Who is running for local primaries 2007

kevin_on_putnam

We just got a notice about the primary Sept. 18. I've searched the web to see who is running. The League of Women Voters site just says "judges whose term expires December 2007." A few web searches have turned up nothing. Would love to be a responsible citizen but I have had no luck finding any names or anything about anyone running for judge. Where do you look? and how do you ever find out who won?

arlette

Just a suggestion.....ask community board 2.They should know or contact board of elections.

homeowner

Candidates List

kevin_on_putnam

Thanks homeowner and arlette. The candidates list shows only one page relevant to Brooklyn - 3 races, 6 candidates. No wonder I've seen nothing on this. Seems much more is going on in Manhattan and Queens.

pitu

If you're in the 5th District, there's a chance to vote against Noach Dear becoming a judge. :shock:
That guy is a divisive racist nightmare.

September 7, 2007, 12:47 pm
The 2007 New York City Election. Really.
By Sewell Chan

At a cost of $1.2 million, the New York City Board of Elections this week mailed out orange notices to the city’s 3.8 million registered voters, notifying them about the primary on Sept. 18 and the general election on Nov. 6.

Uh, there’s an election?

Most voters might be forgiven if they have no idea that there is one going on. Except for a surrogate judgeship in Brooklyn, there are virtually no closely contested races this year, the slowest year of the four-year election cycle in New York City.

“Obviously, in terms of activity on the ballot, this is the lightest year of the cycle,” said John A. Ravitz, the executive director of the Board of Elections. Each of the next three years in the cycle has an executive office up for election: president (2008), mayor (2009) and governor (2010).

This year, there are no city, state or federal positions being decided, but there are boroughwide races in every borough except Manhattan.

Three district attorneys are seeking re-election: Robert T. Johnson in the Bronx, who has served since 1989; Richard A. Brown in Queens, who has held the office since 1991; and Daniel M. Donovan Jr. on Staten Island, who was elected in 2003 and is seeking a second term.

None faces significant opposition.

Two City Council members, Mathieu Eugene, a Brooklyn Democrat, and Vincent M. Ignizio, a Staten Island Republican, face special elections in November to fill the unexpired terms of their predecessors, who moved on to higher offices. Neither has a major challenger. (Mr. Eugene already won two special elections, in February and April, but because of quirks in city election law he must stand for office yet again.)

Also, 31 judgeships will be filled in the general election, on the State Supreme Court and the city’s Civil and Surrogate’s Courts.

The primary normally occurs on the second Tuesday in September, and this year, would have fallen on Sept. 11. The attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, famously disrupted the New York City mayoral primary that day. This year would have been the first Sept. 11 primary since then, but the Legislature voted to delay the primary by a week in observance of the 9/11 commemorations.

All told, on Sept. 18, there will be some form of primary in about 3,200 of the city’s roughly 6,200 election districts. The election notice urges voters to call (866) VOTE-NYC to find out if there is a primary in their district. (There is no primary on Staten Island this year, and the elections board is taking out ads in The Staten Island Advance to remind voters there of that fact.) Every polling precinct will be open on Election Day; a general election must be held under state law even if a race is uncontested.

In Brooklyn, there is a competitive Democratic primary for a vacancy on the Surrogate’s Court. The candidates are Diana A. Johnson, a State Supreme Court justice who narrowly lost a race for surrogate two years ago, and ShawnDya L. Simpson, a Civil Court judge and a former Brooklyn assistant district attorney.

The seat is considered a patronage prize, and each candidate has the backing of different Democratic factions within Brooklyn. A number of reform clubs and African-American political leaders have backed Justice Johnson, while Judge Simpson has the support of the Brooklyn Democratic leader, Assemblyman Vito J. Lopez.

Either woman would, if elected, become Brooklyn’s first black surrogate. The Surrogate’s Courts handle wills, adoptions and estates.

In Brooklyn, Noach Dear, a former councilman, is running against a former judge, Karen B. Yellen, for a Civil Court judgeship in the Fifth District.

