Campaigns & Elections

Who not to vote for when choosing judges

Some of the candidates aren’t campaigning and don’t live where they are running.

Judges can hold incredible sway over the lives of New Yorkers, but barely any voters know who the candidates for judge are.

Judges can hold incredible sway over the lives of New Yorkers, but barely any voters know who the candidates for judge are. Drop of Light/Shutterstock

All eyes may be on the presidential election year, which is driving long lines at early voting sites across the state, but there are other races on the ballot – including perennially overlooked judicial races. Judges can hold incredible sway over the lives of New Yorkers, but barely any voters know who the candidates for judge are. Judicial nominations often happen through backroom party deals, sometimes leading to candidates running on both the Democratic and Republican lines. Appointments and nominations are used by party leaders as “rewards and payback,” according to Common Cause New York Executive Director Susan Lerner. 

While reforming the state’s judiciary is no easy feat, City & State can at least say which candidates for Supreme Court judge New York City residents should definitely not vote for: A handful of candidates are simply running to free up a third-party ballot line, and some of them don’t even live in the city.

Third parties commonly use a bit of convoluted election law to get candidates off their ballot lines so they can give it to someone else. Typically, this happens after that candidate loses in a major party primary, in order to prevent them from playing spoiler in the election. The only way to remove a candidate from a ballot line that doesn’t involve moving or dying is to nominate them for another position. Judgeships are the most common position the parties choose, because they’re low profile and candidates don’t need to live in the area they’re running in. “It may be legal, but it's immoral,” Lerner said.

The positions that these third-party non-candidates run for may be obscure but they are consequential. The state Supreme Court in New York City has fairly broad jurisdiction and handles many criminal and civil cases. Elected Supreme Court judges can one day get appointed to the Appellate Division, a higher court with even greater power. 

The practice gained some notoriety when the Working Families Party needed Cynthia Nixon off their gubernatorial ballot line in 2018, after she lost the Democratic primary to Gov. Andrew Cuomo. They ultimately nominated her to run for Assembly, since she legally couldn’t run for a judgeship as a non-lawyer.

Perhaps the most high-profile example of the practice in New York this year is Beth Parlato, who is running on the Conservative line for state Supreme Court in Brooklyn, as well as on the Republican line. Parlato is a former congressional candidate in Western New York who sought to replace former Rep. Chris Collins. The Conservative Party originally backed her, but after she lost the Repbulican primary to Rep. Chris Jacobs, the third party nominated her for a judgeship so it could give its line to Jacobs. 

Justin Sweet is in a similar predicament. Sweet gained the WFP line in his campaign to replace state Sen. David Carlucci in Rockland and Westchester Counties. But he ultimately lost a tough Democratic primary against Elijah Reichlin-Melnick. To avoid playing spoiler, the WFP nominated Sweet for state Supreme Court in Queens, so it could give its ballot line to Reichlin-Melnick. Like Parlato, Sweet does not even live in New York City and is not campaigning for a Supreme Court judgeship.

People often can vote for multiple candidates in state Supreme Court races – in the Queens district Sweet is running in, voters can choose up to nine candidates. And that race has five other WFP candidates. Unlike Sweet and Parlato, these candidates weren’t actually running in the races they were originally nominated for – each were placeholder candidates put on the ballot for other offices by the WFP while it awaited the results of the Democratic primaries so the party could endorse the winner. This prevents both the spoiler effect, and potentially backing the wrong horse.

Kenneth Schaeffer, one of the five placeholders, was originally in the 15th Congressional District race, in the Bronx, with the ballot line now belonging to City Council Member Ritichie Torres. Schaeffer previously was a placeholder in the state attorney general race in 2018. Bob Cohen was in the 3rd Congressional District on Long Island to placehold during the Democratic primary in that district; the WFP line now belongs to Rep. Tom Suozzi. Cohen also previously acted as a placeholder in the 2018 race for the 19th Congressional District in the Hudson Valley.

The other three WFP candidates placeholder candidates running for state Supreme Court in Queens are Joshua Goldfein, whose ballot line was given to Nancy Goroff in the 1st Congressional District on Long Island, and Judith Goldiner, whose ballot line went to Rep. Yvette Clarke in the 9th Congressional District in Brooklyn, and Afua Atta-Mensah, whose ballot line went to Rep. Joseph Morelle in the 25th Congressional District in Western New York. 

The WFP confirmed that all five candidates were placeholders, and that it does not encourage voting for them. “Under New York election law, fielding placeholders is common practice because it's essentially the only way to allow a party to make its choice after the primaries, or to avoid the spoiler effect in the case of endorsing a candidate who loses a primary,” WFP State Director Sochie Nnaemeka said in a statement. “The law does not need to be this complex and we strongly favor reforms to make it easier for candidates who don't want to run anymore to withdraw from the ballot.”

The New City York Bar Association includes a rating for Steven Williams as well, although the WFP failed to get him off the ballot in the 24th Congressional District, where he is still technically running and polling at about 5% despite not campaigning in an incredibly tight race between Democrat Dana Balter and Republican Rep. John Katko.

Candidates like these rarely if ever actually impact the judicial races, but Lerner said that doesn’t make their nominations any less troublesome. “New Yorkers expect that judges are chosen because they're independent, or they have an even temperament and a good knowledge of the law,” Lerner said. “When you have people on the ballot who are there because of political deals to make room for somebody else to run for some office? It undercuts faith in the entire system.” Lerner said even without broad reform to how New York selects judges, state lawmakers could make it easier to remove candidates from the ballot without nominating them for other consequential positions they have no interest in holding, for example by creating a reasonable time frame for candidates to simply withdraw from a ballot line. 

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.