September 03, 2008 07:54 am
—
Cooperstown News Bureau
COOPERSTOWN _ The 2008
election season will formally begin
Tuesday, when Otsego County’s
Conservative voters go to the
polls to select their candidate
to succeed Michael Coccoma as
county judge.
Coccoma was elected a state
Supreme Court justice last November.
On the ballot
for Tuesday are
interim Judge
Jhilmil Ghaleb,
an independent
voter who was
appointed judge
in June, and
John Lambert, a
Republican, who
is the county’s chief assistant district
attorney.
Both candidates reside in
Cooperstown, where Lambert is
in private practice with former
Assistant District Attorney Michael
Trosset. Ghaleb’s private
practice has been based in Richfield
Springs.
Sheila Ross, the county’s Republican
deputy elections commissioner,
said Tuesday that
because the Conservative Party
is relatively small _ about 428
voters out of more than 20,000
in the county _ polling places
will be consolidated next Tuesday.
``We have to do that to try to
save money,’’ Ross said.
All Conservative voters in the
city of Oneonta will vote at the
Foothill Performing
Arts Center. In
the town of Oneonta,
they will vote at the
town hall; in the
town of Otsego, at
St. Mary’s Church;
and in the town of
Worcester, at the
fire hall.
No matter who
wins Tuesday, Ghaleb and Lambert
will be on the general election
ballot. Lambert will be on
the Republican and Independence
parties’ lines; Ghaleb on
the Democratic and Working
Families parties’ lines.
County judges are elected to
10-year terms and earn $119,800
a year.
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