FREMONT, Ohio — A pre-primary fundraising email from Sandusky County Judge Brad Smith’s re-election campaign asked supporters for “$10 - $15 grand” to defend against a possible “Independent challenger” who never filed to run — and joint campaign signs posted to Smith’s public Facebook page show the two-candidate signage Smith’s campaign produced was paid for jointly with the campaign of Beth Tischler, the county prosecutor who in 2023 helped formally abate a $33,300 state audit finding against Smith.

The same April 7, 2026 email — sent under the subject line “Asking for some quick help… Much Thanks!” — used the official Sandusky County Juvenile and Probate Court logo as its first attachment, listed Smith’s government email address and the court’s direct office line in its signature block, and directed donors to a Venmo account that public records indicate is Smith’s personal account.

The email was signed by campaign committee treasurer Jane Mayle Smith and included a personal note signed “Judge Brad Smith.” Smith was unopposed in the May 5 Republican primary.

Smith has held the Sandusky County Court of Common Pleas, Probate and Juvenile Division seat since 2009. He is the subject of multiple recent TiffinOhio.net reports, including the formal abatement of a $33,300 state audit finding against him by Tischler and the apparent acceptance of campaign contributions through a personal Venmo account. A Defiance resident filed formal complaints against Smith with two Ohio regulatory bodies on May 1.

TiffinOhio.net submitted written questions to Smith asking about each of the elements described in this article, including whether any portion of the funds raised through the April 7 solicitation was used for joint expenditures with Tischler’s campaign, and whether donors were informed before contributing that some portion of funds might be used jointly with another candidate. Smith did not respond by deadline.

What the fundraising email contained

The April 7 email opened “Good afternoon ‘Friends-of-Brad’” and was sent from bradsmithforjudge@gmail.com under treasurer Jane Mayle Smith’s name. It states that Smith “does not have a primary opponent at this time, but apparently may still face an Independent challenger in the general election” and that the campaign committee was seeking to raise “$10 - $15 grand in the next five to ten days” for a “mailer and sign blitz.”

The email instructs donors that “checks need to be made out to ‘Brad Smith for Judge’” and can be mailed to a Fremont post office box, “or donations may be made via PayPal or Venmo, as shown below. Both of those accounts are linked with this e-mail: BuckeyeBradSmith@AOL.com and the associated cell phone number for verification (if requested) is 419-680-6803.”

The email lists four attachments: an image of the official Sandusky County Juvenile and Probate Court logo; a Venmo QR code linked to the handle @BuckeyeBradSmith; a PayPal QR code captioned “Scan to pay Brad Smith”; and a 1.7-megabyte file titled “Court Overview Bubble Chart 2026,” which the body of the email describes as showing “an overview of that world, which includes nearly 60 employees and an annual $4 - $5 million budget.”

The email closes with a handwritten note from Smith, signed “Judge Brad Smith,” followed by a signature block listing his title as judge of the Sandusky County Juvenile & Probate Court; his past presidencies of the Ohio Association of Juvenile Court Judges and the Sandusky County Bar Association; the address of the Historic Sandusky County Courthouse at 100 North Park Avenue, Fremont; a “Direct Office Line” of 419-334-6204; a “24/7 Cell Phone” of 419-680-6803; and the government email address JudgeSmith@SanduskyCountyOH.gov.

The email does not state that any portion of the funds raised would be spent jointly with another candidate’s campaign committee.

The “Independent challenger” who has not filed

The central rationale for the fundraising urgency in the April 7 email is the prospect of an independent candidate appearing on the November ballot. The Sandusky County Board of Elections confirms that no independent candidate has filed nominating petitions for the Probate and Juvenile Division seat.

Under Ohio Revised Code § 3513.257, independent candidates seeking ballot access for the November 3, 2026 general election were required to file nominating petitions with the county board of elections no later than May 4, 2026 — the day before the partisan primary. That deadline has passed.

The email does not name the prospective independent candidate. Smith did not respond to written questions asking who that candidate was or on what basis the campaign represented to donors that an independent might appear on the November ballot.

Joint signs with the Tischler campaign

Joint campaign signs displayed publicly on Smith’s Facebook page show Smith’s “Re-Elect Judge Brad Smith — Juvenile Court” branding side-by-side with “Elect Beth Tischler Judge — Court of Common Pleas” branding under the shared headline “Conservative! Justice we can Trust! Republican!”

