Tuesday is Election Day, but as far as I can tell (and from what I read here) the only election taking place is for judge. I have often said that since I, like most people, have no expertise or knowledge of legal issues, and since judges really ought to be administering the law and not making it, there is no basis for me to know who would be a good judge, and thus who to vote for. Thus, I have always held that judges should be appointed. When showing up to vote for other things, and finding an election for a judge on the ballot, I have generally voted for the person with the fewest ballot lines, out of a general contrariness that objects to the fix being in. Now I’ll have to go out of my way to vote for judge and nothing else, and with only limited knowledge of the office being contested and the people contesting it, that knowledge being discussed below. Should I vote on Tuesday?
One of the people running for judge, evidently, is Mr. Noach Dear, a man I have never me (not that I have had a conversation with any politicos) and know little about. What I do sense, from half paying attention to the local papers over the years, is that he is widely disliked. By some for his positions on symbolic social issues, on which he is in step with the community he has generally represented and out of step by other communities. I don’t much worry about that. And by others because he is seen as an unprincipled opportunist who seeks unearned financial advantages for himself and his backers from government policies, rather than good policies for everyone. That would bother me, if true.
In addition, there have been some accusations or assumptions over the years that Mr. Dear may have participated in some illegalities, though I can’t recall him ever being convicted or tried for anything. And not being tried or convicted is a pretty good record for a Brooklyn pol. A conviction would bother me, but given that running for office against an incumbent is considered a de facto crime in New York State, there is at least the possibility that Mr. Dear has been hounded for doing something they all do. That’s not what I recall him being accused of, but I can’t rule it out.
In addition, the NYC Bar association has found him “unqualified” according to the New York Observer, due to “the candidate’s failure to affirmatively demonstrate that he possesses the requisite qualifications for the court for which he is a candidate.” That sounds serious. But the sitting DA in the Bronx has also been given the same rating, evidently because he failed to show up at the screening committee and kiss its collective behind, or at least that’s what the Observer said. That devalues the “unqualified” rating.
Moreover, whereas I see the two major political parties as “the bastards” and “the other bastards,” based on the policies most of their incumbents have enacted over a couple of decades, Mr. Dear is the designated candidate of the party the majority of my neighbors consider the repository of all that is good in government, the Democrats. And a representative of that particular party, while collecting signatures at a concert in Prospect Park this summer, told me that regardless of what I think of its (meaningless) platform I’m a fool not to sign up as a Democrat In Name Only, because the only real election is the primary, and by the time I show up on Election Day the issue is already decided. “The good guys and the bad guys are both running as Democrats in the primary,” he said, and my November vote is meaningless.
Now I am well aware of the condition of the Brooklyn injustice system. Based, once again, just on what I read in the newspapers, if God Forbid someone who mattered politically decided to sue me for something or other, I would, regardless of the rightness or wrongness of my side of the story, fear the fix would be in. But I don’t see how the election of one judge changes that one way or the other. I’d still be worried, regardless of who wins. Assuming I even find out who wins.
So there you have it. For city and state executive offices I’m a highly educated voter in a frequently meaningful general election. For city and state legislative office I’m a highly educated voter in an almost always meaningless general election. But for judge, I’m a more or less completely ignorant voter in a probably meaningless general election. And unlike the 2009 election, I haven’t received a Campaign Finance Board voter guide to read to help figure out how to cast my meaningless vote.
Leave aside the God, Gays and Guns issues, for which I am unwilling to take the time to walk down the street. Is Noach Dear really so bad that I should take the time to vote against him on Tuesday? And by voting for whom?