Sitting down with Mark Davis, Judicial candidate for the Lucas County Court of Common Pleas

Meeting with Mark Davis was an informative interview, if you have seen him campaigning especially during those moments where he is standing on various street corners holding one of his signs or have talked with him, he is very focused on his goal of being elected as a judge. He does not have a campaign website but there is some resume and biographical information on his law website. I would describe Mark Davis as focused and intense, yet he also has a good sense of humor and at one point in the interview stopped to point out how beautiful the snow was that was coming down at that moment. We also discovered in the course of our conversation that we share a favorite movie, "Twister".

In response to the question why did he want to be a judge, “a lawyer fights for justice, a judge delivers justice. I want to make a difference in people’s lives, everyone on earth, I think yourself included, we want to leave it a better place and as a lawyer when you try to fight for justice, you win some, you lose some. As a judge you are able to do much more and I have a passion for the law, I have a passion for helping people and I have a passion for justice. I want right to prevail so I would like to be a judge not only because it’s a great a job, I mean you have the title, and the prestige but that would become boring and empty after a while if it didn’t have some type of fulfilling aspect of it. I’ll give you an example, I did accounting, international revenue, for a Fortune 500 company, sounds impressive, it was great but in the end, I prepared some financial numbers that I gave to my boss for people to look at and it didn’t have any real fulfilling value, I didn’t feel like I made the world a better place. A lot of people go to law school with that idea that they are going to save the world or make the world a better place and after a while you can become jaded or kind of lose that passion and I’m looking to just take it to the next level as a judge.”


From an intellectual/educational aspect Mark Davis is qualified, his resume can be viewed here; in addition to his degrees, he is fluent in several foreign languages, he was on the Law Review at Ohio State and received a degree in International Business Transactions and learned Japanese as well as being an chess player at a national level.

Mark stated the following in continuing why he wanted to be a judge, “In chess you look at complex situations and you make decisions, the law is no different. The law is a set of rules and the pieces are the facts, you take a complex situation and you are making legal decisions on it. So other people seem to think that I would be very well suited for the bench based on my skill set. When I look at wanting to make a difference in the world and wanting to have a job with intellectual stimulation, judges have a lot of intellectual stimulation especially at the Common Pleas level. You can have cases from medical malpractice to environmental EPA cases to murder cases.”

He feels that his business background in having three business degrees and his legal experience from a civil standpoint would be of benefit to Lucas County, especially when it comes to cases involving very complex issues. Mark pointed to a recent EPA case as one example of his ability to handle the intricate areas of governmental regulations and civil law.

I’m familiar with martial arts and some of the mindset that is involved with breaking bricks, which is something that Mark has had experience with, so we discussed that briefly. For those of you not familiar with this, the idea is to not concentrate on the bricks but concentrate on following thru the bricks, you have to focus and channel your energies. Mark uses this example with his students and also feels this philosophy relates to anything, including campaigning.

I asked Mark how he felt about the bar ratings, he was happy that 12 attorneys of those who participated in the poll gave him a highly recommended rating. He pointed out that if you look at other barometers as one example at the University of Toledo where he taught international marketing, international management, business law and international law for the last five years, last year he was tied as the top professor as rated by the students.

As was stated in a Toledo Blade article, Mark briefly discussed several concerns with Judge Doneghy, the 21 continuances granted in the Mickles case, a comment from Roy Williamson the life partner of David Larabee who stated the Judge “blocked the prosecution at every turn” and the pension issue. Mark also pointed out that the mandatory retirement age for a judge is age 70 so that at age 68 this would be the last term Judge Doneghy could be elected to and if he wins this re-election and retires before that term would be completed there would be an appointee rather than someone who was selected by the voters.

Mark Davis is running as an independent, and he was very open in stating that there is a common belief within the legal community you are not supposed to run against a sitting judge of your political party. Many times judges run unopposed which does not give the voters an option, it creates a situation where judges are “elected for life”, and he believes voters should have a choice. Mark then related a story where he was approached at a gas station by a man who saw the stickers on his car and asked him if he was the Mark Davis who was running for judge, when he replied yes, the man looked at his bald head and said “You’re the Jesse Ventura of Ohio”. After we laughed, he continued that he was encouraged by that because “Jesse Ventura was independent and he won”. Mark has made the fact that he is running as an independent a part of his campaign as well as his belief that his personal life experiences and his professional experience would bring a new perspective to the Lucas County Court of Common Pleas. He feels very strongly that the insight he has learned thru these experiences would be an asset to Lucas County.

So, in closing, Mark Davis was very specific in the reasons why he wants to be a Common Pleas Court Judge, he feels that if the voters of this area meet him and learn more about him that he will earn their vote. I thank him very much for taking the time to sit down with me to do this interview and I hope you find the information Mark shared helpful in making your decision on November 7th.