DaytonDailyNews.com

COLUMBUS — Democrats may have ended one-party rule in Ohio in 2006, but they didn't make a dent in Republican control of the Ohio Supreme Court, where Republicans hold a 7-0 majority.

That may not change after November. The two Republican incumbents seeking re-election this year — Evelyn Lundberg Stratton and Maureen O'Connor — have more name recognition and campaign cash than their Democratic opponents, key ingredients in judicial elections, or any elections for that matter.

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Joseph D. Russo is challenging O'Connor and Cuyahoga County Juvenile Judge Peter Sikora is running against Stratton.

The Supreme Court races top a full slate of judicial contests locally, where two of Gov. Ted Strickland's judicial appointments to Montgomery County Common Pleas Court's General Division face voters for the first time. In one race, Mary Wiseman, a former Dayton City Commissioner appointed in October 2007 to replace retiring Judge John Kessler, will face former assistant U.S. attorney Margaret "Peggy" Quinn. In the other, Frances McGee, a former assistant Montgomery County prosecutor, will face local attorney Dennis Adkins.

Demographics might have some effect in a countywide race, said University of Dayton law professor Tom Hagel. Wiseman is said to be the first openly gay judge in Ohio, while McGee is only the second black judge to serve on Montgomery County's general division.

However, Hagel said voters should focus instead on the experience of the candidates, as well as any available evidence about character.

"Those are the two primary things," he said, "temperament and experience."