On Election Day, Democrat Connie Pillich broke the hold the Republican Party has had for 92 years on the most influential and coveted prize in Hamilton County politics — the county prosecutor’s office.
She defeated the appointed Republican incumbent, Melissa Powers, with 51% of the unofficial vote.
It was the closest of the contests for county offices in this increasingly blue county.
And, for the Hamilton County Republican Party, holding on to that office was clearly a priority.
Republicans have held that office since the depths of the Great Depression; since Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president for the first time; since a brand-spanking new Ford Model B Roadster could be had for $410.
And now Pillich — former state representative and retired U.S. Air Force captain — is in the beginning stages of something that hasn’t happened in most people’s living memory: the transfer of power in the prosecutor’s office.
“I’m just starting this week to get a handle on what needs to be done,’’ Pillich said. “I’m not even sure of how many people are in that office — 200 or so, I think.”
Pillich will find out this week. She was schedule to meet with Powers Tuesday, followed by a Wednesday meeting with the top level management of the office.
“That should answer a lot of my questions about what needs to be done,’’ Pillich said.
In the meantime, the prosecutor-elect, who takes office Jan. 6, said her phone has been ringing constantly since election night — calls from Democrats looking for jobs in her office.
“Suddenly, I am very popular,’’ Pillich said. “Everybody Is calling me. I think I’ll be getting a new phone.”
The reason they are calling is that they are looking for jobs — many of them as assistant prosecutors, others for office staff positions.
There is a reason why the Hamilton County Republican Party targeted the Powers-Pillich race as its top priority this year and why at least $1.8 million was spent to keep Powers in that office.
For many decades now, the Hamilton County Republican Party has used the prosecutor’s office as a triple-A farm club for future judges, just as the Cincinnati Reds promote players from its top farm club in Louisville.
Over the years, the courthouse has been chock full of Republicans who were assistant prosecuting attorneys and later appointed or elected to the bench.
Hamilton County Republican Party Chairman Russell Mock — who is currently working for Powers as chief assistant for the municipal court division — started out as an assistant prosecutor under then-prosecutor Joe Deters and went on to become a municipal court judge and an appeals court judge.
The Ohio Republican Party chairman, Alex Triantafilou, is another — he was an assistant prosecutor under Deters and was later appointed to a municipal court judgeship.
Powers herself was part of that pipeline.
She started out as an assistant prosecutor under Deters and went on to become a juvenile court judge — an office she left in January 2023 to replace Deters after he was appointed to the Ohio Supreme Court.
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Powers would not comment for this column about the transition, but, on election night, she vowed to make it as smooth as possible.
“It has been an honor serving as your Hamilton County Prosecutor these past two years," Powers said after the election. "While we came up a bit short, I am committed to a smooth and orderly transition, and I look forward to working with our next prosecutor, Connie Pillich, to ensure that our community continues to be well served."
Pillich said she will need to figure out who on the current staff wants to stay and who will go.
“Some of them are just not going to stick around,’’ Pillich said. “And there are some who have just been hanging on until they can leave or retire.”
She says she has met some of the young prosecutors and was impressed.
After she speaks with Powers and her top staff, she said she will have a better idea of who will stay and who will go.
“I’m sure Melissa will want to tell me who she would like to see stay,” Pillich said.
At this point, with the election results yet to be certified by the board of elections, Pillich can’t even post job openings.
“I’m kind of stuck right now,’’ she said.
Pillich said the first priority, though, will be to “professionalize” the office so that getting hired will not be based solely on who you know and what party you belong to.
“There have never been any professional guidelines for hiring in that office,’’ said Pillich. “That will change.”
Yes, she is a Democrat and she is going to hire a lot of Democrats for an office where they have been few and far between for a long time.
And, in this increasingly blue county with a Republican in the governor’s office for the foreseeable future, her party can and has won judicial races without a boost from the prosecutor’s office.
But Pillich said she wants it to be more about competence than politics.
“I don’t see this as a political job,’’ Pillich said. “I’d like to see us focus on the job instead of the politics.”
