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Feb

19

White House Project alumna up for Franklin County bench appointments


Ohio Governor Ted Strickland will be filling two Franklin County Court of Common Pleas vacancies soon.  According to the Columbus Dispatch,

Strickland will take recommendations from the Ohio Judicial Appointments Recommendation Panel, a bipartisan committee that he created in January 2007 to screen applicants.

An original group of 14 applied, eight were interviewed and six are now finalists.

They are (descriptions are from the Dispatch article):

Laurel Beatty: 34, daughter of former state Reps. Otto Beatty Jr. and Joyce Beatty. She is director of legislative affairs for the Ohio secretary of state, has worked at three law firms and has served as a hearing officer for the city of Columbus on the Equal Business Opportunity Commission and the Red Light Photo Enforcement System.

Kimberly Cocroft: 35, former Ohio Supreme Court law clerk and current deputy legal counsel to Strickland.

Frank Macke: 59, in private practice in Columbus for 33 years. He ran unsuccessfully for Common Pleas Court in 2006

Richard Brown: 52, partner in the Columbus office of Buckley King with 27 years experience. He last ran unsuccessfully for the Franklin County Court of Appeals

Mark Serrot: 54, in private practice in Columbus. He has served as an arbitrator in Common Pleas cases and is a hearing officer for the Ohio State Racing Commission. He ran unsuccessfully for the Common Pleas bench in 2004

Mike Rankin: 55, registrar of the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles with a 29-year legal career. He is a former assistant county prosecutor and chief deputy clerk for Franklin County Municipal Court. He ran unsuccessfully for Municipal Court in 2005

The WHP alumna I know is Laurel Beatty.  And, ironically, Laurel is one of the women from WHP with whom I had a chance to spend a lot of time during the three days of the workshop last June.

My impressions: smart, dedicated, affable, good listener, diverse background, thoughtful, engaging. She’s also a “she,” she’s African-American and she’s well under 50.  If you look around the Ohio courts, you just don’t see too many who look like that – or are like Laurel. (I’m not familiar w/Kim Cocroft at all.)  Given the demographics of Franklin County, reaching for gender and racial diversity wouldn’t be the worst thing a governor could do, especially if the recommendation panel has given the candidate its stamp of approval already.

As for the four who failed to get elected to the bench, I don’t have anything to add to that other than I don’t know them.  Well, wait – I will say this: remember how a lot of us felt about now Ohio state senate minority leader Capri Cafaro getting appointed to Marc Dann’s seat in 2006? After losing to Steve LaTourette for the 14th-CD in 2004 and Betty Sutton for the Dem primary for the 11th-CD in 2006?

The power of incumbency saw her get re-elected in 2008. Fine.  But, if given the chance, the option, the choice, should the governor really be giving the four who lost elections a boost to incumbency, after having lost?

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 3:06 pm February 19th, 2009 in Courts, Gender, Law, leadership, Ohio, Politics, Ted Strickland, Women 

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