Judge hopeful Phillips short signatures, says he’ll sue

SHEFFIELD TWP. — Attorney Gerald Phillips turned in far fewer signatures than he needed to make the November ballot as an independent candidate to run for the seat held by Lorain County Common Pleas Judge Michele Silva Arredondo.

But despite turning in 151 signatures of the 778 he’s required by law to have in order to qualify as a candidate, Phillips said Monday he still expects to be placed on the ballot.

Citing a 1983 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Phillips argued that the number of signatures a prospective independent candidate must gather was an unfair burden. He wrote that Democrats and Republicans are required to only have the valid signatures of 50 registered voters, while minor party candidates need 25.

Phillips wrote that he believes he only should be required to have 50 valid signatures to qualify as a candidate.

“I intend to be on the ballot, and I intend to go to court to support it,” he said.

County Board of Elections Director Paul Adams said state law requires independent candidates for judge to gather a number of valid signatures equal to 1 percent of the number of voters who cast ballots in the last gubernatorial election. To make the ballot in Lorain County, he said, that means a potential candidate needs 778 signatures.

Phillips might also compound his possible legal problems if he goes ahead with his stated plan to vote in today’s Republican primary, which features a contest between Arredondo and her Republican challenger, Will Spiegelberg.

Arredondo declined to comment, but Spiegelberg said he’d never heard of anything like what Phillips is proposing.

“I don’t even know how to respond,” Spiegelberg said.

Although Phillips said he’s not absolutely certain he’ll vote in the Republican primary or whether he’ll vote in the judicial race he hopes to enter, but he argued that he should be able to do so without facing removal as a candidate.

Tim Quinn ran into a similar issue during the 2011 mayoral race in which he registered as an independent but then voted in the Democratic primary. The elections board removed Quinn from the race under a rule that bars independent candidates from voting in partisan primaries, and the Ohio Supreme Court and a federal judge both refused to return him to the ballot.

Phillips, who was Quinn’s attorney for part of his unsuccessful legal fight, said if the elections board removes him from the ballot if he does vote in today’s primary he’ll go to court over that as well.

“I’m going to be in court on one issue,” Phillips said. “I guess I’ll be in court on the other.”

Phillips isn’t a stranger to the courtroom as a party in cases. He has a legal malpractice case pending against him in Arredondo’s courtroom. In that case, Oberlin resident Mark Chesler has accused Phillips of mishandling a personal injury lawsuit on his behalf for injuries Chesler sustained in a bicycle accident.

Phillips has denied wrongdoing in court filings in the case and said Monday the fact that Arredondo is the judge presiding over a case in which he is a defendant had nothing to do with his decision to enter the race.

In a news release last week, Phillips wrote that he had asked county Republicans for a recommendation to replace former county Common Pleas Judge James Burge, who resigned last year after being convicted of misdemeanor charges over problems on his financial disclosure forms. Burge is running against county Common Pleas Judge Christopher Rothgery in the Democratic primary in another judicial race.

Phillips wasn’t one of the names forwarded to Gov. John Kasich by the Lorain County Republican Party for the job that eventually went to Arredondo.

Phillips complained about the lack of transparency in that process and also attacked several Democrats for their alleged involvement in a “political machine.” Among those Phillips accused of being part of the machine is Lorain attorney Chris Cook, who will be the Democratic candidate against Arredondo in the fall.

Cook said he’s not part of a political machine, and Phillips has the right to try to get on the ballot.

“Mr. Phillips has the right to handle that situation as he deems appropriate,” Cook said. “If he feels a lawsuit is in his best interest, he has a right to file one.”

Adams said the elections board will ask the offices of Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted and county Prosecutor Dennis Will to review Phillips’ filing.

No other independent judge candidates filed to run in November.

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