SUDDES: Three in-state election contests will have enormous influence over life and work in Ohio

Foremost is state Issue One. Proposed by voter petitions. it’s called the “Citizens Not Politicians” amendment. It would end gerrymandering (partisan rigging) of Ohio’s General Assembly and congressional districts. Gerrymandering gives one party (currently, Republicans) an unfair advantage over the other party (Democrats). Result: A legislature and Congress more interested in grandstanding than governing.

If, somehow, you’re fine with the way things now are at Ohio’s Statehouse and the U.S. Capitol, you probably should set up appointments with (a) an ophthalmologist and (b) an audiologist – and maybe, for good measure, a shrink.

Also pivotal to Ohio’s betterment (or decline) are the three state Supreme Court contests. The court’s now 4-3 Republican, and – because of panel’s GOP majority – its rulings are straight out of the 1900s: Banks, insurance companies (and other Republican statewide officeholders, such as Secretary of State Frank LaRose) can do no wrong.

Seeking Supreme Court re-election are two Democrats, Justices Michael P. Donnelly and Melody J. Stewart. Seeking an open seat is a third Democrat, Judge Lisa Forbes, of the Cleveland-based Ohio Court of Appeals (8th District).

Opposing Justice Donnelly is Republican Judge Megan Shanahan, of Hamilton County Common Pleas Court. Meanwhile, in a highly unusual matchup, opposing Justice Stewart is fellow Supreme Court Justice Joseph T. Deters, a Cincinnati Republican, formerly Hamilton County’s prosecuting attorney and twice elected Ohio’s treasurer (in 1998 and 2002).

And competing with Appeals Court Judge Forbes for the high court seat Deters is leaving is Republican Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Dan Hawkins.

If an Ohioan likes her or his state Supreme Court to be cozy with the Powers That Be at the Statehouse – big business, notably including Ohio’s electric utilities – then by all means he or she should vote for the Republican candidates; you won’t be disappointed.

But if you believe the Ohio Bill of Rights’ promise to Ohioans – that “every person, for an injury done him in his land, goods, person, or reputation, shall have remedy by due course of law, and shall have justice administered without denial or delay” – then Democrats Donnelly, Stewart and Forbes are just the ticket.

Then there’s the likely most expensive U.S. Senate race in the nation, Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Cleveland Democrat seeking a fourth term, vs. Greater Cleveland entrepreneur Bernie Moreno, the GOP challenger. (Since popular election of U.S. senators began in 1913, only one popularly elected U.S. senator from Ohio has won a fourth term – Democrat John Glenn, who beat Republican now-Gov. Mike DeWine in 1992.)Brown won re-election in 2012 (against GOP challenger Josh Mandel) and in 2018 (against another Northeast Ohio challenger, Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci).

In an Ohio that resoundingly voted statewide last year in favor of women’s right to make their own decisions about pregnancy and abortion, you have to wonder how many Ohioans know what Republican Moreno said in September in Warren County:

“Sadly, by the way, there’s a lot of suburban women, a lot of suburban women that are like, ‘Listen, abortion is it. If I can’t have an abortion in this country whenever I want, I will vote for anybody else.’ OK. It’s a little crazy, by the way, but – especially for women that are like past 50, I’m thinking to myself, ‘I don’t think that’s an issue for you.’”

After the polls close on Nov. 5, we’ll see.

Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. You can reach him at tsuddes@gmail.com.