Tara Scully, Theresa Whelan face off in Suffolk surrogate judge race

In the hardest-fought judicial race on Long Island — the contest for Suffolk County surrogate judge — Democrat Theresa Whelan is touting her long experience as a Family Court judge while Republican Tara Scully says she is running to end backroom deals in selecting judicial candidates.

Whelan, the Family Court supervising judge and a judge since 2008, said “The surrogate judgeship is not an entry level position. It’s a top level judgeship that should be filled with someone whose experience is known."

Scully, 41, an attorney from Setauket, said she has worked for more than a decade as an elder law and trust and estates lawyer and has “a detailed knowledge of the workings of the Surrogate’s Court that my opponent simply does not.”

The race for the surrogate judgeship is among dozens of judicial races Tuesday in Nassau and Suffolk counties for state Supreme Court, County Court, Family Court and District Court. There also are races for Shelter Island Town justice and Glen Cove and Long Beach City judge.

The Suffolk surrogate post is politically potent. It deals with wills and estates, as well as adoption and care of those who are incapacitated, and carries the power to assign lucrative guardianships and other legal work.

Republicans have held the post for nearly a century and, since the 1960s, usually with the backing of the Conservative Party.  

Whelan, 56, of Wading River, primarily has been handling child abuse and neglect cases and presides over the family drug treatment court. Earlier, she spent 18 years as a law clerk to state Supreme Court justices including Mary Werner, Suffolk’s former administrative judge.

Scully, who lost a 2015 bid for District Court judge, has worked as a Legal Aid Society lawyer, a legal aide to former Republican Gov. George Pataki and as assistant Brookhaven Town attorney.

Both candidates are former presidents of the Suffolk County Women’s Bar Association, and neither had any criticism of the way Surrogate Judge John Czygier, who has reached the mandatory retirement age of 70, has run the court.

Scully has said she decided to run in July after a nine-judge cross endorsement pact was reached by Democrats and the Conservative and Independence parties.

“Voters deserve the right to choose the judges who serve in their courtrooms,” she said. .

Early on, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone had backed Scully, the daughter of his deputy Peter Scully, praising her “courage to step forward” in the face of party leaders who “cross the line” in deal making.

Suffolk Democratic chairman Richard Schaffer had planned to give the Democratic line to Conservative Marian Tinari, a District Court judge who is married to Suffolk Conservative Party chairman Frank Tinari.

But when Scully entered the race, Tinari pulled out. Schaffer substituted Whelan as the Democratic designee, and Bellone turned neutral when Whelan entered the race.

Whelan downplayed political maneuvering since she and Scully have three ballot lines each.

“I don’t believe this race is a proxy for anything more than who is more qualified to sit as surrogate judge on Jan. 1,” she said.