Hamilton County judge, who has been on medical leave for a year, announces retirement
Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Tom Heekin, who has been on medical leave for more than a year, has decided to retire from the bench.
Heekin is undergoing treatment for cancer. He has served as a judge since 2016 when he was appointed by then-Gov. John Kasich. He was elected to a second, six-year term in November 2022 and had four years left in that term
Heekin, 64, started his medical leave in April 2024. Since that time, Robert Ruehlman, a retired judge, has been handling Heekin's cases. The Ohio Supreme Court appointed Ruehlman on a temporary basis, officials said. He served as a common pleas judge in Hamilton County for 36 years.
It is Gov. Mike DeWine's responsibility to appoint Heekin's successor.
In a statement, Court Administrator Thomas Beridon said Heekin's tenure was "marked by his deep understanding of the law, his respect for all who entered his courtroom and his steady leadership."
"We are profoundly grateful for his faithful service and continued partnership through this period of transition," Beridon said.
Heekin's late father, Tom Heekin Sr., was a municipal judge and common pleas judge in Hamilton County decades ago. Ruehlman, in fact, worked for Heekin's father in the 1970s as a law clerk.
Heekin is a graduate of Princeton High School. He received his law degree from the University of Cincinnati in 1988. He was an assistant prosecutor in Hamilton County for several years and later founded the law firm Heekin & Heekin with his brother, Christopher.
Heekin was a longtime Republican. But when he ran for reelection in 2022, he switched parties and became a Democrat.
In a letter to Gov. Mike DeWine's office, Heekin announced that his retirement will be effective Friday, May 30.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Hamilton County Judge Tom Heekin announces retirement
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Well-known Trump critic David Jolly enters race for Florida governor
Former Rep. David Jolly has officially filed to run for governor of Florida in a race that still favors Republicans but remains wide open in the Democratic primary. Winning as a Democrat will be a long shot. Jolly, a former GOP, one-term representative from Pinellas County near Tampa, enters the race at a time when Florida has shifted decidedly right after years of topping the list of swing states. Making Jolly's candidacy especially difficult is that — even this early in the game — the governor's race is expected to be a three-way battle with both Republican and independent candidates. Jolly will additionally have to fend off perceptions that he's similar to Democrat Charlie Crist, another ex-Republican and independent who Gov. Ron DeSantis crushed in 2022. But he could also have a clear path to the nomination. So far, no Democrat aside from Jolly is clamoring to replace term-limited DeSantis. Other Democrats who openly expressed interest in running for governor a year ago have since petered out, underscoring just how dismal the political landscape is for Democrats after Trump won Florida by 13 points in 2024. Former Democratic state Sen. Jason Pizzo has also said he wants to run for governor. But he ended his time as leader of his chamber a month ago while declaring the party 'dead' in a dramatic exit at the Capitol in Tallahassee. He now plans to mount a run as an independent, a move numerous Democrats say will only serve as a spoiler to hand the race to Republicans. But Jolly is more optimistic about Democrats' chances, especially if the 2026 cycle is poised to be what he calls a 'change election.' His announcement Thursday came roughly five weeks after he revealed he was switching his no-party affiliation to Democrat and started a state political committee. He first expressed public interest in running in March, about a month after President Donald Trump endorsed Republican Rep. Byron Donalds for governor. Jolly has since traveled the state to do more than a dozen town halls and told POLITICO in an interview he would be foregoing a formal campaign kickoff event in favor of continuing the listening tour. 'They're making me a stronger, smarter advocate for change, and we're just going to keep doing that,' he said. 'This is a campaign that's going to look and feel different on the inside and out.' He said Florida's affordability crisis was his reason for running and blamed Republicans in Tallahassee for the fact that so many people at his town halls say they're anxious about how they'll afford to live in Florida. Democrats have an opportunity to show they'll fight for an economy that helps people, he said, predicting that Donalds or any other Republican would 'have a hard time defending the affordability crisis.' 'Republicans have created it,' he said. 