Shakeup coming in local GOP

Kimball Perry reports

Within a week, Hamilton County’s Republican Party expects to lose a judgeship while gaining a new leader.

The current head of the GOP, lawyer George Vincent, was named in January as the managing partner of one of Cincinnati’s most prestigious law firms, Dinsmore & Shohl.

Joe Deters, the current Hamilton County Prosecutor and former co-chair of the Hamilton County Republican Party, said Tuesday a March 11 GOP meeting is planned to name Vincent’s successor.

It almost certainly will be current Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Alex Triantafilou, Deters said but added “Alex has not agreed to it.”

If he does, he’ll have to step down from his judgeship.

Ohio law prevents judges from being political party chairs, so Triantafilou would have to step down from judge to take the job.

If that happens and Triantafilou, 36, of Green Township, falls off of the November ballot, both the Republicans and Democrats can place candidates for that judicial seat on the November ballot, Deters said.

If Triantafilou steps down, his replacement – at least until the November election – will be named by Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat, who almost surely will name a Democrat to replace the Republican Triantafilou.

Now, 15 of the 16 Hamilton County Common Pleas Court judges are Republicans. (William Mallory is the lone Democrat.)

Both Vincent and Triantiflou refused comment Tuesday.

Vincent, a part-owner of the Cincinnati Reds, has been party chair since 2005 when Mike Barrett stepped down to take a federal court judgeship.

Triantafilou is a graduate of Oak Hills High, University of Cincinnati and Chase College of Law who was an assistant Hamilton County prosecutor from 1997 until 2003 when he became a Hamilton County Municipal Court Judge a job he held about two years before taking the Common Pleas Court bench.

Triantafilou also was administrator of the Hamilton County Clerk of Courts before becoming a judge.