Local News: November 3, 2023

- Southern Tier voters will elect a new state Supreme Court judge for 14-year term -

Voters in the Sixth Judicial District will elect a new state Supreme Court judge on Tuesday. The district covers ten counties including Tompkins, Schuyler, Broome, and Chemung. The court decides civil cases relating to things like election law, divorces, zoning, and medical malpractice. Judges serve a 14-year term.

The candidates are Tompkins County-resident Dierdre Hay and Cheryl Insigna of Broome County. Hay has been a practicing attorney in New York for 25 years. She serves on the board of LawNY, which provides free legal aid to those in need. She was president of New York’s Women’s Bar Association in 2019 and is an adjunct at Cornell Law School. She’s been endorsed by the Tompkins County Democratic Party.

Cheryl Insinga has also practiced law in New York for 25 years. She’s a partner in the Binghamton law firm Coughlin & Gerhart. She mostly represents municipalities and their departments. She was a Special Counsel to the New York State Senate and an adjunct at Binghamton University’s Law School. She is endorsed by the Broome County Republican Party.

WRFI asked both candidates for an interview. We didn’t hear back from Cheryl Insigna in time for this broadcast.  We are asking both why they are best qualified to be the next state Supreme Court judge and what sets them apart from their opponent.

NOTE: This has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Deirdre Hay said, "Even more than representing real divorce law clients my own personal family experience helps me, would help me to be a very good judge in those cases which are 30% of what the court decides. I really understand families. The second thing is that I’m non-partisan. All my organizations that I represent, represent everybody. I don’t pick a political agenda…I have learned in my many years of litigation, people who come to the court, they want to be heard, they want to say their side of the story, and they want respect and, and I’m a good listener and I can apply the law fairly and give them justice…I deeply, deeply believe in fairness and justice for everybody and my track record shows that. Whereas my opponent has a track record of being a conservative political advocate and, and I just think that’s a massive distinction."

You can hear more of the interview here, edited for clarity.