Republicans on Tuesday won two contested Supreme Court races on Long Island and claimed at least two of four Supreme Court seats in the mid-Hudson Valley, halting Democratic gains in recent judgeship elections in New York City's suburban counties.
Meanwhile, Justice Thomas E. Mercure, a Republican, the only Appellate Division justice up for re-election, won a third term in the 13-county Fourth Judicial District in the northeast corner of the state.
In the previous three elections, five Republican Supreme Court justices serving on the Appellate Division lost re-election bids (NYLJ, Nov. 2).
Westchester District Attorney Janet DiFiore won a second term by a comfortable margin as did Nassau District Attorney Kathleen A. Rice.
In Manhattan, Cyrus R. Vance Jr. coasted to victory with only token opposition after having won a heated three-way Democratic primary in September. Mr. Vance, a partner at Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Iason, Anello & Bohrer, will succeed District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau, who announced in February that he was stepping down after nine terms.
The two Republicans who won contested Supreme Court seats in the Tenth Judicial District on Long Island were incumbent Justice Thomas P. Phelan (See Profile) and District Court Judge Robert A. Bruno.
In District Court races in Nassau and Suffolk counties, Republicans won seven of eight contested races.
With 99 percent of the vote counted in the Ninth Judicial District in the mid-Hudson Valley, Republican incumbent Orazio R. Bellantoni (See Profile) claimed one of the four seats in the five-county district. Two of the remaining three slots were won by Democrats and one by a Republican.
Those three seats were won by Westchester County Court Judge Jeffrey A. Cohen (See Profile), a Democrat with Conservative Party backing; Francesca E. Connolley, a Democrat who was a partner at Malapero & Prisco before her appointment earlier this year by Governor David A. Paterson as an interim Supreme Court justice; and Yonkers City Court Judge Charley Woods, a Republican.
In New York City, Democrats easily won in six contests: three each for Supreme and Civil Court.
Anti-Incumbent Vote
Political experts yesterday attributed the dimmed Democratic showing in the suburbs to an anti-incumbent vote that turned out a county executive in Westchester and had another in Nassau County on the ropes.
In Westchester, three-term Democratic County Executive Andrew Spano was ousted by Republican Rob Astorino, who had about 57 percent of the vote.
Thomas Suozzi, Nassau's two-term executive, is in a virtual dead heat with Republican Edward Mangano. Additionally, New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg was elected by a far narrower margin than most experts had expected.
Looking at the results in the Ninth Judicial District, Mark Weingarten, a former executive director of the Westchester Democratic Party, said "an anti-incumbent" fervor had resulted in the Republicans "first pushback" to a trend that has benefitted Democrats for a number of years.
Based on the results of the last several years, said Mr. Weingarten, of Del Bello Donnellan Weingarten Wise & Weiderkehr in White Plains, "we would have expected to win all the seats." The victory of Justice Bellantoni, as an incumbent, was a "mild upset," but Judge Woods' victory was "a major upset."
Referring to the results in Long Island judicial races, Steven Schlesinger, counsel to the Nassau Democratic Party, said, "We got creamed."
"There was a general malaise among voters against incumbents," said Mr. Schlesinger, of Jaspan Schlesinger in Garden City. "If you were in, they wanted you out."
John E. Ryan, counsel to the Nassau Republican Party, said there is "a lot of frustration over taxes and the economy—that cuts against incumbents."
With no statewide or national races, said Mr. Ryan of Brennan & Donnelly in Floral Park, "turnout was low and Republicans did a better job of pulling out voters than the Democrats."
In New York City yesterday, about 25 percent of registered voters cast ballots. By contrast, in 1989, 60 percent voted when former Mayor David N. Dinkins won election against Rudolph Giuliani, who went on to beat Mr. Dinkins four years later.
Since 2004, Democrats have scored gains in judicial races in the suburban counties in off years as well as those where heated national or statewide races spur turnout (NYLJ. Nov. 9, 2006).
Upstate Races
Justice Mercure, who lives in Hudson Falls, and a second Republican, Schenectady County Surrogate Barry Kramer (See Profile), won the two seats up for grabs in the Fourth Judicial District.
The victory leaves Justice Mercure as the state's longest-tenured Appellate Division justice. Justice Kramer played briefly in the National Basketball Association and has been surrogate for 16 years.
In a victory for the Democrats, Kingston County Court Judge James Gilpatric (See Profile) defeated Albany Attorney Jill Dunn, a Republican, to win a Supreme Court seat in the Third Judicial District, which includes Albany and nearby counties.
Justice James C. Tormey (See Profile), the administrative judge of the Fifth Judicial District, a Republican, won re-election in six-county district in central New York.
Erie County Judge Shirley Troutman (See Profile), a Democrat, won election in the Eighth Judicial District, which includes Buffalo. Judge Troutman was the first black woman to be elected to the County Court in the state when she won in 2002.
In a race for District Attorney in Sullivan County, Republican James Farrell captured nearly 70 percent of the vote in defeating Glenn Kroll. Mr. Farrell, the chief assistant prosecutor, will succeed Republican Stephen F. Lungen, who is stepping down in December after 28 years in office. Mr. Lungen is the second-longest tenured county district attorney in the state behind Mr. Morgenthau.
In Washington County, incumbent District Attorney Kevin Kortright, a Republican, appeared to have survived the loss of his party's line to former district attorney Robert Winn and defeated Mr. Winn while running solely on the Independence line.
In Essex County, Republican incumbent District Attorney Julie Garcia, running as a Democrat after she lost the GOP line to Kristy Sprague, was involved in a too-close-to-call race against Ms. Sprague.
@|Daniel Wise can be reached at dwise@alm.com. Joel Stashenko contributed to this report.
