Sitting Municipal Court judges fare badly
Two first-time candidates unseated Franklin County Municipal Court judges, and a third judge appeared to barely hang on to her seat, according to unofficial election returns last night.
David Young, a Democratic lawyer in private practice, won 54 percent of the vote to defeat Republican W. Dwayne Maynard, a judge for the past 18 years.
Jim O'Grady, a Republican assistant Franklin County prosecutor, defeated Eric Brown, a Democrat who was appointed to the bench in January. O'Grady had 53 percent of the vote.
Democratic Judge Andrea C. Peeples was the only incumbent who appeared to have held off a challenger. With all precincts reporting, she was leading Republican Barb Pfeiffer, an assistant Ohio attorney general, by 151 votes of more than 244,000 cast.
The countywide voter turnout of 44 percent surpassed the Board of Election's prediction of 31 percent.
Peeples' campaign manager said the numbers were too close to claim victory.
Pfeiffer noted that 10,258 provisional ballots remain to be counted. "It's undecided at this point, but I'm appreciative of making a strong showing," she said.
Voters also re-elected Judge Michael T. Brandt, a Republican who was unopposed.
Young credited "hard work and innovative campaigning" with helping him to unseat Maynard, one of the longest-serving judges on the Municipal Court.
Young's campaign employed street-corner "sign flippers" and social media such as Facebook in a bid to enhance his name recognition.
Maynard called it "a tough night."
"I didn't see this coming," he said. "I thought we had run a good race." As for three incumbents' difficulty, Maynard said it was "unusual to see the public vote for so much change at one time, particularly on the bench."
O'Grady conceded that his name likely helped him defeat Brown but said, "The name only gets you so far. I like to think the voters also look at the person and his credentials."
His father, James J. O'Grady, was a Franklin County Municipal and Common Pleas judge. They aren't related to Franklin County Commissioner John O'Grady, a Democrat.
Jim O'Grady, was a Municipal Court bailiff for 15 years before joining the county prosecutor's office in 2007.
It is the second time in the past 12 months that Brown has lost a judgeship to which he was appointed. In April 2010, then-Gov. Ted Strickland appointed Brown as chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, a job he lost in last November's election.
O'Grady won a term that expires in January 2016. The others won six-year terms that expire in 2018.
The races are considered nonpartisan - party affiliations are not on the ballot - but the political parties endorse candidates. Municipal Court's 15 judges handle traffic and misdemeanor criminal cases as well as civil disputes involving less than $15,000. The judges are paid $114,100 annually.