By Ryan Berry

DailyAdvocate.com

GREENVILLE — With less than a month until Election Day, the GOP candidates were out in full force in Darke County on Sunday at the Republican Hog Roast. Candidates for federal office as well as most of the state offices shared their views on what direction Ohio and the country need to go. Although Darke County is considered a Republican stronghold, the message to local voters was to vote. The candidates believe the rural vote is needed to help offset the votes in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati.

While candidates for governor, secretary of state and state auditor pushed to return to office, nearly all of the candidates highlighted the importance of sending conservatives to the Ohio Supreme Court.

Pat DeWine, a candidate for the court, shared why the court needs to elect conservatives, “Public safety. We need justices who support the rule of law. We’ve had some very dangerous decisions (come) out of the court this year. Particularly, the DuBose decision that said judges couldn’t consider public safety when they set bail for violent criminals. We were in the dissent on that, but it’s important that we have justices that are going to keep communities safe.”

DuBose was indicted on two counts of murder, one count of aggravated robbery and one count of aggravated burglary and was originally given a $1.5 million bond. The trial judge cited public safety as one of the reasons for the high bond. The Ohio Supreme Court eventually ruled that “public safety is not a consideration with respect to the financial conditions of bail” and affirmed a Court of Appeals decision that financial resources of the defendant should have been taken into consideration since the trial judge did not make any of the statutory findings needed to deny bail. The court ruled that excessive bail was the same as denying bail. In the Supreme Court’s majority decision, the jurists cited Ohio law that requires judges to release a defendant on the least restrictive conditions that will reasonably assure the defendant’s appearance at future court hearings.

The DuBose case is one of the reasons the Ohio legislature has added Issue 1 to the ballot. If approved, judges will be allowed to consider public safety when determining bail. Most of the state’s elected officials at the event, as well as Darke County Sheriff Mark Whittaker asked for “yes” vote on Issue 1. “As your sheriff, I want to tell you that I support, and I want to encourage you in voting yes on Issue 1.” Sheriff Whittaker continued, “I think that it’s extremely important in our community. If we are going to have victims of crime, we need to have judges and courts that are going to hold those people (suspects) accountable.”

DeWine’s case to elect conservatives to the court didn’t end with public safety. He made a push for constitutional conservatives like himself. “Justice (Sharon) Kennedy and Justice (Pat) Fischer are constitutional conservatives. If you believe that judges should apply the laws written, not legislate from the bench, we need to get back on the court.”

“The court is evenly divided between constitutional conservatives and activists. Whoever wins these elections, that viewpoint is going to control the court. Right now, we’re seeing a lot of money come in from out of state to help our opponents,” said DeWine. He cited George Soros and others like him as backers of their opponents.

Justice Sharon Kennedy, who is on the ballot in the race for Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, added, “We believe judges say what the law says and not what it should be. We believe judicial decisions should be based on the language of the constitution, not personal views or political opinion. We believe when distilling the meaning of those words, you look at the ordinary meaning of those words at the time they were written. We believe in constitutional conservatives that use the text only to say what the law says.”

Keith Faber, state auditor, said, “The reality is those three (Kennedy, DeWine and Fischer) have to win. Because my entire time serving you in the legislature, we worked on things like tax reform, we worked on things like regulatory reform, we worked on things like growing jobs and empowering families. That is all in jeopardy if we go to a progressive, activists Supreme Court in Ohio.”

Governor Mike DeWine commented, “Having a Supreme Court that calls balls and strikes and does not think it’s the state legislature is very important.” He pointed out that businesses coming into the state look for laws that are predictable. “They don’t want surprises,” the governor said. “Having a conservative court makes all the difference in the world.”

Frank LaRose, secretary of state, added, “As somebody who is constantly being sued by the leftists that want to change our elections, I can tell you firsthand how important the Supreme Court is. Right now, we don’t have a conservative majority on the Supreme Court. There are four liberals that have given all kinds of bad decisions this year.”

Justice Kennedy believes a liberal court can make the economy worse, “As the others have spoken about the economy, can you make it worse? Yes. If you lose the Ohio Supreme Court to the activists, all of the work that has been done by the general assembly and the executives can be pushed aside for an activist agenda where they will say what the final statement of public policy will be, where they will say they decide the outcome based on their desires and wishes and not yours. What is truly at stake is your right to have a voice in government.”

The legislature passed a law that will allow voters to know the political background of judicial candidates on the ballot. In the past, voters that did not follow politics closely had to guess whether the candidates were Republican or Democrat. This year, an R or a D will follow the candidate’s name. “You’re going to know who you are voting for,” said Faber.

Governor DeWine encouraged voters to vote the entire ballot. He said there is generally a drop-off when voters get to the justices. ““My request to you is let’s not have a drop off in Darke County. Get our friends and families to understand the importance of the Supreme Court.”

To contact Daily Advocate Editor Ryan Berry, email [email protected].