November 5, 2008

Another state court watched by legal reformers was the Ohio Supreme Court, and you can see why in the August update of the Manhattan Institute's "Trial Lawyers, Inc." series, "JUDGING OHIO: Legal Reforms are Steering Ohio's Struggling Economy in the Right Direction."

The voters stayed the course. From The Toledo Blade:

COLUMBUS - Races for Ohio's highest court yesterday again bucked statewide trends as voters affirmed at least two more years of an all-Republican court.

Supreme Court Justices Evelyn Lundberg Stratton, 55, and Maureen O'Connor, 57, defeated their respective Democratic challengers, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judges Peter Sikora, 56, and Joseph Russo, 46.

Judges Sikora and Russo apparently gained little traction with their argument that Ohio isn't well served by a one-party high court. Since judicial candidates do not appear on general election ballots with partisan labels, it's unknown whether voters didn't care or didn't know who the Republicans and Democrats were.