On November 6, two incumbent members of the Ohio Supreme Court were ousted. One of the two winners is William O’Neill, who had run twice before but had never before won. He always refuses to accept campaign contributions. He has been an Appellate Court judge in the past, and in addition he works as a registered nurse in a pediatric emergency department. He is a proponent of public funding for candidates for State Supreme Court Justice. See this story.
Ohio has partisan elections for State Supreme Court Justice, although ballot labels are absent for that office on the general election ballot. O’Neill is a Democratic nominee.
Good news, certainly, but West Virginia has done that more than three times better ousting seven (7) incumbents from our House of Delegates. Six Democrats and one Republican incumbent legislator are gone… as is longtime corrupt crony Democrat AG Darrell McGraw!!
Correction: FOUR (4) times better. An incumbent state senator was also tossed. Here is our list:
(D) Mark Wills, defeated for state senate 6th,
(D) Helen Martin, defeated for state house, 13th,
(D) Larry Barker, defeated for state house, 23rd,
(D) Barbara Hatfield, defeated for state house, 35th,
(D) Bonnie Brown, also defeated for state house, 35th,
(D) Ron Fragale, defeated for state house, 48th,
(D) Stan Shaver, defeated for state house, 53rd,
(R) Walter Duke, defeated for state house, 61st,
Independent and minor party candidates HAD AN EFFECT on West Virginia legislative races:
12th House of Delegates: Mountain Party candidate Justin Johnson got 342 votes. Steve Westfall (3413 votes) defeated Democrat Jo Phillips (3110 votes) by only 303 votes.
30th House of Delegates: Independent candidate Tony Martin got 568 votes. Linda Sumner (3591 votes) defeated Democrat Challenger Bill Wooton (3077 votes) by only 514 votes).