[1][2] The Democrats encouraged O'Hara to run for judge, but the only office he held was as a member of the Cincinnati Board of Education for ten years.

[1][2] In March, 1912, James Latimer Price of the Ohio Supreme Court died.

Governor, and fellow Cincinnati Democrat, Judson Harmon appointed O'Hara to fill the seat until a replacement could be elected to finish Price's term.

In 1936, he was appointed General Counsel of the Home Owners' Loan Corporation.

The funeral was a requiem high mass at St. Xavier Catholic Church, with burial at Spring Grove Cemetery.