Panel reviewing judge candidates
UncategorizedBy: ANDREW J. BERNSTEIN, The Saratogian
SARATOGA SPRINGS - An independent screening panel has reviewed two of three candidates running for City Court judge, and is expected to review the third.
The Independent Judicial Election Qualification Commission in the Fourth Judicial District, which includes Saratoga County, allows judicial candidates the opportunity for a voluntary review. According to the commission’s Web site, the state court system is required to convene the review commission, which appoints 15 members in each district, including lawyers and non-lawyers.
Former City Attorney Matthew J. Dorsey, who has been endorsed by the city GOP Committee, was reviewed and found “qualified” by the committee, as was one of two Democratic candidates, James A. Montagnino.
Another former city attorney, Jeffrey Wait, who received the endorsement from the city Democratic Committee, said that he had not yet submitted the lengthy questionnaire required for consideration by the commission, but expected to do so this week.
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“I will be submitting my questionnaire, and I have no reason to believe that they wouldn’t find me qualified,” Wait said, adding that the commission examines questionnaires on an ongoing basis.
When asked why he hadn’t submitted a questionnaire in the same time frame as his two adversaries, he explained that the commission asks for a great deal of information, which he was in the process of compiling.
“I’ve run into a roadblock because they want a lot of information about clients, cases you’ve worked on, lawyers you’ve worked with and that sort of thing. I don’t have access to all of that because I used to work for another firm, and have since left,” Wait said, noting that he was completing the questionnaire mostly from memory.
Wait, who is running on both the Democratic and Independence party lines, said he would submit petitions today, and said he had collect nearly 700 signatures from Democrats, from whom only 270 are required, and 100 from Independence party voters, from whom only 44 are required.