Incumbent State Supreme Court Judge Charles Wood By Dan Murphy
On June 9, we reported on the reelection campaign of State Supreme Court Judge Charlie Wood. Judge Wood was elected in 2009 as a republican. In 2019, Wood switched parties and is now running for reelection as a democrat. (https://yonkerstimes.com/political-agendas-ethics-and-judicial-races-in-westchester/).
In that story, several Westchester democrats supported Wood’s reelection, and reaffirmed his pro-choice views. Since then, we have received several emails and comments from Progressive Westchester democrats who are still opposed to Wood’s reelection as a democrat.
Shannon Powell, co-founder of Westchester Indivisible, said, “Wood is a Republican who changed parties in 2019 to have the best chance of being re-elected. He is not a Democratic incumbent – he is a Republican and Conservative Party incumbent who has not been previously vetted by Democrats. Wood supporters might play a game of semantics with his controversial decisions but the Democratic base in blue Westchester wants to elect judges who reflect their values. Citizens for a Democratic Majority – and many party leaders – are saying that Wood does not pass that test.”
A group of Progressive Westchester Democrats, Citizens for a Democratic Judiciary, circulated a petition against Judge Wood’s reelection as a democrat. The petition signed by more than 1,000 democrats, reads “We believe Judge Charles D. “Charley” Wood should not be a nominee for New York State Supreme Court on the Democratic Party ballot line. The State Supreme Court is the pipeline for higher court positions, which are filled by appointment and do not come back to the voters to decide. Therefore, it is appropriate and necessary to scrutinize Charles Wood’s background and decisions as a sitting judge.
● Wood is neither an incumbent nor proven Democrat. From 1999 to 2005, Wood served as Counsel to Nicholas A. Spano, who was the third highest ranking member of the State Senate Republican Conference and past Chair of the Westchester County Republican Committee. In 2009, he was elected to his current 14-year term on the Republican, Conservative, and Independence party lines. He did not change his enrollment to Democrat until 2019—notably, after Westchester County and the 9th Judicial District had become more favorable to Democratic candidates. This April, he told a journalist that “party switches in Westchester County are kind of par for the course.”
“The nominating convention for the 9th Judicial District, in which the Democratic Party’s nominees will be formally designated to the ballot, is not until August. In the current field of candidates are people who have consistently espoused and upheld Democratic values. Charles Wood is not one of them. As Chair Suzanne Berger recently said about this process, ours is a political decision. And so, we call upon the Westchester County Democratic Party to evaluate all qualified candidates and come to a consensus regarding who among them have the ability not only to be good judges—but good Democratic judges.”
The Hastings-on-Hudson Democratic Committee released a statement on June 9 which read, “At our meeting on June 7, 2023, the Hastings Democratic Committee voted to oppose the candidacy of Judge Charles D. Wood in the race for N.Y. State Supreme Court, Ninth Judicial District. The current field includes ten candidates recommended by the Judicial Screening Committee of the Westchester County Democratic Committee (WCDC).
“We encourage our fellow Democrats to support two other candidates from among that list for the open seats on the bench. We are especially disturbed by Wood’s actions against two individuals during this year’s campaign. In the first matter, Wood filed an apparently meritless ethics complaint against another judicial candidate, Judge Veronica Hummel, seeking that she be “removed from office.” Although such a filing is confidential, news of it somehow reached the WCDC Judicial Screening Committee members by the time they met a few days later. Judge Hummel was denied their recommendation, though she had received it the year before, and she subsequently withdrew from the race.
“In the second matter, Wood threatened legal action against Catherine Lederer-Plaskett, of WCLA – PAC, for disseminating factual errors about his employment history. It turned out that the errors he cited were due to omissions made for “brevity” by Wood himself in his campaign résumé. In both cases, Wood’s use of his position to bully his opponents is incompatible with the conduct this Committee expects of our judicial candidates and judges.
“Further, the Hastings Democratic Committee finds Wood’s history as a lawyer serving the interests of the Republican party to be highly disconcerting. Prior to becoming a judge, Wood was employed for six years as Counsel to senior Republican State Senator and former Westchester County GOP Chair Nick Spano.
“Wood also handled election lawsuits for Republican candidates. His participation in two well-publicized cases stands out: the losses by Andrea Stewart-Cousins to Nick Spano for State Senate in 2004, and by Erin Malloy to Dennis Flood for Irvington Mayor in 2005. “We are dismayed that the attorney who argued against these local Democrats—and against the counting of voters’ ballots—is now seeking our support for State Supreme Court, where election disputes are commonly decided.
“Wood last won election to his current 14-year term on the Republican, Conservative, and Independence ballot lines, and changed his party affiliation to Democrat in 2019. He is not a Democratic incumbent, and our concerns about his sincerity as a Democrat were heightened by statements such as this one, made recently to the press: “Party switches are kind of par for the course” (Judge Who Censored The New York Times on Behalf of Project Veritas Seeks New Term as a Democrat, New York Focus, 4/5/23).
“For these reasons, we ask that the delegates of the Ninth Judicial District designate two qualified candidates who are better suited for the office and better aligned with the Democratic values we’ve all worked so diligently to uphold.”
Other Westchester democrats we spoke to have questioned Wood’s attack on Hummel, who serves as an acting Justice in the Bronx. “The email from Hummel was sent privately, and in the email, which is now public, she did not criticize Wood, and only referenced a NY Focus Article and WCLA-PAC e-blasts. Other lawyers, and the NYSAG’s office have reviewed the matter and found no violations of judicial ethics,” said one Yorktown Democrat. More details on the Wood-Hummel dispute can be found by reading our prior article.
What further clouds the matter of Judge Wood and his reelection campaign is that there will be no vote by Westchester Democrats before November. A Judicial convention will be held by the democratic parties in Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Dutchess and Orange Counties, and that convention will select the democratic party’s nominee for November. There are at least 8 other Westchester democrats seeking to replace Wood as the democratic nominee. This makes the effort of convincing leaders in the Westchester Democratic Party to endorse someone other than Wood more difficult.
But as one Sound Shore Democrat told us, “Our politics and our Judiciary has changed so much since 2009 when Judge Wood was elected as a Republican. Today, I don’t think the Westchester Democratic Party should endorse him.”
