A profile of Ohio Supreme Court candidate Pat Fischer will run next week.

COLUMBUS — Judge Colleen Mary O’Toole has crashed the Republicans’ party.

The second-term judge from the Warren-based 11th District Court of Appeals is challenging the Ohio Republican Party’s endorsed candidate for the Ohio Supreme Court, which she is currently suing.

The battle marks the sole high court contest on the March 15 primary election ballot among three seats on the bench up this year.

The party’s central and executive committee has endorsed Cincinnati appellate Judge Pat Fischer for the seat to be vacated by Republican Justice Judith Lanzinger of Toledo.

“We need to be about choosing people. Parties don’t need to choose people,” she said. “I think there’s a paradigm shift right now. I don’t think the party controls everything at this point. Because of the Internet, because of social networking, because of the climate today, people want to decide for themselves.”

In some respects, Judge O’Toole appears to be taking some cues from the election playbook of a former fellow jurist on the 11th District bench, Supreme Court Justice William O’Neill, a Democrat. 

Then-Judge O’Neill successfully challenged the Ohio Democratic Party’s endorsed candidate in 2012 and went on to upset Republican incumbent Justice Robert Cupp of Lima for the seat on the high bench.

Irish surnames have proved to be strong ballot names. The Supreme Court has a 4-3 Irish name majority with Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor and Justices O’Neill, Terrence O’Donnell, and Sharon Kennedy.

It’s a real phenomenon, Judge O’Toole said, and one that Judge Fischer could face twice in this election. The nominee will face Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge John O’Donnell in the general election. 

Judge O’Donnell is unopposed for the Democratic nomination.

“I am founder of a small tech start-up,” Judge O’Toole said. “When we crunch the data, we’re going to get six to seven points just on an Irish surname basis.”

And then there’s the female factor. Again, women have statistically done well in Ohio judicial races, and the high court has had a 4-3 female majority.

Like Justice O’Neill, she has been the subject of a disciplinary complaint with the high court for using the title “judge” while not serving on a bench.

Mailers from Justice O’Neill’s Supreme Court campaign referred to him as “judge.” He won his case in a narrow 7-6 decision.

Judge O’Toole, while trying to get back on the 11th District bench in 2012 after she had been defeated for re-election two years earlier, wore a name tag identifying herself as “judge.” 

She unanimously lost her case, was publicly reprimanded, fined, and now has a disciplinary record.

Judge Fischer, in a separate interview, said he does not intend to raise the disciplinary action as a campaign issue.

“But I think the people need to know that they have somebody running who violated the ethical rules,” Judge Fischer said. “Is that who they want on the Supreme Court, or do they want somebody who follows the ethical rules like me?”

Judge O’Toole also has a case pending in U.S. District Court in which she challenges that rule, as well as the Ohio Supreme Court’s canon prohibiting judicial candidates from soliciting funds for campaigns until 120 days before an election.

“When I was thinking about running for the Supreme Court, they said you’re going to need $1 million…,” she said. “I said, OK, I need to raise $1 million [in such a limited time]? How does that fit the intended governmental purpose of getting my message out, letting voters have a choice, being able to communicate what I’m doing?”

She said Judge Pat DeWine, Attorney General Mike DeWine’s son and her opponent’s fellow judge on the 1st District bench, will run as a team in the race.

“They both come from the same civil law firm in Cincinnati,” she said. “They’re both on the court of appeals, and they’re both being sponsored basically by Mike DeWine. [Judge DeWine] had $250,000 in the bank, and I had like $90.”

Judge O’Toole was first elected in 2004 to the 11th District bench in the mostly rural northeast corner of the state. She was defeated in the primary in 2010 by a fellow Republican judge from Lake County, who lost the general election.

Despite the public reprimand, the party recruited her to come back in 2012, and she upset Democratic incumbent Judge Mary Jane Trapp.

Judge O’Toole said she would be a strong tech-savvy addition to the court.

“I think [current justices] have been on the bench a long time,” she said. “I don’t think they incorporate the information technology. They’re all great jurists. The question is, going forward, what is the place of the court in the society?

“People need to understand the Internet, right?,” Judge O’Toole said. “They need to understand real time. And, in my humble opinion, those who don’t understand the implications of that, it’s almost like being illiterate in the 19th Century. You might as well go mark an ‘X.’ ”

Republican Judge DeWine and Democratic 11th District Judge Cynthia Rice are unopposed in their bids for their parties’ nominations for the seat to be vacated by Republican Justice Paul Pfeifer. 

Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, a Republican, has no opposition for re-election.

Contact Jim Provance at: jprovance@theblade.com or 614-221-0496.

First Published January 24, 2016, 5:00 a.m.