Queens Dems to pick Supreme Court candidates

The Queens County Democratic Party’s judicial delegates will meet thursday evening to vote on the candidates the party will support in the november races for supreme Court. Eagle file photo by Jacob kaye

By Jacob Kaye

The Queens County Democratic Party’s judicial delegates will meet on Thursday night to select the five judicial candidates who will run on their ballot line in the November race for Queens Supreme Court.

The party’s delegates are largely expected to select Judges Cassandra Johnson, Karen Lin, Peter Kelly, Scott Dunn and Jessica Earle-Gargan as the candidates who will run with the party’s endorsement in November, a party official confirmed to the Eagle. The five candidates will each run for one of the five vacancies on the bench in the borough’s trial court.

The party’s judicial convention, which takes place every year in August, is largely a pro forma affair. Candidates who applied or who were nominated by local district leaders are selected for interviews with the party’s chairperson, Congressman Gregory Meeks.

Then, led by Meeks, the party’s executive committee selects the candidates who will get a vote from the party’s 72 judicial delegates at the convention. It’s rare that more candidates are nominated than there are vacancies. It’s equally rare that any candidate brought up for a vote is not approved.

Judicial delegates are often not made aware of the names of the candidates they will be voting on at the convention more than a couple of hours before it begins. As of Thursday morning, delegates had yet to be made aware of the candidates.

Last year, the party released the names and resumes of each of the judges who were applying for the party’s nomination several days before the convention online. The increase in transparency came amid a push for a more open process from a group of progressive judicial delegates who were members of the New Reformers.

Only two New Reformers were elected as judicial delegates this year.

Check back with the Eagle on Friday for more on the party’s judicial convention.