Judicial Candidates Address the People

This is my inaugural blog for Patch.com. 

I am the female Democratic State Committeeperson and District Leader for the 52nd Assembly District. I am writing this first blog about a current event in connection with my role as District Leader. I hope to write future blogs about other issues of interest to the community.

On Sunday, May 22, my co-District Leader Chris Owens and I convened a Democratic County Committee meeting for the 52nd A.D.  Its purpose was two-fold:

• to formally re-constitute the County Committee for this term in accordance with party rules and fill some vacancies on our County Committee;
• and to open up the judicial elections process to the public.  We usually have a speaker or a panel on a topical issue, but this time we convened an informal mini-judicial convention.

 The event differed from the formal county-wide judicial conventions in certain key ways:

1. The county committee members from the 52nd A.D. were the only participants. 
2. The vote was advisory only; we asked members to indicate their preferences. Chris and I will report the results of that preference vote in accordance with our rules which provide for a fairly sophisticated run-off voting algorithm which is still being calculated.
3. There was no hand-picked slate of candidates – anyone running for a judicial position in Brooklyn’s Civil or Supreme Court was welcome to attend and be considered by the committee.

It was gratifying that nearly all the current candidates attended – a total of 17 in all. Those who attended were, for Civil Court:  Lizette Colon, Cheryl Gonzales, Lorna McAllister and Peter Sweeney; for Supreme Court:  Betsy Barros, Johnny Baynes, Lizette Colon, Genine Edwards, David Friedman, Michael Gerstein, Bernard Graham, Desmond Green, Lawrence Knipel, William Miller, Shawn-Dya Simpson, Wavny Toussaint, and Betty Williams.  Acting Supreme Court Justice, Rachel Amy Adams was moving her son home from college and could not attend, but sent a representative who read her message to the committee.   I understand that at least one other candidate was occupied with similar family obligations.

Candidates were asked to respond to a questionnaire. You can see their responses at www.Owensforchange.com. 

In addition to taking the results into consideration when making our endorsements, we hope they will assist the local political clubs in making theirs.  Chris and I have both committed to endorsing only candidates who have been found qualified by the Kings County Democratic party Independent Screening panel.  The Screening panel has not yet reported out its findings for this election cycle, so we don’t yet know whether everyone who appeared before us will be found qualified, but certainly expect it to be most of, if not all, the candidates we saw yesterday.

So you might ask, why hold this informal convention if the vote is only advisory only?  Several reasons:

1. Brooklyn has not had a history of openness and transparency when it comes to  judicial elections.  The Independent Screening panel was a big step in assuring the public that Brooklyn has the best possible judges.  The 52nd A.D. County Committee is another step in that direction.
2. We believe that the public should know more about the candidates themselves, about our court system and about what judges do.  We learned that attendees were confused by the various parts of the courts, various names of judicial positions, and about the way that candidates got to the bench in the first place.  We believe that when people know more they will take a closer look at candidates and participate more in helping select the best judges.

Yesterday, we took advantage of a few “teachable moments,” and explained that there are no fewer than 7 types of judicial positions in New York City, that the routes to them vary, and that regardless of the judicial position one holds, the state Office of Court Administration assigns judges where they need them.  So, civil court judges might actually sit in criminal, family, housing, small claims, civil or supreme courts. 

As a law professor, I often find that law students are clueless about this NYS process – and it is very different from the federal courts – so of course, it is not surprising that the general public knows little about it. 

For those of you who might want to know even more about this topic, I recommend you read The Courts of New York Explained by NY Supreme Court Justice Emily Jane Goodman. Gotham Gazette has an interesting take on this topic as well.

I want to thank my co-leader, Chris Owens for hatching this idea and working closely with me to put on a successful event.  Many thanks are due Assemblymember Joan L. Millman, who supported us in holding this first time ever judicial mini-convention and not only participated, but acted as time–keeper.  Our thanks go to David Bloomfield and Ann Chapin who served as Chair and Secretary, respectively, and Lisa Fane, Jo Haines and Josh Skaller who helped check people in, assuring an orderly meeting.  Thanks also to District Leaders Lincoln Restler and Walter Mosley who stopped by to observe the proceedings. 

Most of all, thanks to all the judicial candidates and to the County Committee members who attended or gave us their proxy. It all made a big difference.