State Supreme Court
Two incumbents face two veteran judges in Supreme Court races
The race for three State Supreme Court seats in Buffalo is being waged by veteran judges, including two seeking second 14-year terms on the state’s major trial court.
State Supreme Court Justices Christopher J. Burns and John F. O’Donnell are both seeking their second terms on the bench, which pays $136,700 a year. They face Erie County Judge Shirley Troutman and Williamsville Village Justice Jeffrey F. Voelkl.
Troutman, 50, a Democrat, and Burns, 57, a Republican, are the only candidates with endorsements from all five political parties: Republican, Democrat, Conservative, Independence and Working Families.
Burns, who was an associate justice of the Appellate Court in Rochester under appointment by former Gov. George E. Pataki for 2z years, returned to the busy Buffalo criminal and civil trial bench in August 2003. A Town of Tonawanda town justice for 12 years until he was elected to the state bench in November 1995, Burns served as an assistant Erie County district attorney from 1979 through 1983. While a town justice he maintained a private law practice.
O’Donnell, 65, was both supervising judge of all family courts and the domestic violence coordinating judge in the eight-county Eighth Judicial District from January 1992 through December 1995.
A Democrat and the husband of Denise O’Donnell, the former U. S. attorney for Western New York, he has Democratic, Conservative, Independence and Working Families endorsements.
From November 2003 through December 2006, O’Donnell was presiding judge of the state’s Integrated Domestic Violence Court. He has been a member of the state court system’s Family Violence Task Force since 1994 and on the system’s Law Guardian Advisory Committee since 1995. Since 1993, O’Donnell has been chairman of the Fourth Appellate Department’s Law Guardian Advisory Committee.
Troutman in November 2002 became the first African- American woman elected a county court-level judge in New York State after nine years on the Buffalo City Court bench. She is making her first run at the state trial bench.
A former prosecutor at the local, state and federal levels, Troutman, 50, a Democrat, was appointed a Buffalo City Court judge by former Mayor Anthony
M. Masiello in January 1994 and served in that capacity through December 2002. In November 2002, she was elected to a 10-year term on the county bench.
She was an assistant Erie County district attorney from 1986 to 1989, when she joined the New York State Department of Law as an assistant attorney general for state and federal court trial work. She was an assistant U. S. attorney for civil litigation here from 1992 until her City Court appointment.
An adjunct professor at the University at Buffalo Law School since 1994, Troutman is currently an acting State Supreme Court justice and chairwoman of the Eighth Judicial District’s Committee to Promote Public Trust and Confidence in the Legal System.
Voelkl is making his second run at the state court bench. He has Republican and Conservative endorsements.
A village justice since July 2003, Voelkl, 41, who has served frequently as an acting Buffalo City Court judge since December 2005, was defeated for the state trial bench last year by former Kenmore Village Justice Tracey A. Bannister.
Voelkl is a partner in the Williamsville law firm of Robshaw & Associates.
Voelkl is president of the Amherst Library Board, chairman of the Williamsville parks committee and founder of the Williamsville Court’s Community Service Program. His wife, Margrit, is also an attorney.
The Bar Association of Erie County gave Burns its highest rating of outstanding, rated Troutman and O’Donnell well qualified and Voelkl qualified.
The Minority Bar Association of Western New York gave its highest rating — superior — to Troutman, Burns and O’Donnell and rated Voelkl well qualified.
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