On Monday, August 26th, the Greater Dayton League of Women Voters will honor several “first ladies of Dayton.” Ohio’s first female Supreme Court Justice, Maureen O’Connor, will be the keynote speaker at the Women’s Equality Celebration at the Dayton Marriott.
Among the women who will be honored at the dinner are Vickie Hensley, Dayton’s first female police Sergeant, and Rhine McLin, Dayton's first female mayor.
Chief Justice O’Connor is expected to discuss her eight-point plan for judicial election reform. The plan was first announced in May, at the Ohio State Bar Association convention in Cleveland.
A 2012 Quinnipiac University poll indicated that Ohioans, by a large margin, opposed changing the current system of electing state Supreme Court judges, but according to the Chief Justice, the Buckeye State is the “only state in the country that holds overtly partisan primaries [followed by] nonpartisan general elections where the party affiliation does not appear on the ballot.”
O’Connor says the plan was designed to increase voter participation in judicial elections, provide more information to voters about judicial races, and address concerns about political influence on judges.
Other Women being honored at the event include Mary Morgan, the first woman to run for public office and Noel Vaughn, the first female law firm founder.
