February 13, 2012 · www.gothamgazette.com |
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The Race ...
Brooklyn Surrogate's Court
Know about something you don't see here? Let us know at campaign05@gothamgazette.com
General Election Results
Margarita Lopez Torres
Frank Seddio
Primary Results
Margarita Lopez Torres
The Incumbent:
There is no Incumbent posted for this race.
General Election Challenger(s):
Margarita Lopez Torres
Primary Election Challenger(s):
Diana Johnson
Lawrence Knipel
Margarita Lopez Torres
Feature Articles ...
Surrogate's Court And Why It Should Go
July 4, 2005
The removal of Brooklyn Surrogate's Court Judge Michael Feinberg does not end a system that allows judges, lawyers and politicians to loot money from widows and orphans.
Read article
The Incumbent:
There is no Incumbent posted for this race.
Challenger(s):
Diana Johnson | Dem |
Diana Johnson has served as a State Supreme Court Justice since 2001. She was a housing Court Judge from 1991 to 1995, and a Civil Court Judge from 1995 to 2000.
Lawrence Knipel | Dem |
Lawrence Knipel has served as a judge for the past 15 years. He has served as a Supreme Court Judge since 1998. He was a Civil Court Judge from 1991 to 1997.
Margarita Lopez Torres | Dem |
Margarita López Torres served on the Civil Court from 1993 to 1996. In 1999, she was assigned to the New York State Family Court where she presided in child protective, custody, and family offense parts. Assigned to the Criminal Court in 2001, she currently presides over a trial part.
Campaign Trail ...
Below are the latest Campaign Trail items for the Brooklyn Surrogate's Court race. For the full Campaign Trail archive, go here
Judge: Surrogate Race Result Stands
November 1, 2005
Surrogate Court candidate Margarita Lopez Torres finally claimed victory last night, beating the Brooklyn Democratic machine-backed candidate.A two-sentence decision from federal Judge Raymond Dearie released yesterday dismissed a last-ditch effort to overturn the result of the Sept. 13 primary, which Lopez Torres won by 102 votes.
(Daily News)
Recount Ordered In Brooklyn Surrogate's Court Race
October 25, 2005
A reform candidate will have to wait a little longer before she can take over Brooklyn's patronage-riddled Surrogate Court — and may not get there at all now that a recount has been ordered in the bitter judgeship battle. "It's disappointing," said Civil Court Judge Margarita Lopez Torres, an underdog who eked out a 102-vote win last month over Supreme Court Justice Diana Johnson, the Democratic machine's chosen candidate. (NY Post)
Suit Filed in Surrogate Court Race
October 5, 2005
In a last ditch effort to block the apparent Election Day victory by Margarita Lopez Torres, the Brooklyn Democratic Party machine has filed a lawsuit alleging massive voter fraud in the race for Brooklyn Surrogate Court judge. The suit charged that hundreds, if not thousands, of votes were forged to give Lopez Torres, a reformer, her 102-vote win over Diana Johnson, the candidate backed by the party.
Margarita Lopez Torres Appears to Have Won Brooklyn Surrogate Court Race
September 21, 2005
A recount showed Margarita Lopez Torres with 90 more votes than runnerup Judge Diana Johnson in the Brooklyn Surrogate Court race, and Torres was expected to win barring an influx of absentee ballots before the midnight deadline last night, said Elections Board spokesman Christopher Riley.
(New York Daily News)
In Surrogate Races, 1 Win, 1 Recount
September 15, 2005
Kristin Booth Glen, a former dean of the City University School of Law, won the Democratic Party primary on Tuesday night for the powerful if little-known post of Manhattan surrogate. But the contest for Brooklyn surrogate in Brooklyn remained in flux, with a recount likely to begin today. (Daily News) (New York Times)
Amsterdam News Endorses Johnson
September 8, 2005
For Brooklyn's Surrogate Court we endorse Diana A. Johnson. She is a woman of integrity and can be trusted. Her 20 years of legal and judicial experience as justice of the Supreme Court in the state of New York, in addition to judge of the Civil and Housing Courts in New York, give her excellent experience, which is required to be a Surrogate in Brooklyn. (Amsterdam News)
New York Times "Enthusiastically" Endorses Magarita Lopez Torres
September 4, 2005
There are two Surrogate's Court seats to be filled this fall in Brooklyn. But voters in the Sept. 13 primary have been granted a say in filling only one. In a disgraceful backroom deal, Albany recently created a second judgeship and timed it so that party regulars, not voters, would get to choose the candidate who will appear on the sure-to-win Democratic line in November.
A veteran Civil Court judge, Ms. Torres would start on Day 1 of her tenure to reorganize the court to serve the people as it is meant to.
