First it  was the trumor here and elsewhere.  Now it's the official announcement today ( Friday Dec. 10): The state will see its first black woman serving as an Ohio Supreme Court justice.
Democrat Yvette McGee Brown will take the bench being vacated by Justice Maureen O’Connor, a Republican who was elected as SUPCO chief justice.
Brown ran as lieutenant governor with defeated Gov. Ted Strickland, who now says he is appointing  Brown before he leaves office.
Hmm. The  appointee joins  a lot of Ohio vote-getters with the popular name of Brown. So she could be on the same 2012 ballot as U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio?
The new SUPCO justice won’t be such available prospects as Mary Jane Trapp, Richard Cordray or Kent Marcus. You know:
n Geauga County’s Trapp, the 11th Appellate judge who ran for but didn’t win a SUPCO bench.
n Ousted Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray
n Marcus, the former Kirtland Lyndhurst resident who’s Strickland’s chief legal advisor. (Hmm. If any federal bench became vacant in the right place, President Barack Obama could always appoint Marcus?)
And another thought: In the GOP May primary, Lake County Common Pleas Court Judge Gene Lucci defeated 11th Appellate Judge Colleen Mary O’Toole, a fellow Republican who lost her bench.
But on Nov. 2 in a very close race, Lucci lost to Democrat Tom Wright.
Next time Appellate Judge Trapp is up for re-election?
What if GOP fans and allies urge Lucci or even O’Toole to run for the Trapp bench? Of course if Lucci ran, won and vacated his Common Pleas office, some could urge Republican Gov. John Kasich to appoint O’Toole to the county bench.
But Trapp could run again for SUPCO and win. Then Kasich could still appoint a Republican to trapp's Appellate bench. Who?

--David W. Jones