League of Women Voters of the Cincinnati Area Education Fund
State of Ohio November 6, 2012 Election
	Terrence O'Donnell Answers Questions Candidate for Justice; Ohio State Supreme Court; 6 Year Term Starting 1/1/13

The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of the Cincinnati Area and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

1. Do you support or oppose the election of judges and why?

Our Ohio Constitution mandates popular election of judges and in 1987, Ohio voters resoundingly rejected a proposal to change that system. The oath of office I took requires me to support the Constitution + not alternate forms of its provisions. Accordingly, I favor the system of having the voters choose judges. While the task of remaining fair and impartial often requires a judicial candidate to refrain from announcing views on disputed or controversial matters that may come before the court, it helps to increase public confidence in the judiciary. Popular election of judges allows the voters the opportunity to identify with individual candidates and thus be more involved than with a merit system where selection of jurists would be left to others without input from the electorate. In the last analysis, while not perfect, our system has produced some outstanding jurists like Tom Moyer, and all can agree on a choice...(over word limit)

2. What changes would you recommend to reduce the perceived influence of money contributions in our courts?

We need to better educate the public to the fact that campaign contributions are not given to judges, but rather to campaign committees that spend the money on major media advertising.

Reducing the cost of political advertising would dramatically change the amount of money needed to compete in Ohio's major media markets. In fact, public service announcements are available at no cost and a form could be used to reduce the perceived influence of contributions to judicial candidates.

With more than 700 judges in Ohio, it is unlikely the General Assembly will begin to publicly fund judicial campaigns as the cost at current advertising rates would likely run into the tens of millions of dollars.

I favor limiting the size of individual contributions to a campaign and publicly reporting the names of the contributors to maintain transparency and keep the public informed about this issue.

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Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' statements are presented as submitted. Answers will be cut off if they exceed a word limit, if present. Direct references to opponents are not permitted.

Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: September 13, 2012 08:37
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