Current Hamilton County Prosecutor Melissa Powers was appointed to the office in 2023, after long-time Prosecutor Joe Deters joined the Ohio Supreme Court. Now the incumbent Republican faces a high-profile Democratic challenger, former Ohio Rep. Connie Pillich.
Candidate name: Connie Pillich
Education: Graduate of the University of Cincinnati College of Law
Party affiliation: Democrat
Experience:
- Served eight years in the U.S. Air Force, rising to the rank of captain.
- State Representative from Ohio’s 28th District, 2008-2014.
- Unsuccessful campaign for Ohio Treasurer in 2014.
- Former co-chair of the Hamilton County Democratic Party.
- Former criminal defense attorney and civil litigator.
LISTEN: Candidates Melissa Powers and Connie Pillich speak about prosecutor's race
Democrat Connie Pillich said she believes Hamilton County can do better fighting crime than the incumbent prosecutor, Melissa Powers, and the GOP county prosecutors who have come before her.
“We have too many illegal guns on our streets, too many shootings, too much violence,” Pillich told WVXU. “We can and will do better than this.”
In recent years, Pillich said, quoting an Enquirer investigation earlier this year, appeals courts have overturned five murder cases in Hamilton County due to improper conduct by assistant prosecutors “some of it on Melissa Powers’ watch.”
In most of those cases, assistant prosecutors failed to share evidence with defense lawyers as required by law.
“Unfortunately, we are seeing too many mistakes like this,” Pillich said. “This county is in desperate need of new leadership in the prosecutor’s office.”
“This is an office that has been handed down from one Republican prosecutor to another for decades,” Pillich said. “What you end up with is an office full of poorly trained, or completely untrained, lawyers who are political appointees.”
The lack of training for lawyers and other employees of the prosecutor’s office is a “glaring weakness,” Pillich said.
“This is something we had to do in the Air Force; training in what the job requires is essential," she said. “As an Air Force officer, I wasn’t dealing with criminal prosecutions. But I was dealing with top secret material and nuclear secrets. Training was mandatory.”
Powers’ criticism of her opponent centers on the fact that Pillich has no experience as a prosecutor. But Pillich says her experience as a public defender and a civil litigator has prepared her for the job.
“I’ve helped drug addicts get into treatment, gotten illegal evidence thrown out, and protected victims of predatory lending,’’ Pillich said. “I’ve prosecuted civil cases successfully."
Pillich said that her time as an Air Force officer has given her “exactly the right kind of experience needed for this job.”
“Being an officer in the military is the best kind of leadership training in the world,” she said. “Melissa doesn’t have that kind of experience. I can be that kind of leader. I’ve proven it.”
