Franklin County races for 2024 dominated by Democrats in uncontested races
The race for Franklin County prosecutor will be the most contested election among county officials next year, with four candidates vying for the four-year term — more competition than in any other county office.
Three Democrats have filed with the Franklin County Board of Election to face off in a March primary: Shayla Favor, Natalia Harris and Anthony Pierson. The winner of that match will face off in November against John Rutan, the lone Republican to file in the race.
Favor is currently a member of the Columbus City Council, but was previously a zone attorney for the Columbus City Attorney's Office and filled an unexpired term of Franklin County Court of Common Pleas Judge Jaiza Page in 2019. Harris is the Delaware city attorney, but resides in Franklin County. And Pierson was hired by Tyack earlier this year as a deputy chief counsel to oversee the office’s juvenile court and grand jury units.
The Dispatch reported two weeks ago that Pierson owns a house in Delaware County in addition to a Columbus condo that he lists as his official residence, enabling him to run for the Franklin County office.
Rutan has worked as a defense attorney since 2010.
The Ohio filing deadline for candidates who wished to be on the ballots in the Democratic and Republican primaries on March 19 was Wednesday. Those who filed must still have their petitions certified by county boards of elections next month to appear on the ballots. Independents have until summer to file for a spot on the general election ballot.
No one filed to take on the two Democratic incumbents on the Franklin County Board of Commissioners, Kevin Boyce and John O'Grady, whose terms expire at the end of 2024. Both have filed candidate petitions to seek reelection. The third commissioner, Erica Crawley, was elected last year to a four-year term ending in 2027.
Only one race for common pleas judge is contested, where Richard Brown has filed to take on Stephanie Hanna, a staff attorney for Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey Brown. Eight other races for common pleas judge will by filled in uncontested races, according to the Elections Board.
The race for Franklin County engineer, in charge of maintaining county roads and bridges, plowing snow from 850 lane miles of roads, and providing other transportation services, is also contested: incumbent Cornell Robertson, who was the lone Republican to win a Franklin County office in 2020 when he ran unopposed, will face Democrat Adam William Fowler.
Five other countywide offices will be filled by incumbent Democrats unopposed by other candidates: Sheriff Dallas Baldwin; Recorder Danny O'Connor; Treasurer Cheryl Brooks Sullivan; Clerk of Courts Maryellen O'Shaughnessy and Coroner Nate Overmire.
Two Republicans, Charles S. Chope and Michael J. Young, will face off in the March 19, 2024, primary for the party's nomination to challenge incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep Joyce Beatty in Ohio's 3rd Congressional District in the November 2024 general election.
Chope, of Upper Arlington, lost the Republican primary nomination to Ohio's 15th Congressional District to incumbent Steve Stivers in 2014.
Young declared his candidacy for for the Ohio 3rd Congressional District in the May 2022 Republican primary, but the Franklin County Board of Elections rejected his petition for "insufficient valid signatures." Young went to court seeking a writ of mandamus to force the board to put him on the ballot, but a judge in April 2022 denied his request.
Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the current position of Stephanie Hanna, a candidate for Franklin County Common Pleas judge, and omitted the clerk of courts race.
wbush@gannett.com
@ReporterBush
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Prosecutor's race draws most interest among Franklin County elections
