NOTE: I am getting emails and calls on this article and am updating as good points are made
As the rest of the nation looks ahead to 2008, and much of NYC is already looking to the apocalyptic 2009 elections, Brooklyn has some judicial races coming up that are proving to be interesting for those of us who are obsessed with local politics. One of those races is for a position that never should have existed, but now that it does, it needs to be freed from the grip of the local corrupt machine.
I know no one who is mourning the departure of Kings County’s second Surrogate judge Seiddio. Rather many suggest he never should have been there in the first place because he never was even remotely qualified except as a loyal tool of the machine (UPDATE: One person says he thinks Seddio has practiced probate law in private practice, which would certainly be a qualification beyond mere cronyism. I have not been able to confirm this, so far finding only bankruptcy law listed for Seddio, but it certainly is possible). And many say the position he filled, a second Surrogate judicial position in Kings County, should never have been created either.
The Surrogate Court handles all probate and estate proceedings in the county. Most counties have one. Manhattan has two. Until recently, Brooklyn only had one. Brooklyn’s second seat was created in a last minute frenzy of the 2005 legislative session in Albany by those most infamous of three-men-in-a-room, then-Governor Pataki, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno. It was part of a slew of new positions they created for purely political reasons, mostly to give Pataki new plums to give to his cronies. The creation of this position was seen by many as the epitome of Albany dysfunction.
The dysfunction continued further as the voters were denied the chance to even elect the new Surrogate position in Brooklyn as the local Democratic machine greedily grabbed the plum for it’s own crony…Seddio. Seddio was an unqualified political crony of Clarence Norman and Vito Lopez, the Laurel and Hardy of Brooklyn corruption: different styles but equally corrupt.
Seddio, under suspicion of corruption, though claiming ennui as his reason, is fleeing the second Surrogate court to ringing peals of ridicule…leaving a vacancy. This time, the voters get to have their say and it has become far more of an interesting political show than I had ever expected.
Initially I come down on the side of the Daily News in this one. In their May 5th editorial, the Daily News expressed the wish that the Assembly come to its senses and reverse the legislation the most infamous of three-men-in-a-room had concocted. The loss of the second Surrogate seat in Brooklyn would free up resources for other judicial seats that are overstretched and in desperate need of new judges. Eliminating the second Surrogate seat seems to be the most logical option in my mind. But, we do HAVE a second Surrogate seat to fill and for the first time since its creation the voters get to decide. THAT at least is progress. (UPDATE: Someone I know who has some limited experience with probate court in NY says that a second seat for Brooklyn to match Manhattan's 2 seats was appropriate and helpful. Whether the resources would be better spent elsewhere is still an issue, but Brooklyn's probate court was quite probably in need of an upgrade...though not an upgrade of corruption as it turned out to be)
I had planned to take it easy in 2007, leaving the judicial elections largely alone and focusing on the ever-imploding national Republican fiasco. But that was not to be. I all began with a few feelers from people I knew from the CD-11 race. People who I had previously allied with and people who I had been opposite to in the legendary CD-11 race were asking me about the race, cajoling me to take a look at their candidate. So, in the end, I started talking in some depth with people I knew and respected. I chose some pretty diverse people, including ones I know do not see eye to eye on much. I chose some I have always been allied with and some who I have verbally sparred with publicly. Interestingly, I found, with some differences in detail, that all my disparate sources, spanning my previous CD-11 cast of allies and opponents, largely agreed about the candidates for the Surrogate court battle of 2007.
