Wright is Wrong--Again

Manhattan Dems have gone behind closed doors to pick judges.

Highly-qualified candidate excluded from Surrogate race
as Manhattan Democratic boss Assemblyman Keith Wright has damaged the judicial screening process.

Editorial, New York Daily News, 11 March 2012.

Assemblyman Keith Wright, Manhattan’s Democratic county leader, has meddled with the process of choosing judges since taking over in 2009.

Before Wright, screening panelists’ names were made public in advance. He has kept those identities under wraps — hiding them or putting them out belatedly, on illegible lists.

Worse, Wright’s screening panel just reported out only two candidates for an open surrogate judgeship — the most lucrative judicial plum there is — approving a pair of Civil Court judges. The panel could have named three. Left off: The highly qualified John Reddy. As counsel to the public administrator, Reddy is one the top trust and estates lawyers around, and was deemed most highly qualified for surrogate four years ago. What changed? Wright’s panel.

Reddy’s absence fuels suspicion that the semi-secret panel was overtly political. Judicial selection should be about public trust — not partisan spoils.

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Now is the winter of our fiscal discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of Mario;
And all the clouds that lour'd upon our Senate
In the deep bosom of the Catskills buried.