"ס"ה nyc פריימערי פארמעסטדאנבאר געווינט
דער דשערי דאנבאר איז א מורדיגער בעל טוב ה פאר אידן בפרט אין ווילי פראדשעקט ווי ער האט פארטערעטען יו דעי או אין אסאך קעיסעס
איז צו באגריסען זיין געווינען
September 18, 2004
Race Shows No Strong Voice Among Brooklyn Democrats
By ANDY NEWMAN
his week's Democratic primaries for five seats on Civil Court in Brooklyn were notable because the Kings County Democratic Party, stung by corruption scandals, refused to endorse any candidates. And the results showed a tight race that seemed to reflect the absence of any dominant voice in Brooklyn Democratic politics.
Of the three winners in the races that were conducted countywide, none were chosen on even half the ballots cast, according to preliminary figures released by the city's Board of Elections.
The winners were Evelyn LaPorte, a former domestic violence prosecutor; Johnny Lee Baynes, a Housing Court judge; and Gerald Dunbar, a labor and tenant lawyer. They were the top three in a field of nine.
With the Democratic Party in Brooklyn beset by corruption scandals involving several of its handpicked judges in the last two years, it chose not to back any candidates. A new, more-independent committee to screen candidates for the party has been formed, but it made no recommendations in the Civil Court races this year.
Brooklyn is overwhelmingly Democratic, and a primary victory all but guarantees victory in November.
The other two judicial primaries held in Brooklyn on Tuesday were for seats decided by voters in local districts. Two lawyers in private practice, Geraldine Pickett and Bernard Graham, won those races.
Whether elected locally or countywide, a Civil Court judge, who is paid $125,000 a year and serves for 10 years, sits on civil cases where less than $25,000 is at stake and on landlord-tenant cases. Larger civil cases are handled in State Supreme Court.
Several veteran observers of Brooklyn Democratic politics said that given the county party's silence, factors that determined the winners this year included ethnic politics and primaries in more high-profile races.
Though perhaps 10 percent of Brooklyn's 800,000 registered Democrats voted, turnout was relatively heavy in the predominantly black district of longtime Representative Major Owens because he was facing a challenge this year (he won).
A primary for State Senate in a mostly black district, in which State Senator Kevin Parker was challenged by former City Councilman Noach Dear, also drew voters.
"The local primaries that drove the turnout this year were in predominantly minority neighborhoods," said City Councilman Lewis Fidler, a longtime party fixture. This helped the top two vote-getters, Ms. LaPorte, a black woman from Puerto Rico, and Mr. Baynes, an African-American, Mr. Fidler said.
County Democratic leaders did endorse judicial candidates this year, but not in unison. Bob Liff, the spokesman for the county Democratic Party, said that endorsements were particularly important in judicial races because voters tend to know less about judicial candidates than they do about other candidates.
Ethics rules sharply restrict the kinds of campaign statements judicial candidates can make and forbid them from soliciting money directly from supporters.
"Running for judge is a strange thing to do," Mr. Liff said. "They're very limited in what they can do, so to that degree, your alliances become more important than your qualifications. They're in a position of basically trying to piggyback onto other politicians' campaigns.
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