Today (Friday’s) New York Law Journal (no link available) has a story about the possibility that Governor Spitzer, State Legislative leaders, the Brennan Center, Bar Associations and others may have reached an agreement on a replacement for judicial conventions.
The proposal is basically the one I described in an earlier post.
Each Party would have a convention in May or early June. Candidates for Supreme Court who receive 50%+1 of the vote of the delegates would automatically be placed on the ballot as the Party’s endorsed choice. Candidates who received 25% could also run and candidates who did not receive 25% or more could then petition to get on the ballot.
However one of the parties apparently thinks this system is too democratic. According to the Law Journal, Corporation Counsel Michael Cardozo said that Mayor Bloomberg is only willing to support this as long as it is limited to candidates who receive 25% at the convention and not allow candidates to petition.
I don’t understand this position. I can understand his earlier one in favor of appointments or merit selection but how can he favor primaries for a few candidates but not all who want to run?