Ohio Roundtable Pledges Battle to Preserve Right to Vote for Judicial Candidates

Ohio – The Ohio Roundtable today issued a response to the announcement of Chief Justice Thomas Moyer that called for the abolishment of a directly elected appellate and Supreme Court in Ohio.David Zanotti, President of the Ohio Roundtable and Ohio Freedom Forum, made the following statement.

“The people of Ohio have held the right to vote as a sacred trust since 1803.This is not the time to begin taking voting rights away. The proposal to abolish a directly elected judiciary in Ohio is a dramatic misunderstanding of the real issues facing our state and nation.

Chief Justice Thomas Moyer is an esteemed and respected member of the judiciary. At the time of his election few gave Tom Moyer a chance at winning a seat on the Court. His election was a profound victory for the rights of the people. Justice Moyer might never have reached the Court via the appointment process. The people of Ohio placed him there and the people of Ohio should be the ones to keep him there or replace him.

The real reason Ohio was bombarded with negative judicial ads this year is the artificial and unconstitutional spending limits placed on candidates. These limits were proposed and enacted by the Ohio Supreme Court and not by the General Assembly. They have been illegal from the start and remain so according to the federal courts. It is wrong to attempt to limit political speech in America and the US Supreme Court rightly considers campaign advertising as free speech.

The artificial campaign-spending limit for Supreme Court Justices of $500,000 makes it virtually impossible for any challenger to gain any recognition in a statewide race.  This artificial barrier serves as an incumbent protection plan for seated judges and forces challengers to hope for independent expenditure committees to make their case. Since election laws prohibit candidates from coordinating independent expenditures judicial candidates have no control over the content or tone of independent advertising.

The highly negative ads of this past election are the direct result of the Ohio Supreme Court’s artificial spending limits. We applaud the Chief Justice for recognizing this mistake and calling for the suspension of such rules.

In addition, the Ohio Roundtable will adamantly and actively oppose any attempt to abolish the direct election of judges in Ohio. We will oppose such proposals in the General Assembly and will vigorously advocate their defeat on any upcoming ballot. The system we have may not be perfect, but there is no evidence that stripping people of their right to vote will enhance our state or nation.”  

The Ohio Roundtable is a non-profit, non-partisan education and research organization founded in 1980. The Roundtable and Ohio Freedom Forum have both actively participated in legislative and ballot initiative campaigns. In 1990 and 1996 these organizations helped defeat the casino gambling initiatives in Ohio. In 1992 the Roundtable led the coalition Ohioans for Term Limits in passing three ballot initiatives to the Ohio Constitution. In 1994 the Roundtable helped lead an initiated statute for campaign finance reform. In 1998 the Roundtable and Freedom Forum led the campaign that soundly defeated a statewide ballot issue for a state sales tax increase.

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