WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – Wednesday Evening,3 of the 8 candidates vying to be New York State Supreme Court Justices for the 5th Judicial District spoke at a panel at Jefferson Community College.
It was hosted by the Thousand Islands Chapter of the Women’s Bar Association of New York. Our Diane Rutherford moderated.
Panelists included Elizabeth Snyder Fortino running on the Democratic and Working Family lines, and James McClusky, on the Republican and Conservative party lines.
One of the questions focused on a proposed state bill that would redistrict some judicial districts, including the 5th district, for the first time since the 1800s. Fortino says she foresees problems arising with the size District 5 would be.
“It’s hard to say one way or the other if I have an opinion on it, but I think it’ll definitely be a change, as Judge McClusky mentions. You know there’s going to be more administration, certainly that’s going to be a cost, and definitely will be difficult for individuals to actually run for the position,” said Elizabeth Snyder Fortino.
McClusky says that redistricting was proposed in the name of diversity, but calls into question the true intent.
“They decided to pass the law, and 2 days later, the law was passed by the legislature. They did no studies to prove these things are going to happen, the one thing that everybody is sure will happen is that in 14 years, New York state will have 25 more democratic judges and 25 fewer republican judges,” said James McClusky.
Democratic candidate Gerard Snyder was supposed to be on the panel, but came down with bronchitis. He sent a representative instead. They gave an opening statement about Snyder but were not allowed to answer questions, as it was deemed unfair to other candidates who were absent but did not have representatives.
Of the 8 candidates running, voters can cast their ballots for up to 4 of them.
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