Candidate: Judge Dennis Adkins
Education: Salmon P. Chase College of Law, Northern Kentucky University, J.D., 1986 University of Dayton, B.S., 1981
Experience: Judge, Montgomery County Common Pleas Court, June 2011-present; Attorney, Montgomery County 1986-2011; Acting Judge, Kettering Municipal Court 1993-2011; Prosecutor 1998-2011; Police Officer, 1976-1986
Incumbent: Yes
Candidate: Susan Solle
Education: B.A., Oglethorpe University, Atlanta, Ga.; J.D. University of Dayton School of Law
Experience: Civil litigator for 12 years, most with Dinsmore & Shohl; law clerk with Montgomery County Common Pleas Court; staff attorney with Second District Court of Appeals; appointed as Acting Judge in Montgomery County Municipal Court
Incumbent: No
During his first two terms as a Montgomery County Common Pleas Court judge, Dennis Adkins was not challenged because of a gentlemen’s agreement between both major parties in the county. But in the upcoming election, he will face off with local attorney Susan Solle.
“I described it to people as being an innocent bystander on a sidewalk when two cars collide and they come over and hit me,” Adkins said of the departure from a gentlemen’s agreement that the county’s common pleas sitting judges usually don’t face competitors. “That’s kind of the way I feel. But it is what it is.”
Solle, a Democrat, said the so-called tradition is that judges in the general division don’t usually face a challenge after they’ve won a contested race. Adkins lost a close vote to Judge Frances McGee in 2008, was appointed in 2011 and ran unopposed in 2012.
“My understanding of the gentlemen’s agreement was that if a judge had run in a contested election and won his seat or her seat, then they wouldn’t be challenged,” Solle said. “And Judge Adkins has not yet won a contested election, so in my view of it, is it’s not a breach of the gentlemen’s agreement.”
Some Democrat and Republican party sources have said that Solle is challenging the Republican Adkins only after Richard Skelton ran as a Republican to face McGee, a Democrat.
Solle did not endorse that opinion, and echoed Skelton’s reasoning that the timing was right.
“I’m definitely running this race because it’s something I know that I will be able to do and do well,” she said. “I believe the people in Montgomery County deserve to have a judge who will make sure they take every case seriously.”
Solle said she didn’t seriously consider a run in 2012, instead concentrating on getting more experience.
“I was hearing very good comments on the job I’ve been doing the last three-and-a-half years,” Adkins said. “Due to that fact the year to challenge me would have been 2012, in which I ran unopposed and I was re-elected, obviously. That usually puts an end to it.”
Adkins raised more money than Solle, according to campaign finance reports filed with the Montgomery County Board of Elections. He raised $30,493 and spent $83,215. He lent his campaign $30,000 during the current period, carrying that loan in addition to a $112,000 loan he gave his 2008 campaign.
Solle raised $23,573, loaned her campaign $10,000 and spent $39,246.
Campaigns can spend more than they take in because of unspent money brought forward from earlier campaign finance reports. For example, the county Human Services Levy campaign took in $225,900 and spent $869,131.
Campaign finance aside, Adkins touts his experience in law enforcement, in private practice, as a prosecutor and on the bench as reasons he should be re-elected. He was an acting judge in Kettering Municipal Court for 18 years, and said he’s tried thousands of criminal and civil cases and created the veteran’s treatment docket in common pleas court.
“My record speaks for itself,” he said. “This is not an easy job, it’s a very difficult job. I think it’s probably the most important elected job in the county.
“Some people may disagree with me, but I think it is because of the nature of the matters that we deal with, the most serious matters of people’s lives. We’re literally dealing with people’s lives.”
Solle said she had criminal experience as a clerk for Judge David Sunderland in the common pleas court, helping Sunderland trim his pending motion docket down from more than 200 to 30 in one year. She also worked as a judicial staff attorney for James Brogan in the Second District Court of Appeals.
“Because I loved the job so much and I loved digging into cases figuring out the issues and coming to the right conclusion, I knew then that that’s what I wanted to do,” Solle said of working for Sunderland. “I’ve kind of spent the rest of my career getting ready for this.”
Solle said her civil experience is extensive because she’s served as a trial attorney for Dinsmore & Shohl since 2004 and worked in many courts, including the federal level. Solle said she’s also been an acting judge for Montgomery County Municipal Court, but hasn’t served much in that role the past couple years.
Adkins said he wants to next concentrate on stemming the heroin epidemic in the county. He wants to work with law enforcement leaders to emphasize prosecution of high-level dealers and intensive treatment for users, he said.
“We’ve got too many young men and women who are dying from drug overdoses and it’s leading to more and more crime in this county,” Adkins said. “We have to get a handle on it and stop.”
Adkins said he’d like politics removed from the judicial process, and that most area attorneys and judges try to do so.
“I have the true, real experience to do this job,” he said. “I think that’s what sets me apart and why I think people should vote for me this November.”
Solle started working by cleaning law offices at 12 years of age and spent her college years typing court transcripts, she said. She also said she is second vice president of the Dayton Bar Association and is scheduled to be that group’s president in 2016.
Both candidates agree that the Montgomery County Common Pleas Court is as efficient and innovative as any in Ohio.
Solle said she supports all four specialty dockets, including the veteran’s treatment initiative.
“I think the veteran’s court is a fantastic idea,” she said. “And I would be happy to continue it if I’m elected.”
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