Michael P. Donnelly for the Supreme Court of Ohio, term ending January 1: Editorial in support

Michael P. Donnelly has been a prosecutor, criminal defense attorney and a trial court judge for 14 years. Now he is completing his sixth year as an associate justice of the Ohio Supreme Court and is seeking re-election for another six years. This breadth of experience explains his passion for judicial reform to address what he calls “absurd sentencing disparities” and “unnecessary delays” at the trial court level. In addition, Donnelly, 57, is increasingly concerned that the “politicization of justice” is undermining public trust in our legal system.

Donnelly told us he doesn't even mention political parties in his campaign literature, but noted that his opponent on Nov. 5 – Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Megan E. Shanahan – attended the Republican National Convention along with the other two Republicans running for seats on the Ohio Supreme Court this year. In their plea to Ohio delegates, they argued, as cleveland.com's Andrew J. Tobias paraphrased it, that their election opponents were “liberal activists,” while also stressing the importance of strengthening Republican control of the court.