COLONIE — The three Republicans running for three seats on the Town Court bench are leading after Election Day.
Longtime incumbents Norman Massry and Andrew Sommers received the most votes with 11,130 and 10,195, respectively while Jennifer Whalen, an Albany County legislator making her first run for the robes, received 9,306.
David Green, who the Town Board appointed to the bench when Peter Crummey stepped down to run for supervisor, is in a close fourth with 9,035. Green had the Democratic, Conservative and Working Families Party lines. Whalen ran on just the Republican.
Democrats Rebekah Kennedy and Daniel Hurteau received 7,793 and 7,552 votes, respectively.
There are 2,876 absentee ballots that have been returned to the Board of Elections with 1,468 returned by those enrolled in the Democratic Party, 572 by Republicans and 647 by voters not enrolled in any party. Counting is expected to begin next week.
Sommers was appointed in 2005 and elected to a full four-year term a year later and every four years since. The Boston University School of Law graduate has 30 years of civil trial experience in Supreme, Family and Justice courts throughout the Capital District.
Massry was first elected in 2009 and is seeking his fourth term on one of the busiest courts in the state. The 1986 graduate of West Point earned his law degree from the University of New Hampshire. He was awarded the Bronze Star, the Air Medal and the Kuwait Liberation Medal for his service as a U.S. Army helicopter pilot in the Persian Gulf War.
Whalen is a Georgetown University and Albany Law School graduate and was an assistant attorney general for the state Department of Law. She also owns her own Colonie-based real estate company, the Whalen Group, and is a solo law practitioner.
Green, a former Republican and former member of the Town Board, is running for his first full four-year term. The lifelong resident of Colonie graduated from Siena College in 1997 with a degree in accounting and graduated from Albany Law School four years later. He has his own law firm specializing in estate planning, elder law, real estate and taxes.
Colonie judges serve four-year terms and the part time position pays $69,777 per year.
