Judge Brian DeJoseph has earned the Conservative Party nomination in his bid for reelection to the New York State Supreme Court.
DeJoseph’s name will appear on Row C this year along with other highly qualified Conservative candidates. This position will appear on ballots in Onondaga, Oswego, Jefferson, Lewis, Oneida and Herkimer counties.
“DeJoseph was selected for his vast knowledge and experience when it comes to adjudicating Supreme Court cases,” the Conservative Committee said in a release. “He has served on the bench for 33 years, starting in Syracuse City Court where he was first elected in 1981. He became the supervising judge for the city court in 1987. He was first elected to the New York State Supreme Court in 2000. In April of this year, his qualifications earned him an appointment to the Appellate Division. He has been rated as highly qualified to serve as a Supreme Court justice by many judicial review committees.”
DeJoseph’s nomination to the Conservative line guarantees him a spot on the ballot that was otherwise in danger. He generally runs on the Democrat line, but two of the Assembly districts that make up the Fifth Judicial District failed to secure delegates for the Democratic Judicial Nominating Convention.
In New York, Supreme Court candidates, unlike other elected officials, are not nominated directly. Instead, the political party must convene a judicial nominating convention made up of delegates from each assembly district within the judicial district. The delegates are assigned according to the party’s vote total in the last governor’s election.
In 2011, Democratic judicial candidates sought to invalidate the Independence Party’s judicial nominating convention claiming that the number of delegates violated the election law’s proportional representation requirement. Of the possible 18 delegates, the Independence Party only named 12. The missing delegates came from Assembly Districts that had higher vote totals at the last governor’s race. A court in the state capitol agreed and invalidated the Independence Party’s Supreme Court candidates. The move came back to hurt the Dems last year, when candidates James Romeo and Jean Larson were removed from the ballot after Dems failed to name delegates in six of the 12 districts. They failed to do so again this year, endangering DeJoseph’s reelection.
Republicans to challenge DeJoseph
Meanwhile, DeJoseph will have a Republican opponent. Republican delegates from the Fifth Judicial District
have unanimously selected Judge Robert P. O’Leary as their candidate for New York State Supreme Court.
O’Leary has served as a local justice for 22 years. He was first elected to the village justice position in the village of Fayetteville in 1992, and he currently serves as Manlius town justice. He is in his fourth term. He also has a private law firm in Manlius.
DeMarco opens campaign HQ
Republican Rob DeMarco, who is running for the 127th Assembly District seat, held a grand opening ceremony for his campaign headquarters. The office is located in the Herb Philipson’s plaza, off of Route 57, at 7421 Oswego Road in Liverpool.
“I am very excited to hold the official opening of my campaign headquarters and invite my neighbors, friends, supporters and media of the 127th Assembly District to learn more about me and my candidacy,” said DeMarco. “My hometown team is eager to engage in my final push to become your next assemblyman. I am incredibly humbled by the support I have received from them and from the people I have met around the district.”