At the bottom, beneath an additional joint endorsement reading “Endorsed By Sheriff Chris Hilton & Other Area Police Chiefs…YES!” with police-badge and sheriff-star icons, the sign carries the disclaimer: “Paid for jointly by: the Brad Smith for Judge Committee and the Tischler for Judge Committee.”

The joint expenditure disclaimer establishes that the two campaign committees pooled funds to produce campaign materials promoting both candidates simultaneously. Smith and Tischler were running for separate judicial seats — Smith for re-election to the Probate and Juvenile Division, and Tischler for the General Division seat held by Judge Jeremiah Ray. Tischler lost her primary bid to Ray 59 percent to 41 percent on May 5.

The Sheriff Chris Hilton named on the joint signs was Tischler’s campaign treasurer and appeared in uniform on Facebook in the final week of the primary urging voters to back Tischler. Hilton was also one of six Sandusky County officials who co-signed the March 2023 letter requesting abatement of the audit finding against Smith.

The April 7 fundraising email solicited contributions under the stated rationale of a “mailer and sign blitz” for Smith’s re-election in the face of a prospective independent challenger. The email did not disclose to donors that any portion of funds raised would be used for materials jointly funded with another candidate’s campaign committee.

Ohio’s prohibition on using court resources in a campaign

Rule 4.1(A)(10) of the Ohio Code of Judicial Conduct, which governs all judges and judicial candidates in the state, provides that a judge or judicial candidate shall not “use court staff, facilities, or other court resources in a campaign for judicial office or for any political purpose.”

The Sandusky County Juvenile and Probate Court logo used as the first attachment in the April 7 email is the official identifying mark of the court Smith presides over. The court’s official Juvenile Court website and official Probate Court website both display the same logo as their primary branding.

The “Court Overview Bubble Chart 2026” attached to the email is described in the email body as showing the size of the court Smith oversees, in apparent support of the fundraising appeal. TiffinOhio.net was unable to independently verify whether the chart was prepared using court resources. Smith did not respond to written questions on the subject.

The signature block’s inclusion of the government email address JudgeSmith@SanduskyCountyOH.gov, the Historic Sandusky County Courthouse address, and the court’s direct office line places those court contact points within the body of a campaign solicitation.

The Venmo direction

The instruction in the April 7 email that donations could be sent via the Venmo account linked to BuckeyeBradSmith@AOL.com is consistent with the publicly visible @BuckeyeBradSmith Venmo handle TiffinOhio.net previously reported on.

A May 1 TiffinOhio.net report documented that the @BuckeyeBradSmith account is publicly visible on Venmo, has received multiple transactions labeled as campaign contributions, and also reflects transactions unrelated to the Smith campaign — including a December 2024 payment from another user described as discounted Ohio State football tickets.

Ohio Revised Code § 3517.10(D)(3)(a) requires campaign committees to deposit all monetary contributions into an account separate from any personal or business account of the candidate. The Ohio Elections Commission addressed peer-to-peer platforms directly in Advisory Opinion 2021ELC-04, issued December 16, 2021, concluding that such platforms are permissible under Ohio law only when the account is established specifically for the campaign committee and kept entirely separate from any personal account of a beneficiary of the campaign fund.

On May 1, Charles Tingler of Defiance filed a public complaint about the Venmo account with the Ohio Election Integrity Commission, operating under the Ohio Secretary of State’s Public Integrity Division, and a separate grievance with the Ohio State Bar Association’s Certified Grievance Committee.

The April 7 fundraising email establishes that the @BuckeyeBradSmith account was directed to donors by the campaign committee itself, not solely by individual contributors using the account independently.

The audit finding background

The Ohio Auditor of State’s 2020 audit of Sandusky County identified seven invoices that “were identified and determined to have been manually created by Juvenile Court Judge Brad Smith by his own admission” during an investigation covering the period November 2015 through March 2018. Smith disputed the auditor’s characterization in a written statement to TiffinOhio.net last month, writing: “I take issue to the auditor’s characterization of me admitting to creating or falsifying the invoices, as I have maintained consistently that I merely updated prior invoices in order to reflect the amount budgeted by the commissioners for that year.”

A March 2023 letter co-signed by six Sandusky County officials, including Hilton, requested abatement of the audit finding. Tischler, as the county prosecutor with statutory authority over abatement actions, then approved the abatement and obtained Ohio Attorney General approval, with no repayment required from Smith.

Smith was unopposed in the May 5 Republican primary. He will appear on the November 3 general election ballot.