unopposed for reelection in 2020, as are the Democratic incumbent county probate and domestic relations court judges up for reelection.....A wealth of candidates are vying for the appeals court seat left by the upcoming year-end retirement of 8th District Court of Appeals Judge Patricia Ann Blackmon, a Black Democrat....The two Black Republicans, one a common pleas judge and the other an appeals court judge, face opposition to retain their seats after being appointed to unexpired terms by then governor John Kasich, who has since left office....By editor Kathy Wray Coleman of Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspaper and Black blog
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| Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley |
In both the primary and general elections Ohio voters will cast ballots for a United States President, members of Congress and the Ohio state legislature, as well as local and county races, and some county and county and local issues.
Two seats are open in 2020 on the largely Republican seven-member Ohio Supreme Court, the Democrats in a position to tilt the state's high court their way.
Some county voters will also vote on seats up for grabs on the 11-member Cuyahoga County Council. (Editor's note: Some of the incumbent state legislators and county council members seeking reelection are not facing opposition too, a subject to be addressed in a later article).
According to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, the deadline for filing petitions to get on the March and November ballots was Dec 15.
The judgeships, unless an unexpired term, are for six year terms, as is the prosecutor.
Republican incumbent common pleas judge Robert McClellan, however, has drawn opposition for the general election only, and is running against Assistant County Prosecutor Andrew J. Santoli, who is making his second bid for a common pleas seat, the county's common pleas judges of whom hear felonies, lawsuits with damages in excess of $15,000, and a host of other legal issues.
And Wanda Jones, a Republican common pleas judge appointed by then governor John Kasich to serve out the unexpired term left by the 2018 election of Democratic judge Michael P. Donnelly to the Ohio Supreme Court, is sunning to retain her seat, as is Ray Headen, a Republican 8th District Court of Appeals judge also appointed by Kasich, but to replace Melody Stewart, who was also elected to the Ohio Supreme Court in 2018, the first Black and first Black female elected to that court.
Both Jones and Headen face opposition in the general election only, and both are Black.
A former Cleveland councilman and Parma safety director, County Prosecutor O'Malley ousted former county prosecutor Tim McGinty, a former long time common pleas judge and fellow Democrat who became estranged from his own party, in 2016 and has maintained a good relationship with party bigwigs and Black elected officials, one of the reasons, said sources, he faces no opposition.
The up-for-reelection incumbent general division common pleas judges, who are among 34 largely White judges, are Judges Nancy Fuerst, Nancy McDonnell, Nancy Margaret Russo, Michael J. Russo, Presiding and Administrative Judge Brendan Sheehan, and Judges Shannon M. Gallagher and Deena R. Calabrese, all of them White.
The incumbent appeals court judges, who are among nine judges on that state appeals court that serves the county, and whom, like the Democratic incumbent common pleas judges, face no opposition in either the primary or general elections, are Judges Sean C. Gallagher, Anita Laster Mays, and Larry Jones, both Mays and Jones Black and former Cleveland Municipal Court judges.
The incumbent county probate judges up for reelection and facing no opposition are chief probate judge Anthony J. Russo and Judge Laura J. Gallagher, and the incumbent county domestic relations court judge seeking reelection without opposition is Leslie Ann Celebrezze.
The probate court is a two-judge court, and there are five judges on the county domestic relations court bench, including Judge Tonya R. Jones, who is not up for reelection and is the the only Black on that court and the first Black woman elected to the domestic relations court in the county.
With Cleveland its largest city, Cuyahoga County is 29 percent Black and is the second largest of 88 counties statewide, behind Franklin County, which includes the capital city of Columbus, the state's largest city in front of Cleveland.
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| Ohio 8th District Court of Appeals Judge Patricia Ann Blackmon |
Two other common pleas court seats, neither of them with an incumbent, are also open, as is a fourth 8th District Court of Appeals seat, it too without an incumbent running, the seat now held by the retiring Judge Patricia Ann Blackmon, a former chief Cleveland prosecutor and the first Black woman elected to a state appeals court judge, along with now retired Republican judge Sara J. Harper.
That open appeals court seat left by Blackmon's end-of-the year returement has drawn six candidates, only one of them Republican, including Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Emanuella Groves and South Euclid Municipal Court Judge Gayle Williams -Byers, both of them Black, and Democratic.
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspaper and Black blog, both also at the top in Black digital news in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Coleman is an experienced Black political reporter who covered the 2008 presidential election for the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio and the presidential elections in 2012 and 2016 As to the one-on-one interview by Coleman with Obama CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.
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