White Plains CitizeNetReporter - Friia, Cacace, DiBella Tapped for Cty. Court Runs. Pollet, Davidson Primary.

WPCNR COUNTY CONFIDENTIAL. Special to WPCNR. April 10, 2003: White Plains City Court Judge Jo Ann Friia was nominated by the Westchester County Democratic Party Executive Committee with Susan Cacace-Dibini of Yonkers and Robert DiBella of Yorktown to run for County Court Judge next fall at a meeting of the Democratic Leaders of the county's 19 towns and 6 cities at Ridgeway School Wednesday night.

Susan Pollet and Katherine Davidson appear headed for a primary for the open Family Court Judge nomination, according to reports to WPCNR.

Cacace-Dibini’s and DiBella’s nominations were strongly supported. Judge Friia was chosen over Jeffrey Cohen in a close vote among the committee chairs from the various town Democratic Committees, winning by 1,500 votes of 80,000.

Cohen had received strong telephone lobbying support from northern Westchester Democrats and County Executive Andy Spano according to two sources familiar the situation leading up to last night’s vote.

Pollet Sets Up Against Davidson

Susan Pollet of Chappaqua, stuck to her guns in choosing to primary Katherine Davidson for the right to run for the open Family Court Judgeship this fall.

The Pollet effort provoked controversy. Jan Wells, speaking on behalf of Ms. Pollet, said Ms. Pollet was very qualified to be Family Court Judge, based on her long experience in court on family law cases as Senior Court Attorney in the Westchester County Family Court.

A delegate, who strongly supported Noam Bramson in his primary against Ron Tocci last year, strongly challenged Ms. Pollet’s experience as a reason to primary, saying, “I’m sick and tired of this obsession with qualifications, why is it the only time people primary is when a person of color is running?”

This statement was described as shocking to the gathering. Chairman of the Bedford Democrats, Mitchell Weingarten and the Co-Chairs of the New Castle Democrats, Adrian Kramer and Melissa Zuckerman abruptly walked out of the meeting after this statement.

Ms. Pollet needs to gather signatures to appear on the primary ballot in the fall to wrest the nomination from Ms. Davidson, an Assistant County Attorney.


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