These shenanigans make it all the more important to choose a candidate of proven independence from those who have long treated the Surrogate's Court as their personal cookie jar. Of the three candidates, only one fits the bill - Margarita Lopez Torres. A veteran Civil Court judge, Ms. Torres would start on Day 1 of her tenure to reorganize the court to serve the people as it is meant to.
Her rivals... close ties to the clubhouse do not bode well for achieving the necessary clean break. We enthusiastically endorse Ms. Lopez Torres. (New York Times)
Daily News Endorses Lopez Torres For Brooklyn Surrogate
September 4, 2005
Democratic primary voters in Brooklyn and Manhattan have a rare opportunity to elect surrogates, the judges who oversee the estates of the dead - a mother lode of patronage spoils. The Daily News endorses Margarita Lopez Torres in Brooklyn and Kristen Booth Glen in Manhattan because they appear most likely to remain above cronyism.
Brooklyn Dems get to pick a surrogate because the Commission on Judicial Conduct bounced party hack Michael Feinberg from the bench for letting a pal siphon millions of dollars from dead people's estates - malfeasance that was exposed by this newspaper. The three contenders for the spot are Lopez Torres, a Civil Court judge, and Supreme Court Justices Larry Knipel and Diana Johnson.
Lopez Torres has demonstrated competence on the bench while warring with the Democratic organization, and she promises reforms like using either court staff or rotating private lawyers to handle probate work. So she gets the nod. Knipel, who gets high marks for legal ability, and Johnson promise to limit political influence on lucrative court appointments, but both played footsie with the party to get their judgeships. (Knipel's wife is a Democratic district leader, and his campaign is backed by two retired judges who both testified as character witnesses on behalf of the ousted Feinberg.)
Citizens Union Backs Hynes, Lopez Torres
August 24, 2005
An influential watchdog group is backing Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes for reelection - despite misgivings about his integrity...The Citizens Union also backed Judge Margarita López Torres in her campaign to take the seat of disgraced Surrogate Court Judge Michael Feinberg, calling her the "clear reform candidate."
The Citizens Union nod is a valuable endorsement, said Baruch College public affairs professor Doug Muzzio. "It's the original good government group in New York," Muzzio said. "Their endorsement carries weight with opinion makers who then might influence voters."
(Daily News)
Dirty Politics in Brooklyn Judicial Race
August 11, 2005
Clarence Norman's replacement candidate for the office of Brooklyn Surrogate's Court is a protégé, Supreme Court Justice Diana Johnson, who attends Clarence Norman Sr.'s First Baptist Church in Crown Heights. He has a backup candidate, Judge Lawrence Knipel, who has gotten good marks on the bench but whose independence has been questioned since his wife is a district leader and Norman loyalist. The third candidate is civil court judge Margarita López Torres, who has been tilting her lance at Norman's machine ever since he refused to back her for re-election in 2002. The reason? López Torres refused to accept a political appointee as her law clerk
(Village Voice)
Judge Loses Seat After Showing 'Shocking Disregard' for Law
July 1, 2005
In a harshly worded opinion, New York's Court of Appeals Wednesday ended Brooklyn Surrogate Michael H. Feinberg's judicial career. It held that his awarding of millions of dollars in attorney fees to a friend without demanding the affidavits required by law constituted removable misconduct. The court ensured that Feinberg's successor will be chosen through a Sept. 13 primary. Three candidates had their hats in the ring Wednesday for the Democratic nomination to fill the vacancy: Brooklyn Supreme Court Justices Diana A. Johnson and Lawrence S. Knipel and Civil Court Judge Margarita Lopez Torres. Aides to all three judges confirmed that they will begin the process of gathering the 4,000 petition signatures needed to qualify for the primary. The trio faces a truncated petitioning period because primary candidates for other offices were legally permitted to begin circulating petitions on June 7. (New York Law Journal)
July 1, 2005
Michael Feinberg, the former Kings County Surrogate judge who got kicked off the bench this week by unanimous vote of New York's highest state court. Feinberg's expulsion has touched off a scramble to elect a replacement Surrogate's Court judge this fall. As is often true in Brooklyn, the path to power runs through First Baptist Church of Crown Heights, a 5,000-member congregation whose pastor is Clarence Norman Sr., the father of Assemblyman Clarence Norman Jr., the Brooklyn Democratic chairman.
The church's support - and Norman's - will likely go to Supreme Court Justice Diana Johnson, a longtime church member running for surrogate. Another Supreme Court judge in the race is Lawrence Knipel, the husband of District Leader Lori Knipel.
Meanwhile, most good-government types are lining up behind Margarita Lopez-Torres, who has run maverick races for Civil and Supreme Court against Norman's machine in recent years, and in the process turned into a kind of Joan of Arc of reform in the borough.
(Daily News)
Full Brooklyn Surrogate's Court Campaign Trail Archive
Brooklyn Surrogate's Court Campaign Trail in RSS format. 

