Candidate for
Clerk of Courts; County of Hamilton

Martha Good, Candidate for Hamilton County Clerk of Courts

Martha Good has a lifetime of experience as a lawyer, mediator, educator, and leader that makes her uniquely qualified to be Hamilton County's first woman Clerk of Courts.

An attorney with extensive experience working in state and federal courts, Martha is well-known to judges, attorneys and court personnel and familiar with court procedures and policies. Martha was law clerk for U.S. District Judge David Porter before her association with one of Cincinnati's premier law firms, Frost & Jacobs. During six years as Circuit Mediator for the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, Martha held settlement conferences in over 1200 cases, resolving hundreds of them. She is also an Arbitrator for the Hamilton County Common Pleas Court. In private practice, as a contract public defender and now as a Volunteer Lawyer for the Poor, Martha has represented many people in Common Pleas, Municipal, Domestic Relations and Juvenile Courts.

An educator for over 15 years, Martha is now Assistant Professor of Political Science at Miami University where she teaches American Politics and Diversity, Law and Individual Rights, Constitutional Law, Civil Rights and Liberties, and Women and the Law. Previously Martha taught law at Dayton School of Law where she was named Professor of the Year by her first year Property students in 1992. Martha has also taught Political Science at University of New Mexico and social studies at St. Xavier High School and Cincinnati Public Schools. A former member of Cincinnati Federation of Teachers, Martha recently joined the American Association of University Professors.

An active community leader, Martha was PTA President, Parent Board member, soccer coach, science fair judge, newsletter editor, and general volunteer at Kilgour and Walnut Hills High School for 20 years. Currently on the Board of the Friends of Harriet Beecher Stowe House, Martha also served for many years on the Parent Advisory Board of the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra. She has worked or volunteered for Dress for Success Cincinnati, National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Contemporary Arts Center and Cincinnati Historical Society. A member of the Cincinnati Women's Political Caucus, National Organization of Women, Women's Campaign Forum, Amnesty International and American Civil Liberties Union, Martha is a women's rights advocate.

Martha has been active in local politics. Currently a member of the Hamilton County Democratic Party's Executive Committee, Martha is a Precinct Executive and has worked on many local campaigns. Running for Clerk of Courts (2004), Martha won 44% of the vote in a race where she was vastly outspent; she also received 41% of the vote in a heavily Republican district as a judicial candidate (2005).

After graduating from Skidmore College with Honors in Government, Martha earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from Brown University. She was one of the first Arthur Russell Morgan Fellows of the Urban Morgan Institute of Human Rights at Cincinnati's College of Law. In 1985 Martha graduated #1 in her law school class after earning prizes for achieving the highest grade in several courses. During law school Martha was an editor of both University of Cincinnati Law Review and Human Rights Quarterly in which 4 of her articles were published.

A descendant of Jakob Gut, a baker who emigrated from Austria to Over-the-Rhine in 1869, Martha has always called Ohio her home. She graduated from Akron's Firestone High School where she was student council vice-president and editor of the school newspaper and yearbook. Following college and graduate school, Martha settled in Cincinnati in 1981 when her husband was hired to teach at UC. Martha's three children, Jacob, Peter and Elizabeth Adams were born and raised in Cincinnati. They are all accomplished musicians who studied at Oberlin, Yale and Harvard following their graduation from Walnut Hills High School.

In her bid to become Hamilton County's first woman Clerk of Courts, Martha has been endorsed by County Commissioners Todd Portune and David Pepper with whom Martha will work cooperatively to keep the County's fiscal house in order, to reform our criminal justice system to reduce crime and enhance public safety, and to continue to improve the quality of life for all county residents and businesses.

Martha has also been endorsed by the AFL-CIO Labor Council, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Cincinnati Federation of Teachers, Electrical Workers (IBEW), Laborers, Plumbers, Pipefitters & Mechanical Equipment Service Local 392, Sheet Metal Workers, Cincinnati Women's Political Caucus and Women's Campaign Fund. Additional endorsements forthcoming.