Why would she want to leave her safe spot
in Cleveland for such a risky venture? Why does the Supreme
Court have such an appeal?
"I’m very comfortable in my job now," she
admits. "I’m challenged every day and I’m good at it. But I
want to take that next level of my work and affect a broader
base of people."
The Court of Appeals, she explains during a visit to The
Truth’s offices this week, has to take every single case
that comes on appeals – traffic cases, tax issues, medical
matters. The Supreme Court doesn’t have to do that and
justices are free "to decide cases of great importance to
the state."
In addition to the types of issues a justice
is able to work on, for Stewart, there are two very
important reasons why she feels her presence on the court
will make a difference.
First, there is that matter of diversity. In
this instance it’s a lack of diversity of thinking not
necessarily of color. The all-Republican Supreme Court, says
Stewart, lacks a voice in the room that might be offered by
someone with a more progressive background.
It’s a matter, secondly, of good public
service, she notes. Even if a vote is six-to-one, rather
than seven-zero, the perspective of the other side is heard,
even if only in a written dissent for the record. And
dissenting opinions matter, especially on the highest court
in the state.
What sort of important cases might Stewart
expect to see as a justice over the next several years?
"Labor issues," she says, "especially in
light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Janus decision."
That decision now enables publicly-employed workers to opt
out of paying union dues, even though that union has
represented them in the past on a variety of issues.
Health care matters are going to be in front
of the court, says Stewart, given the complexity of federal
money issues.
And, of course, Ohio’s ever-present bugaboo,
public school funding, will always be good for another
couple of rounds in the court.
Also of great concern to the candidate is
the matter of criminal justice reform and all the problems
of an inequitable system which end up in the courts time
after time again. "How can we mesh protecting the public
with restoring people convicted of crimes to society?" she
asks.
For a nation with the highest incarceration
rate in the world, there is no more important issue facing
elected political leaders and court officials than criminal
justice. Out of the plethora of concerns, Stewart mentions
several problems that command her attention such as: "the
privatization of prisons; long-term sentences of
incarceration for low-level offenders; the collateral
consequences presented by the re-integration into society of
offenders."
Whatever the length of the sentences, she
notes, people will still come back into society and how they
are received will determine the success they will have in
staying out of prison.
A lifelong Ohioan, Stewart, holds a
bachelor’s degree in music from the College-Conservatory of
Music at the University of Cincinnati, a law degree from
Cleveland-Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State
University and a doctorate from the Mandel School of Applied
Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University.
Stewart, as noted above, will not have an
easy path to the state’s highest court. Even in the banner
year of 2006 when Ted Strickland led Demo
crats to statewide victories, the two black
candidates on the ballot were defeated – Ben Espy, a
candidate for the Ohio Supreme Court and Barbara Sykes, a
candidate for State Auditor. So Stewart is under no
illusions about what she has to overcome in order to win in
November.
She has to hit the urban areas diligently
and ensure that black voters turn out to vote for someone in
a race which does generally not get a lot of media
attention. She also has to hit the rural areas and avoid the
kind of devastation that Hillary Clinton faced in 2016 – the
areas in which Clinton lost by as much as 80-20 percent.
Stewart is facing Mary DeGenaro, one of
seven Republicans on the seven-justice Supreme Court.
DeGenaro was appointed to the seat in January 2018 by
Governor John Kasich to complete a term. She had previously
served 17 years on the Court of Appeals for the Seventh
District (Youngstown). In the primary election DeGenaro
garnered more votes for nomination than did Stewart. Another
sign of an uphill battle for the Democrat.
She faces an uphill battle to win and
another should she prevail against all odds. Undaunted,
Stewart is counting on her skills as a candidate and her
"power of persuasion" when she is ultimately on the Ohio
Supreme Court.
