COLONIE — With Peter Crummey giving up the robes to run for supervisor, all three seats on the Town Court bench are up for election in November.
The Republicans are running two incumbents, Andrew Sommers, who was appointed in 2005 and elected to a full four-year-term a year later, and Norman Massry, who was elected in 2009. Both judges ran unopposed in 2017.
To run for the newly created third vacancy, the Republicans picked Albany County Legislator Jennifer Whalen.
Whalen was elected to the Town Board in 2015 but opted to run for the Legislature instead of second four-year term on the board. She was the assistant attorney general for New York state Department of Law and currently owns the Whalen Group, a real estate firm, and has her own law practice.
The Democrats endorsed Rebekah Kennedy, who used to work in the town attorney’s office and in 2020 was appointed as counsel to the majority on the Albany County Legislature, and David Levy, who is in private practice with the firm Levy and Obstarczyk and who in 2019 ran for Albany County Family Court.
David Green, an attoney who has been on the Town Board since 2013, is looking for the spot and Democrats are ready to endorse him for the robes, said Ryan Horstmyer, the town Democratic Party chairman. Green was elected as a Republican in 2013 but changed his enrollment to Democrat after winning another four-year term in 2017.
The Democrats will have to pick a new candidate for board but they have until the end of the month to fill the vacancy created by Green runing for town court rathe than Town Board.
Now that there is a vacancy, retiring Supervisor Paula Mahan will appoint a replacement to fill Crummey’s spot until the end of this year. If the interim judge wants a four-year term he or she will have to run in November.
With more than 25,000 cases a year, the Colonie Town Court is one the busiest in the state. Judges run for a four-year term and the part time position pays $69,777.
Supervisor Paula Mahan, a Democrat who is retiring at the end of this year, can appoint with Town Board approval a replacement for Crummey through the end of this year. If the person wants a full four-year term, he or she will have to run in November.