Ohio 5th District Court of Appeals election: Craig Baldwin vs. David Ball

Two Licking County residents are seeking a judicial seat on Ohio's 5th District Court of Appeals, which handles cases for Stark County.

Judge Craig Baldwin, a Republican from Newark, is being challenged by David Ball, a Democrat from Granville, in the November election for the 5th District judicial seat.

The 5th District Court of Appeals, which hears appeals from the common pleas, county and municipal courts, encompasses 15 counties: Ashland, Coshocton, Delaware, Fairfield, Guernsey, Holmes, Knox, Licking, Morgan, Morrow, Muskingum, Perry, Richland, Stark and Tuscarawas.

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In addition to Baldwin, the five other 5th District judges are William B. Hoffman (D), John W. Wise (R), Patricia A. Delaney (D), Earle E. Wise Jr. (D) and W. Scott Gwin (D).

Meet Judge Craig Baldwin

Baldwin, 58, was appointed to the appeals court in 2013 by former Gov. John Kasich to fill the term of retiring Judge Julie Edwards. He was elected to the bench in 2014 and again in 2016 for a six-year term.

An attorney since 1992, Baldwin was appointed by the Licking County Commissioners in 2001 as director of the Licking County Child Support Enforcement Agency until his election as a county judge in 2004. He served eight years as a judge in the Licking County Court of Common Pleas, Domestic Relations Division.

A graduate of Ohio University and the Capital University School of Law, he also pursued graduate degree work in public administration at Ohio University and is a frequent instructor at the Ohio Judicial College. He is a former chair of the Ohio Supreme Court’s Commission on the Rules of Superintendence.

Baldwin said serving as a judge has been an ambition since he visited the Licking County Common Pleas Court on a fourth-grade field trip.

"I knew pretty much then I wanted to be an attorney and a judge, a person of authority everyone respected," he said. "I saw then that judges have a lot of power to do good, a responsibility to make the system work not just in the courtroom, but the system in general."

The 5th District Court of Appeals has one of the highest caseloads in the state because it's one of the largest, serving 1.5 million people.

Baldwin said the 5th District Court has the necessary resources to handle its caseload.

"We're in good shape," Baldwin said. "I'm proud of where our court is collectively. People need resolution in their lives. I work really hard, and my colleagues work really hard to act in an expeditious way."

A member of the Ohio Supreme Court’s Task Force on the Funding of Ohio Courts, Baldwin said his goal as a member is to ensure transparency.

Baldwin recently came under criticism in a Canton Repository letter to the editor for possibly being too transparent. The writer, an attorney, expressed concerns about the appearance of partisanship, based on Baldwin's Facebook page, which shows him at several Republican-sponsored events. The attorney wrote that while he hasn't detected bias in Baldwin's opinions, he believes the public posts potentially undermine the judge's duties under the Ohio Judicial Code to seek office as a nonpartisan.

Baldwin said the posts are not meant to promote a political party but to document his daily activities.

"I go out, and I document what I do," Baldwin said. "Even the last five or six posts, people will see it's community events. I document it all. In a campaign year, you find yourself going to party events because you need to get out there, and you want people to support you. I take his point; would a Democrat see this and think 'he's biased'? But judges speak best through their opinions and entries. Look through my opinions and you won't see a Democratic or a Republican perspective."

Currently, the 5th District is comprised of four Democrats and two Republicans.

"The nice thing about being a judge on the court is when I go into chambers with my colleagues, we never talk about that stuff," Baldwin said. "It never bleeds into our relationships. They're my friends, whom I respect. I get up every day and thank God I get to be a judge in the 5th District Court. "

Meet challenger David Ball

A native of Cincinnati, Ball is a 1982 graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and a 1986 graduate of the Boston University School of Theology. He earned his law degree in 1991 from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.

Ball, 62, is a former chaplain of Denison University, and served as an associate pastor at First United Methodist Church in Wapakoneta. He also worked as an employment-dispute arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association and taught law and religion at Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law.

According to his campaign website, Ball is seeking the judicial seat to help modernize the court, make it more accessible and develop a strong mediation program to resolve cases more quickly through compromise.

Repeated attempts to contact Ball were unsuccessful.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Craig Baldwin, David Ball vie for 5th District Court of Appeals seat