These races are hardly the stuff of headlines, and yet, there are even more obscure party positions that are on the primary ballot in various sections of the city.

In parts of every borough, except Staten Island, there are contested primary races for Democratic or Republican party offices: seats on state committees and county committees; district leader positions; and delegates and alternate delegates to judicial nomination conventions.

Except for party insiders, most voters are rarely aware of those party races. “I would think that unless a voter has been contacted by someone who is running for county committee or state committee and wants them to come out and vote, it’s going to be tough for them to know who the candidates are,” Mr. Ravitz, a former Republican assemblyman, said.

June O’Neill, the chairwoman of the New York State Democratic Committee, acknowledged that the party races tend to draw only the most committed partisans. “I would suggest that if you are someone who’s involved and active – to the extent you’re a registered Democrat and want to vote in your election – that you would contact your local county committee to get information,” she said.

However low the turnout for party positions, said Lawrence A. Mandelker, an independent election lawyer, the parties still hold clout. “In the old days, the county committee people were responsible for going door to door and bringing out the vote,” he said.

Ms. O’Neill said the party positions are still vital posts. “We raise money, we recruit candidates, we train candidates, we do voter registration, we do outreach, we do issue discussions, we have a Web site, we are the ones that circulate the petitions,” she said.

pitu

It's rather hard to google your way into info about the 5th Civil Court District in Bklyn. This is what I found...

http://dailygotham.com/blog/mole333/brooklyn_politics_this_is_what_is_so_fucked_about_brooklyn_who_can_save_us

Daily Gotham blog wrote:
Well, the race for Civil Court, 5th District, shows that the machine is no better than it once was. Vito Lopez (as well as Brooklyn Clown Marty Markowitz) have chosen as their candidate the man who seems to have run for every position in the city and lost...so now is running for judge. This also-ran is Noach Dear, a man who recently started calling himself "Noah Dear" to sound somehow less Jewish or something. This man, who hasn't won a race since being term limited out of the City Council, is the candidate backed by Vito Lopez and Marty Markowitz for Civil Court Judge in the 5th District.

Problem is, our dear Nocah Dear is not considered qualified. The machine is up to its old tricks of picking unqualified candidates for political expeidency. Vito Lopez thinks by throwing Noach "call me Noah" Dear a bone, they can keep him out of a future State Senate race. Do they care if he is qualified? No! They are currently in the process of shoving him down our throats as if he is a sure win.

But, according to the New York City Bar Association, Noach Dear is NOT QUALIFIED TO BE A CIVIL COURT JUDGE. Let me say that again. Noach Dear was deemed unqualified by the New York City Bar Association to be a Civil Court judge.

Un-fucking-qualified. At least in the huge battle that is the Surrogate Judge race between Diana Johnson and Shawndya Simpson, BOTH candidates have been deemed qualified by the NY Bar Assn.

Brooklyn Eagle wrote: NYC Bar Rates Candidates for Kings County Surrogate’s and Civil Courts
by Brooklyn Eagle ([email protected]), published online 09-04-2007

The New York City Bar Association has released its evaluations of candidates running in the Sept. 18 Democratic primary elections for Kings County Surrogate and Civil Courts — five were approved, and one was denied.

The Committee on the Judiciary of the Association determines whether a candidate possesses the requisite qualifications for judicial office based on criteria such as integrity, impartiality, intellectual ability, knowledge of the law, industriousness, and judicial demeanor and temperament.

For Surrogate’s Court, Diana A. Johnson and ShawnDya Simpson were both approved. For Civil Court, 5th District, Karen Yellen was approved, and Noach Dear was not approved “by reason of the candidate’s failure to affirmatively demonstrate that he possesses the requisite qualifications for the court for which he is a candidate.” Sharen Hudson and Katherine Levine were both approved as candidates for Civil Court, 6th District.

© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007

kevin_on_putnam

Since we're not in district 5, I guess the only contest would be the surrogate judge. I remember voting against Noach Dear in an ancient election in another Brooklyn neighborhood. Funny story about him changing his name: it seems pointless since there isn't a problem with his NAME as such and in any case, removing one letter doesn't even fool you into thinking maybe this is someone else. You just think it's a typo.

pitu

mod note: this is crossposted into the District 5 nabes


thanks for bringing up the topic, Kevin
I was wondering the same thing

pitu

from another thread on Brooklynian

raulism wrote: Judicial primaries generate much less interest than people snooping on fire escapes (see http://www.brooklynian.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=37633), but dear reader, you can have more effect on the outcome in these elections coming up on Sept. 18.

We The People :roll: are going to chose who is going to sit and decide the fates of people's estates. The positions up for grabs have enormous potential for corruption- the Surrogate Court used to be called the Widows and Orphans court, and several honorable justices have faced less than honorable fates when it was discovered that they were profiteering from some very vulnerable victims.

The reform movement is backing Diana Johnson for Surrogate Judge and Katherine Levine for civil court. These are the cleanest and most experienced candidates- I am posting some links to the harsh criticism these candidates have gotten, but they seem to be the best we got.

Diana Johnson has 18 years experience as a judge, versus 2 for her opponent, ShawnDya Simpson. Simpson has also faced a lot of criticism because she lives in New Jersey, and by law she is supposed to live in Brooklyn, which is not a good sign for someone who is supposed to uphold the law. Johnson is supported by our local representatives Tish James and Velmanette Montgomery, though she has also gotten support from some politicians who I don't really like as well, including Diane Gordon, who was caught on tape taking a $500,000 bribe. That's still better than Simpson, who is supported by Vito Lopez, who is carrying the mantle of Clarence Norman, and who just gave Ratner an extra $200,000,000 with no possible benefit to the citizens of New York.

The dynamics are similar for Katherine Levine versus Sharon Hudson. Nobody really knows anything about Hudson, and she has not met with any local clubs or gone before many committees evaluating relative experience. Katherine Hudson has roots with various local groups, and has gotten the endorsement of clubs like CBID and IND. I met Sharon Hudson and asked her to contact me so that my Prospect Heights neighbors could meet her, but she never got in touch with me. Rumor on the street is that she is just being put up by a political operative because of some back room bickering.

To witness some charges and counter charges, please visit
http://dailygotham.com/blog/mole333/brooklyn_politics_this_is_what_is_so_fucked_about_brooklyn_who_can_save_us
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2007/07/brooklyn_surrogate_lit.html
http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=4&id=15258

There's also a discussion about the 5th district here:
http://www.brooklynian.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=392987&sid=7ae4a8fbf2313dbee713fff2d4cb8f77
The 5th District is Windsor Terrace, and not Prospect Heights or Park Slope.

If you're interested in more biased opinions and unfounded rumors, please shoot me a pm.

jamzer

pitu wrote: If you're in the 5th District, there's a chance to vote against Noach Dear becoming a judge. :shock:
That guy is a divisive racist nightmare.

I know enough about Noach Dear to know that he is a professional politician with questionable ethical standards, but a "devisive, racist nightmare"?

Pitu - could you explain?

pitu

Jamzer wrote: [quote=pitu]If you're in the 5th District, there's a chance to vote against Noach Dear becoming a judge. :shock:
That guy is a divisive racist nightmare.

I know enough about Noach Dear to know that he is a professional politician with questionable ethical standards, but a "devisive, racist nightmare"?

Pitu - could you explain?

A little googling will get you lots of info about the vile Mr Dear.
What I had in mind at that particular moment was his comments about the Khalil Gibran School, but Noach Dear has a career full of trying to make points with scumbag tactics.

jamzer

I did Google him and I read plenty that could qualify him as an opportunistic career politician who has had some problems complying with campaign finance laws. I did not see anything that would put him in the "devisive, racist nightmare" category. That was why I asked the question.