'They're not doing anything about it, and we will. And that message in every corner of the state, in every conversation, is what resonates.' If elected governor, Jolly plans to push to expand Medicaid, a government health coverage program, to low-income Floridians and to 'dramatically reinvest' in public education. He also said he would push to reverse laws signed by DeSantis that shield the governor's travel and visitors' log from the public. One area where he does agree with DeSantis is that property tax laws need reform, though he dismissed the all-out tax repeal the governor is calling for, which would apply only to people's primary homes, saying the math still has to work to pay for safety and education services. He'd want to study it and bring in experts, he said. Jolly declined to share how much he has fundraised up to this point, but his committee will soon have to regularly publish donations publicly under state law. It's possible that he'll be able to tap into a national network of donors given that he frequently appeared on cable television, including formerly contributing regularly to MSNBC. In Florida, candidates are allowed to be directly involved in the operation and decision-making of political committees — which isn't the case for federal campaign committees. Jolly already has plans for the dollars that do come in, saying he thought it was up to statewide candidates like himself to 'bear responsibility for raising resources and deploying them towards voter registration.' The party is currently facing a 1.3 million active voter deficit compared with Republicans — one Democrats argue has been disproportionately affected by marking voters as inactive if they've abstained from voting in the last two election cycles. Donalds remains the only major candidate who has filed to run on the Republican side and has already raised $12 million into the first month of his campaign, though Florida first lady Casey DeSantis is also considering a bid. Donalds also has put together a team of officials who successfully helped Trump take back the White House, including pollster Tony Fabrizio and senior adviser Danielle Alvarez. In the coming months, Jolly plans to go to towns where 'Democrats haven't gone before,' including talking to agriculture communities about how they're being affected by Florida's strict immigration laws and to faith communities 'to talk about how Republican politicians have perverted policy issues around issues of faith and how I believe Democratic values better reflect the teachings of faith.' One of the biggest doubts Jolly will face is to make the case that he'll have a different outcome from Crist, the same politician who defeated him in his 2016 House race. Jolly admits he has changed his positions on issues like abortion, climate change and firearms, and said he doesn't try to argue — like Crist — that the party changed, but said he has changed his mind and thinks a lot of other voters have, too. His goal, he said, would be to create a wide coalition of supporters that appeal to independents and some Republicans because 'there are not enough Democratic votes to win the governorship.' 'We need a campaign, a candidate and a party that can win hearts and minds back,' he said. 'And that's our job.'
11 minutes ago
South Korea's liberal-led legislature passes bills calling for special probes into Yoon and wife
SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea's liberal-led legislature on Thursday passed bills to launch special investigations into former President Yoon Suk Yeol's short-lived imposition of martial law in December and criminal allegations against his wife, targeting the ousted conservative a day after his liberal successor took office. The bills were previously vetoed by Yoon and South Korea's caretaker government after his Dec. 14 impeachment over the martial law debacle. The bills are expected to be signed by new President Lee Jae-myung, a Democrat who won Tuesday's snap election triggered by Yoon's formal removal from office in April.
Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
He's running: David Jolly's campaign for Florida governor takes aim against culture wars
After teasing at a run, former GOP congressman David Jolly made it official this week, saying he's running for governor of Florida in 2026. Jolly, who left the Republican Party in President Donald Trump's first term, now wants to talk to voters about why he is running as a Democrat at a time when the party is at a record low, holds no statewide offices and outnumbered 2–1 in the state's Legislature. He's formed a political action committee to raise money and has been meeting with local political clubs. He says he's been telling voters his No. 1 priority is to drive down the cost of property insurance premiums, which is making Florida unaffordable for many. Experts say Florida's insurance market has been in crisis for a decade, with rates rising more than 30% since 2022 when the Legislature passed a package of reforms to stabilize the market. Jolly has a plan to reduce premiums by 50% for most homeowners: 'We need a state catastrophic fund to remove natural disaster perils from the private insurance market,' Jolly said, separate from the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, "a tax-exempt state trust fund that provides reimbursements to residential property insurance companies for a portion of their catastrophic hurricane losses in Florida," its website says. In the current red state of Florida, however, any Democrat has the odds stacked against him or her to become chief executive. Republican Congressman Byron Donalds of Naples is the only announced leading Republican candidate and has been endorsed by Trump. And there's still wide speculation that it's not if but when First Lady Casey DeSantis jumps into the race. Undaunted by the opposition, Jolly's platform includes a massive boost to public education with a 30% increase in teacher salaries, a corruption and ethics reform package for elected officials, and expanding access to abortion, among other issues. But probe Jolly about why he is running and it becomes clear he wants to be a governor who cleanses the state of Gov. Ron DeSantis' culture wars, such as championing Florida as a leader in mass deportation of immigrants. 