Robert Miller was often cited by my sources as having the best overall qualifications, but he also has the strongest ties with the corrupt local machine, both in its past and present incarnations. One person in particular I talked to saw supporting Miller as a chance to finally join with the machine in supporting the best candidate. He sees Miller as the way to distance judicial races from machine politics. Well, I, and most others I talked to, disagree to say the least. First of all, the machine’s faults do not begin and end with the fact that they so often appoint completely unqualified people (Seddio being the most cogent example). Vito Lopez is a bully and my mommy taught me to stand up to bullies. The Brooklyn machine has, first under Clarence Norman, then perhaps more effectively under Vito Lopez, made a mockery of democracy in Brooklyn in much the same way Republicans have tried to do on a national level. Now I have always made clear that, sometimes, good people find themselves allied with the machine for various reasons, and just because the machine supports someone doesn’t make them a bad person. But it is a red flag and the more active the involvement a person takes in the machine the bigger the red flag. In Miller’s case the red flag raised by his machine connections gets bigger the more I look. Robert Miller isn’t just a good candidate that Vito Lopez picked to fill a vacancy. Miller isn’t Vito’s attempt to shed the Clarence Norman machine corruption (UPDATE: for those who want a reminder about Vito Lopez's corruption, go here [1]). Miller has been close to the machine for years. Robert Miller was the trustee of Clarence Norman's legal defense fund. Before that he had done the same favor to Dov Hikind. These are not people I find appealing and shows no real independence on Miller’s part. Miller has consistently been allied with sleaze (UPDATE: one of my sources wishes to correct me here: Hikind isn't sleaze...he's scum. I stand corrected. But everyone agrees that Clarence Norman was sleaze). Is this the kind of qualification Miller has to be a judge? Isn’t this the kind of “qualification†that Brooklyn reformers have been fighting against? Perhaps his on-paper resume looks good, but the rap sheets of his allies, past and present, perhaps are just as long as his resume. I was willing to consider Miller as a good guy in bad company until I saw his alliance with the machine is not something new. It is his pattern. So I say FEH! to Miller’s qualifications. And, since Miller has never even been a judge, I am not sure what exactly makes him most qualified.
Leo Beitner is also billed as well qualified, having served in the Surrogate office for many years. But this means he also is tainted by past Surrogate scandals, having worked for the first Surrogate seat during the infamous Michael Feinberg tenure. Feinberg was removed from the bench in 2005 in a scandal that brought calls for the elimination of the Surrogate court altogether…calls that were, of course, answered by Pataki’s creation of a second seat. I have also heard that his views on social issues tend towards the conservative, which is not appealing to me at all. Add to that that his support seems very limited, and you have a no-starter here. Too conservative, too tied to earlier corruption and too little support.
Bernie Graham is perhaps the nicest of the candidates. And I can vouch for that having known him. Everyone I talked to expressed a liking for him, but they just as unanimously felt he was the least qualified at this time. Graham lacks the gravitas for the bench just yet and needs to build his resume. Furthermore, his candidacy is seen as an attempt by a nearly powerless, and soon to be even more powerless, Marty Markowitz to flex his muscles. It seems to be part of the same flexing of Marty’s muscles as the recent attack on Community Board 6 that I reported on. Now I want to emphasize that Markowitz’s support does not necessarily reflect ill on Bernie Graham himself, and perhaps in the future Graham would be a good candidate. But since Marty is spending more time building enemies than friends these days, he can’t exert himself by backing a candidate that is widely seen as too new to fit the job. I do hope, however, that Bernie comes out wiser and more ready for future runs and not too tarnished by Marty’s ham-handed tactics. As the candidate with the least taint of Brooklyn machine corruption, Bernie has some appeal. But not now, and not as Marty’s muscle.
This leaves Diana Johnson. I remember talking about Diana after hearing her speak in the past. The bottom line was that people liked her, found her smart and qualified, considered supporting her, but worried about past machine connections. In some ways the same thing applies this time around with the one exception that Johnson is NOT the machine-supported candidate this time around. Johnson has been a housing Court Judge, a Civil Court Judge from 1995 to 2000, and State Supreme Court Judge since 2001. To many she is best known for her intensely rancorous race for the first Surrogate Court against Margarita López Torres, which pitted Brooklyn progressives against Vito Lopez and the machine. The flip side of this, though, is that Johnson came very close to already being Surrogate. Several people I know among Margarita López Torres’ supporters feel that, the epic 2005 battle between Diana and Margarita aside, Johnson should have filled the second Surrogate seat rather than Seddio in the first place. Even most people I know supporting other candidates list Johnson as their second choice. She seems to be attracting support across the previously warring CD-11 camps that dominated the blogs in 2006, and so could potentially be a way to move on from that race. I have been impressed with who is supporting her and why, given past history.
I have yet to meet these candidates during this year’s race, and I am hearing rumors a.) that one or two of the above may not be running and b.) that one or two other candidates may run. One person told me Bernie Graham isn’t actually running (poor Marty!) and another source suggested that State Supreme Court Justice Anthony Cutrona may run. (UPDATE: One source tells me Cutrona's poor health would prevent him from running). So I am not ready to declare definitively, but based on current information, I lean towards Diana Johnson as the best combination of qualifications and supporters with Bernie Graham being my second choice. Miller seems to have the worst baggage and to be the least independent of the candidates. And Beitner is likely to be remembered as “Beitner who?†come election day.
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