| My initial thoughts were mixed. First off, I know our Supreme Court is very much a political institution (even though it's not SUPPOSE to be), but even the lower courts got it right. If they saw something wrong with this, then how could the Supreme Court see nothing wrong at all?
Secondly, guys like Len Lenihan in Erie County and Vito Lopez in Kings County won today. I'm sure our downstate friends have plenty of choice words for Lopez, just as I have many choice words for Lenihan.
But my problem with this is that it is unconstitutional. No matter what the Supreme Court says, no one will ever convince me that this is right or at the very least, that it's "OK."
In the 8th Judicial District, I witnessed a highly qualified candidate (Lynn Clarke) get pushed aside because she didn't play politics enough. The deal was made: Lenihan traded his cross-endorsement of Republican Frank Caruso for Erie County Republican Party chair James Domagalski's endorsement of Democrat Rose Sconiers.
There were several issues with this. For one, even without the Republican Party's endorsement, Sconiers would've been on FOUR lines: The Democratic line, Conservative, Independence and Working Families. The same can apply to the aforementioned Caruso. You take away the Democratic Party's endorsement of Caruso and Caruso still would've been on the GOP line, Conservative, Independence and Working Families lines as well.
The other thing that bothered me was the process. First off, the 8th Judicial District consists of eight counties: Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Genesee, Niagara, Orleans and Wyoming. So when Lenihan and Domagalski met to broker their deal, they were making this decision for all eight counties, not just theirs. So two men decided the candidates that 1,071,390 registered voters in those eight counties could choose from. My county's chairwoman didn't have a say. Genesee County didn't have a say. No one else had a say - except for Erie County.
Also, Lynn Clarke came on my radio show and discussed the process she had to go through to get the Working Families nomination. She had to present her qualifications before the party (and so did the other candidates) in order to get the nomination. She, in fact, received the Working Families line along with Sconiers and Caruso. That, in itself, should tell the whole story.
The Supreme Court can call the current system constitutional all it wants, but it isn't. In fact, the current system urinates on the Constitution and all it stands for. We are supposedly free to vote, express ourselves and organize. Yet, the Supreme Court just told us today that it's okay for backroom deals and egotistical political party bosses to decide what judicial candidates we vote for in November.
There should be a primary and an OPEN process to determine judicial candidates. Right now, nothing of the sort exists. |
