In a sit-down interview with the Dayton Daily News, Wright said Rice’s claims are false. He said he made a “spontaneous” decision to run for the bench after he learned Rice was entering the contest and he intended to stay in the race if he won the primary.
Wright said Rice lied to him when they met one-on-one and told him she was not going to seek the judgeship, and he felt that she was “dishonest” and “untrustworthy.”
“I would prefer that I would be the probate judge than her being the probate judge,” Wright said in the interview. “I really was not going to do anything until I found that she was getting petitions signed, when she told me she was not going to run.”
Rice told the Dayton Daily News she never lied to Wright about her political intentions and she does not know why he would fiercely oppose her candidacy based on a single meeting.
Rice said she sat down with Wright to ask him not to try to influence the judge’s race by publicly backing Brannon, like he did six years ago during the last probate judge election. She said Wright told her he planned to support Brannon, and she believes his decision to file was a way to try to do that.
As the Dayton Daily News previously reported, judicial campaigns are governed by more restrictions than other types of elected office, including rules against making false or misleading statements on the campaign trail.
Feb. 4, the filing deadline
Wright officially dropped out of the Montgomery County Probate Court judge race on March 9, which was less than five weeks after he submitted petitions to run for the position as a Democrat.
Wright said he hopes to become a judge at some point, but he decided, upon further reflection, that this was not the right time to seek judicial office.
Wright said he decided to file after he found out Rice was joining the race.
Wright said he met with Rice in person earlier this year because she wanted to know if he would be willing to support her candidacy. Wright said he told Rice he would not back her. He alleges Rice then told him she was not going to run.
He says she then pulled petitions for the race in such a way that it wasn’t posted on the Montgomery County Board of Elections website; he believes she did this to keep her intentions secret.
Candidates can pull petitions from the board or download them online from the Ohio Secretary of State website.
Rice disputes this version of events. Rice said she had not decided at the time of their meeting if she was going to file, and she made the decision days later.
Wright said he received a couple of calls from people who told him that Rice was filing her petitions. Wright declined to identify who tipped him off, but he said they were Democrats.
Security video footage from the Montgomery County Board of Elections on Feb. 4 — which was the filing deadline — shows Wright submitting his petitions less than 90 minutes after Rice turned in her paperwork to board staff.
Security video shows that after Wright finished filing, he exited the board office and walked up to Judge Brannon and his bailiff, Ryan Colvin, who were standing in the hall outside. The three left together.
Rice said she believes that Brannon and Colvin were there to make sure Wright filed his petitions and that things went smoothly. Colvin and Brannon have denied this. Colvin said he was at the board office because he was still deciding if he was going to file petitions to run for the Ohio House.
Brannon says judicial ethics rules prevent him from commenting on the allegations.
Wright told the Dayton Daily News that he saw Colvin seated in the board office, but he did not know Judge Brannon was out in the hall. He denied any coordination between himself and Brannon or Colvin.
Wright said there were lots of politicians at the board office that afternoon who were turning in their petitions ahead of the filing deadline. He said he talked to many people that day.
“I talked to multiple judges, I talked to multiple people who were running,” he said. “Almost everyone who was running that day were in and out during that time period.”
Wright said he filed because he thinks Rice would not be a good judge. He said he believes he would have defeated her in the primary and Brannon in the general election.
Wright said he has supported Brannon in the past and will probably support him in the general election, but his opposition to Rice winning the seat was stronger than his support for Brannon.
“I ran because (Rice) lied to me,” said Wright. “I ran because I thought I would be a better judge then she would be.”
Rice said she does not know why Wright has such strong feelings about her.
“What information does he have to make that judgment?” she said, adding that her petitions show that she only obtained a few signatures from friends before meeting with Wright. She said she only started collecting signatures in earnest days after her meeting, when she actually made the decision to join the race.
Rice said her meeting happened on Jan. 22. All but a handful of signatures on her petitions were dated after that date.
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