According to Columbia County Democratic Committee members in attendance, attorney Heidi Cochrane of Hillsdale was endorsed over Brian Herman of Copake to be the party’s 2022 nominee for State Supreme Court justice, by a weighted vote of nearly 2-to-1.
A third candidate, Mark Portin of Ghent, dropped out just before the vote, but not before giving a speech to complain about what he apparently considered an overly-elaborate selection process. (Portin’s close friend Cheryl Roberts similarly sought a judicial nomination several years ago, also without success.)
Election to the State Supreme Court for the 3rd Judicial District bestows a 14-year term upon the victor. New York has a whopping 324 justices serving in 14 districts. Despite the name, it is not the State’s highest court; that would be the Court of Appeals.
Cochrane’s party nomination still has to go before the larger Democratic convention for the district, which sprawls across several counties; and then she has to run in the November General Election. By a Tammanyesque tradition, each county Democratic Committee in the district takes a turn selecting a judicial candidate across multiple cycles, rather than finding the best candidate districtwide ... And this time it is Columbia’s turn.
During the week prior to the vote, it was rumored that Herman might continue to seek the nomination even if the CCDC rejected him, but it is unclear if he intends to follow through on that threat.
Herman, who campaigned aggressively and negatively for the nod, was seen leaving the meeting prior to the vote and was not spotted afterward. The vote was secret, but based on remarks by members his scattered support appeared to come primarily from Copake, Hudson and Stuyvesant. Encomia from Abdus Miah, Lee Jamison and Malcolm Nance failed to carry the day.
No word of a Republican candidate has reached this site’s ears.
