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Two long-time local lawyers are challenging an appointed incumbent for election to the Warren County Common Pleas Court.
Mike Gilb said he has been running for election to the general-division seat on the court, which hears felonies and civil lawsuits, since his appointment to it by Gov. John Kasich last summer.
Andrew Sievers and Timothy Tepe, the other two candidates for the appointment, are each looking to defeat Gilb in Tuesday’s GOP primary election.
Gilb was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives while living in Lima, but has never been elected in Warren County.
It is the second election for Sievers, who ran a close second last year in a race with Judge Robert Peeler for another general division seat on the court.
It is the first election for Tepe, who has practiced law for more than 30 years in Warren County.
Tepe opted out of last year’s race after learning Peeler, already holding a seat on the court, was running for the seat vacated by the retirement of Judge Jim Flannery.
“In my opinion, Mike Gilb has not been elected by the electorate. That is the difference,” Tepe said in an interview last week. “This seat is open.”
Gilb, appointed, but never elected to the Mason City Council, said he started going door to door in July in Carlisle and has since visited more than 5,000 homes to introduce himself to local voters.
“They should know who they are voting for,” he said in an interview last week. “We are the current judge. We have a conservative record.”
Sievers, a former police officer and firefighter, is best known in legal circles as a former prosecutor of major criminal cases in Warren County. In recent years, Sievers has been a magistrate in the juvenile and probate court in Warren County.
"I have the most experience of the panel," he said during a recent voter's forum in Lebanon.
But both Gilb and Tepe have had longer legal careers. Most of Gilb’s was in practice outside Warren County, even after he moved to Mason.
Gilb credited his appointment to his time in the legislature in Columbus and a recommendation from Keith Fabor, the current president of the Ohio Senate. Others suggest it was Kasich's response to an unsuccessful move by the Warren County GOP to "unendorse" Kasich before his reelection.
“I never thought I’d become a judge,” Gilb said at the forum, explaining he decided to go to law school while applying to become a police officer in Cincinnati.
Since taking the seat, Gilb said he has completed one week of special training and sat on major cases, including a nine-day trial culminating in a long prison sentence for a drug trafficker.
Tepe pointed to judicial experience as magistrate in Morrow and prosecutor in Springboro, as well as 30 years doing a wide range of criminal and civil work in private law practice. He also points to a lifetime in the area, from his childhood in Maineville to years living in Springboro and Lebanon and working in Franklin.
“This isn’t something I just started doing when I became a candidate,” he said last week.
Tepe also notes a long list of community contributions.
He was in the international spotlight as a lawyer for Jeffrey Fowle, a fellow member at Urbancrest Baptist Church, released in 2014 after being detained for handing out Bibles in North Korea.
Tepe pointed to endorsements from local lawyers and elected officials in Warren County. Gilb claimed backing by the party’s conservative branch.
Sievers, who carried more than 47 percent of the vote in his 2014 race against Peeler, questioned the role of endorsements in a judicial election.
“A judge needs to be impartial,” he said at the forum. “I think that shows a perception of favoritism.”
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