'I think that culture wars have broken who we are as a community. I think that culture wars have shattered who we are as a state. I think they are ugly, they're divisive, and they should be condemned,' Jolly said. In a discussion of the Department of Environmental Protection appeal of a federal court order to pause permits for septic systems after wastewater discharges in the Indian River Lagoon led to a mass starvation of manatees, Jolly said DeSantis planted "ideologues" in decision-making positions on boards and in departments and agencies that regulate business, protect the environment and oversees public education and the State University System. "I think Ron DeSantis, either through political favor or through an ideological agenda, continues to put people in places that probably are not deserving of those roles. I do think if I have the opportunity to serve as governor, one of the first things we do is we review all those appointments and we dismiss many of them," Jolly said. Three years ago on MSNBC, after DeSantis signed the Stop Woke Act, which restricts how schools discuss racism, gender, and social privileges and prohibits lessons focused on how they impact society, Jolly said he and his wife Laura considered moving out of Florida to raise their two children elsewhere. "Why would I want to raise my kids in an environment in which they're shamed for embracing diversity of thought and diverse cultures," Jolly said. But they decided to stay and fight a state Republican Party that he said has doubled down on a culture-war agenda. His candidacy is a notable feature in the current political landscape: He's the first Democrat with any statewide name recognition, largely due to his TV punditry, to announce for governor. Jolly, a Dunedin native with deep ties to Tampa politics, served as an aide to the late Republican Congressman Bill Young for 19 years. He succeeded Young when he defeated former state CFO Alex Sink in a 2014 special election after Young's death. Jolly called on Trump to withdraw from the 2016 presidential primary after Trump proposed an immigration ban for Muslims. Later that year, he lost a reelection bid to former Gov. Charlie Crist, who left Congress in 2022 to run for governor of Florida. Jolly thinks he can harness the energy evident in a series of statewide protests in April and May over policies advanced by Trump and backed by DeSantis and forge a winning coalition of Democrats, moderate Republicans like he once was, and no-party-affiliated voters. But he knows he faces a 'Herculean task.' He seeks to revive enthusiasm in a Democratic base demoralized by the 2024 election, when their top-of-the-ticket candidates, Vice President Kamala Harris for president and former Congresswoman Debbie Muscarel-Powell for U.S. Senate, lost. Democrats also lost two seats in the Florida House and watched two more members flee to join the Republican majority. The House breakdown now is 86 GOP, 33 Democratic, with one vacancy. Then the Senate Democratic leader at the time, Jason Pizzo of Miami-Dade County, resigned and quit the party, declaring it "dead." Pizzo since has said he will launch a gubernatorial campaign as an independent. Democratic megadonor John Morgan, who financed ballot initiatives to raise the minimum wage and allow the use of medical marijuana, said he is considering starting a new party and running for governor. 'Jolly is a nice guy looking for a lane to be relevant,' Morgan said when asked if a Jolly candidacy changes whether he will decide to mount a gubernatorial bid. It doesn't: 'For the short run I agree with DeSantis that the Democratic Party is dead meat,' Morgan said. Morgan also agrees with Jolly that affordability, which he refers to as income inequality, will be the No. 1 issue in 2026. He's sticking with his plan of watching the race develop and waiting until 'the horses are coming down the stretch,' which would be around the Aug. 2026 primary, to decide whether to run. In the meantime, Democrats continue to lose voters as Republicans have registered more voters than Democrats for seven straight years. 'I think trends don't last forever," said University of Central Florida political scientist Aubrey Jewett. "At some point, Republican gains are going to level off and Democratic losses are going to stop, right? "But every month I look and here we are. Seven years later and it still hasn't stopped,' Jewett added. The GOP now has a one-million voter registration advantage over Democrats in Florida. Jewett said if Pizzo and Morgan were to get into the race, the odds would tilt heavily towards the GOP candidate. 'If you're the Republican candidate, you've got to feel pretty good about a four-way race. They are the dominant party and most of their voters are not going to abandon the party while the other three candidates split the anti-GOP vote,' Jewett said. But Jolly sees the public rejecting much of what Republicans in Tallahassee are offering. He said 2026 will be a once-in-a-generation election in which a dramatic change is possible and a reset of Florida politics can occur. The candidate has set February benchmarks for fundraising and polls as milestones to determine whether he can wage a competitive campaign. 'My job is to build a coalition where I reach independent and disaffected voters. If I build that coalition and demonstrate a viable path to winning then we will have built a coalition that Jason Pizzo and John Morgan, as well as John and Sally Smith down the street, can believe in and we will win,' Jolly said. James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jcall@ and is on X as @CallTallahassee. This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: David Jolly joins race for governor – with direct attack on DeSantis
