Albany Beat — October column — The Jewish Press

JBizTechValley Reader News Bulletin: Entrepreneurs and jewish business owners can find ways to save money and reduce expenses. Check with one of these providers and see if if savings on fees and rates are available to you.

Published: October 14, 2015

There are few candid statements a judicial candidate or justice can make publicly. Criticizing an opponent is not one of them, according to the canons of judicial ethics. A judicial candidate or justice can speak glowingly about his or her own accomplishments but cannot denigrate an opponent’s accomplishments or alleged lack of same.

In a race for state Supreme Court in the Third Judicial District between Norman Massry, who is Jewish, and Christina Ryba, who is not, such a case occurred. In a letter sent by Ryba to her supporters, the Democratic hopeful stated: “Certainly, I believe the average voter or judicial delegate can tell the difference between traffic court litigation and Supreme and federal court litigation.”

This raised many eyebrows in the legal community and beyond because Massry has been a town justice for nearly six years in the Albany suburb of Colonie. He presides over traffic cases. Other types of cases in town court include felony arraignments and misdemeanor trials. While no ethics violations were filed against Ryba, it certainly skirted the line of inappropriate language.

Both candidates tell potential voters about how fair, compassionate, understanding, and impartial they will be if elected and pledge justice for all.

The Third Judicial District, a seven-county region, extends from the Pennsylvania border to the Massachusetts border. This includes Sullivan, Ulster, Schoharie, Rensselaer, Columbia, Greene, and Albany counties.

If elected, Massry, 50, would replace Leslie Stein, who was recently appointed to the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals. He would be the only Jewish jurist among seven in the Third Judicial District.

If elected, Ryba, 39, would be the first African-American jurist to sit in the Third Judicial District. Ryba is currently an attorney with the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division where she works in the Motions Department reviewing lower court decisions and making recommendations to the justices of the Appellate Division.

In New York State, judicial candidates for state Supreme Court do not have to circulate nominating petitions like all other candidates. Instead, petitions are circulated in June with the names of party loyalists who want to be a part of the system when the judicial nominating convention convenes in September to choose who will run for state Supreme Court.

This year, Democrats and Republicans met separately, an hour apart, at the Albany County Courthouse on Thursday, September 24, to choose their nominees. The Republicans lined up behind Massry while the Democratic delegates anointed Ryba as their choice. The Conservative and Reform parties backed Massry.

In a move viewed as an insult to Massry and the Jewish community, the Independence Party backed Ryba during a meeting on Yom Kippur. On Shabbos, September 26, Ryba accepted the nomination of the Working Families Party.

For the past month, Massry has been cultivating the Jewish vote in the Catskills enclaves of Hunter and Tannersville in Greene County; Kingston, Kerhonkson, Woodstock, New Paltz, and Ellenville in Ulster County; and Woodridge, Woodbourne, Fallsburg, South Fallsburg, Rock Hill, Monticello, Swan Lake, and Liberty in Sullivan County.

On the campaign trail Massry touts his military experience as a 1986 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and University of New Hampshire School of Law (formerly the Franklin Pierce Law Center). From 1986 through 1991 Massry served as an aviation officer in the army’s First and Second Infantry Divisions and was awarded the Air Medal, Army Commendation Medal, and Kuwait Liberation Medal for meritorious service as an army helicopter pilot during the Gulf War. He is a member of the Jewish War Veterans.

The New York State Supreme Court is the trial level court of general jurisdiction. In this court, civil actions – personal injury lawsuits, medical malpractice cases, real property disputes, matrimonial actions (including divorces), and breach of contract actions (including mortgage foreclosures) – are heard.

State Supreme Court judges serve 14-year terms.

* * * * *

Economist, author, and former talk show host Larry Kudlow spoke to the annual meeting of the New York Republican State Committee last month in Albany.

The self-proclaimed Reagan supply-sider said he likes the big tent philosophy espoused by the 40th president.

“We can disagree on matters of conscience, morality and religion. I get that. I’m a pro-life Catholic but that’s not the issue,” he said. “I don’t feel like having this fight all over again. I don’t. [I believe in a] big tent, there’s room for everybody. There’s room for Catholic conservatives like myself, and there’s room for Log Cabin [gay] Republicans also.”

The rest of his message was simple and basic. “You [Republicans] have to remind voters that it is in their own self-interest to choose the party of free enterprise and you have to remind everybody that you are the party of free enterprise, not redistribution and not handouts,” he said.

Kudlow, 68, was born Jewish but converted to Catholicism nearly two decades ago after struggling with alcoholism and drug abuse. A Connecticut resident, he is strongly considering a run against U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).

* * * * *

The 39-member Albany County legislature is poised to get a Jewish member, the only one. Last month, Sam Fein, 25, a Newton, Massachusetts native, won a primary in a minority district that runs along the Hudson River in downtown Albany. This was the original Jewish community in Albany dating back to the 1880s.

Fein says his great-grandparents moved to the area after fleeing Eastern Europe, mostly Lithuania and the Ukraine, in the early 1900s. Fein, a 2012 Union College graduate, works in the New York State Assembly writing news releases for members in the Democratic majority.
Continue reading: 1 2 All Pages

About the Author: Marc Gronich is news director of Statewide News Service. He also operates the website JBizTechValley.com. He has been covering government and politics since 1981. His Albany Beat column appears monthly in The Jewish Press.