Justice contest is a rarity
Challenger is hoping to unseat longtime Clifton Park incumbent
A town justice who has run unopposed since 1997 is being challenged for his 11th term.
“In the 11 campaigns this is only the fourth time I’ve been opposed,” said Republican-conservative James Hughes, 82, a town justice since 1982. “This campaign is different in that I’m not accustomed to it. But it’s just another day.”
Running against him is Jennifer Jeram, an attorney who has been clerking in the court system since 2009. She is a clerk for Judge Robert Muller in Warren County and is running on the Democratic and Working Families lines.
Early voting starts Saturday. Being a judge has always been a goal of hers, she said. She decided to run when she heard Hughes was planning to retire, which he did not do. But she carried on, saying it would be helpful to build a foundation for future judicial campaigns.
Judicial candidates are barred from speaking about issues they might have to rule on in court. They also can’t discuss current cases. With those limits, judicial races are usually quiet.
But Jeram made headlines this week when she objected to Hughes accepting an endorsement from Saratoga County Sheriff Mike Zurlo.
It’s not against the rules for judges to accept endorsements, according to the state Judicial Ethics handbook. Judges can accept endorsements from other elected officials — such as the sheriff — and even from one-issue groups such as an anti-abortion group. The only stipulations are that they must make no promises about their judicial decisions, and they must disclose the endorsement if the person who made it ends up appearing before them in court.
Still, Jeram said it created an impression of impropriety because the Sheriff ’s Office is involved in most cases that come before the town court.
“Especially in Clifton Park, we don’t have our own police force. It’s the sheriff and the State Police that do all the law enforcement,” Jeram said.
She emphasized that she did not fault Zurlo for making the endorsement. He’s free to endorse anyone he wants, she said. But Hughes should not have accepted the endorsement, she said. “It’s just, in my mind, a very clear violation of judicial ethics. You have to be impartial,” she said.
Hughes said the endorsement would not influence him at all, and that he was highly unlikely to encounter Zurlo at town court, which handles misdemeanors and violations.
“The actual sheriff himself only really appears on the high level cases, say a homicide or something like that,” he said. “And it’s not a problem even if he appeared in front of me - it’s only a problem if I am so shallow as to let his endorsement give him a get out of jail free card.”
He would not do that, he said, adding that he has ruled against law enforcement at times during preliminary hearings on felonies.
“If the police officer’s testimony is vague or maybe unbelievable, if the testimony is not solid enough, I can dismiss the case and I have,” he said.
Hughes has strong ties to law enforcement. After serving in the Navy, he became a state trooper while taking college classes at night. When he retired, he became a judge in 1982, and then enrolled in law school in 1984. He passed the bar three years later. As he recounted the tale he chuckled, noting how few seated judges are students in law school.
A town justice does not have to be an attorney, and many are not, although that is changing.
Jeram, who is also an attorney, said she wants to improve accessibility at town court through virtual proceedings. She is a certified mediator and wants to do more mediation in small claims cases. She argued she could bring a new perspective to the court.
“It’s been 40 years. They’ve never had a woman. I’m a mom. I can offer that perspective,” she said.