GOP voters should back Manning for judge

If Republicans want to keep the Avon Lake Municipal Court judgeship in their party's hands, their better bet is Allison Manning. Manning, 43, is the stronger of the two candidates running to replace retiring Judge Darrel Bilancini, who cannot seek another term because of his age. The court serves Avon, Avon Lake and Sheffield. Manning and her Republican opponent, Paul Kocsis, both live in Avon. The winner of the GOP primary will face whomever emerges from the Democratic primary, where Wayne Nicol and Geoffrey Smith are facing off. Kocsis, 49, has worked as a magistrate for Lorain County Domestic Relations Judge Lisa Swenski, a Democrat, since 2013. He also is a lawyer in the Ohio Army National Guard and has deployed overseas during his time in the service. Although Kocsis told us in an endorsement interview that he had practiced in municipal courts while he was in private practice, his experience has been confined to domestic relations law for a decade. Manning, on the other hand, has spent most of her career working in various municipal courts. She has been a magistrate in Elyria Municipal Court since 2010 and a magistrate in North Ridgeville Mayor's Court since 2018. She also is an assistant prosecutor in Put-in-Bay Mayor's Court, a position she's held for more than a year. All of those jobs are part-time, which has left Manning time to work in private practice. She is the managing partner of her firm, Manning & Manning. (The other Manning is her brother, state Sen. Nathan Manning, R-North Ridgeville.) She told us in an endorsement interview that she used to do criminal defense work, including misdemeanors, but had to give that up once she started working for the courts. Given that Manning has worked in the type of court she is running to serve on, her experience is more relevant than that of Kocsis. He, too, likely would make a fine judge, but his talents lie more in the domestic relations field. Both candidates talked of the importance of treating those who appear before them with respect, the need to follow the rule of law and the value of ensuring transparency in the justice system. Those are traits that all judicial candidates should strive toward. Manning, for example, said that everyone deserved to be treated equally. "I don't believe that someone who has an attorney should be treated better than someone who doesn't," she said. When deciding whom to endorse in judicial races, we take into consideration the results of a poll of members of the Lorain County Bar Association. They score the candidates in the areas of integrity/character, commitment/efficiency, judicial temperament, independence and legal capacity. We factor those results in because the candidates' fellow lawyers work with them on a daily basis and, we believe, have a good grasp of the qualities a judge needs to be successful. In the Republican primary, Manning received the higher marks. She was highly recommended in all of the categories with the exception of independence, in which she was recommended. Overall, she was highly recommended by her peers. Although the bar results came out after our conversation, we had asked Manning about judicial independence in the context of probable-cause hearings. In those hearings, prosecutors handling felony cases present evidence to municipal court judges to persuade them to send the cases along to grand juries to consider indictments. If there isn't enough evidence, judges shouldn't allow the cases to go forward. Manning replied that as a prosecutor it's her job to evaluate the evidence police bring her and decide whether there's enough to justify proceeding with a case. "I'm not rubber stamp now," she said. "I don't intend to be a rubber stamp" if elected. Kocsis was recommended in all the categories and received an overall rating of recommended. Another advantage Manning has — or disadvantage, depending on your politics and point of view — is name recognition. In addition to being the sister of a state senator, she is the daughter of state Rep. Gayle Manning, R-North Ridgeville. Her late father, Jeff Manning, served as Lorain County prosecutor and in the Ohio General Assembly. Given the Mannings' longevity in public office, they have been criticized as a political dynasty, and it's possible that the activities of Allison Manning's relatives could work for or against her with voters. Manning, however, is running for judge on the strength of her own qualifications. Those qualifications make her the better choice in the Republican primary, and voters should send her on to the general election in November.