COLUMBUS — Judicial candidates run in general elections without partisan labels, but when your name is DeWine, few voters are unlikely to know who the Republican is in one Ohio Supreme Court race this fall.

Cincinnati appellate Judge Pat DeWine — son of Mike DeWine, Ohio attorney general and former U.S. senator and lieutenant governor — has one of the state’s most recognizable GOP names.

“Tell me how the presidential election is going to turn out, and I’ll tell you whether it’ll be an advantage or disadvantage,” Judge DeWine said. “I have no idea.”

Judge DeWine, 48, faces Democratic northeast Ohio appellate Judge Cynthia Rice on Nov. 8 in their bid to replace Justice Paul Pfeifer, who is barred from seeking a fifth term because of his age.

“Certainly, it’s nice to have a father whom Ohioans like and respect, who they understand has a strong commitment to public service,” Judge DeWine said. “I think I stand on my own. There are some times when people may look at a judicial race from a more partisan perspective than they should because of that.”

He is in his first term on the 1st District Court of Appeals. Previously, he served as Hamilton County Common Pleas judge, county commissioner, and Cincinnati councilman.

“I’ve been both a trial court judge and an appellate judge,” he said. “... To me the trial experience is very important because ultimately what judges on the court of appeals do is review decisions of trial court judges, and having been a trial court judge, you have a perspective of someone who’s never been there really doesn’t have.”

He earned his law degree from the University of Michigan in 1994 and received bachelor’s degrees in diplomacy and foreign affairs and in history from Miami University of Ohio in 1990.

After graduating, he worked on his father’s campaign in 1990, when the elder DeWine successfully ran as George Voinovich’s first lieutenant governor. Pat DeWine then sold shoes in Mexico and worked for a while in Uruguay before heading for law school.

“I call myself a constitutional conservative,” Judge DeWine said. “I believe the role of the court is to apply the law as written. ... I don’t think judges should be roving policymakers. I think a judge’s duty is to stick to the letter of the law.”

Judge DeWine said he is most proud of his efforts to use the ballot box to change Cincinnati’s system of government in the 1990s. The city did not have a strong-mayor form of government.

“It was a huge change,” Judge DeWine said. “It was the first time that Cincinnati had directly elected its mayor since the 1920s, since the Boss Cox era in Cincinnati. I think we accomplished it because we weren’t smart and mature enough to know that we couldn’t, that everyone else had tried to do this and failed.”

As judge, he sometimes sits on cases involving his father’s office. If elected, his term as justice would overlap with the last two years of his father’s tenure as attorney general, the state’s top lawyer. If the elder DeWine is successful in his widely expected bid for governor in 2018, he and his administration could be frequent parties before the high court.

“This is not a new issue for me,” Judge DeWine said. “I was actually a judge before my father was attorney general. When he was elected attorney general, I called the Supreme Court and asked them what I should do.

“The advice I got was that there wasn’t a conflict under the rules requiring recusal where someone from the attorney general’s office appears in front of me,” he said. “If the attorney general himself would appear in front of me, then I would need to recuse myself.”

But his opponent, 11th District Court of Appeals Judge Rice, questioned whether someone on the opposite side of a case involving Attorney General or Governor DeWine would want Justice DeWine sitting in judgment.

“My husband’s a judge [in Trumbull County],” she said. “I have to recuse myself from any case he’s on. Can I be fair and impartial on his cases? Absolutely. But the appearance to the public? They just wouldn’t feel that they were getting fair consideration even though I can swear that I would be fair and impartial and it has nothing to do with my relationship.”

Two other high court seats are also on the Nov. 8 ballot. Judge DeWine’s Republican colleague on the 1st District bench, Judge Pat Fischer, faces Democratic Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge John O’Donnell. Republican Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor is uncontested.

Judge DeWine, however, is the only one of this group to be “not recommended” by the Ohio State Bar Association. The bar “highly recommended” Judge Rice.

“If you look at my resume, I don’t think anyone can say I’m not well qualified to be on the Ohio Supreme Court,” he said. “Graduated top 10 percent of my class. One of the top law schools in the country. Had one of the most prestigious federal courtships, one of the most competitive federal courtships you can get.

“Worked at one of Cincinnati’s largest, most well-thought-of law firms for 13 years. Been on a trial court. Been on a court of appeals. ... Even teach law at the University of Cincinnati.”

Contact Jim Provance at: jprovance@theblade.com or 614-221-0496.

SEE PROFILE OF DEMOCRAT CYNTHIA RICE

First Published September 11, 2016, 4:00 a.m.