Ruling for Dem in 10th Judicial District

A judge ruled Thursday that Richard Ambro, a Democratic candidate for State Supreme Court, will have the Working Families party line.

Rudolph Cartier Jr., a Conservative Supreme Court candidate objected to the Working Families choice of Ambro. Cartier will appeal the decision, his attorney Vincent Messina said.

The decision by Justice Jerry Garguilo stemmed from Ambro's successful effort to deny Working Families candidate Gregory L. Davis the party's ballot line. Davis, of upstate Erie County, had been nominated for a State Senate seat in Buffalo and a Supreme Court judgeship in Suffolk. Seeking two offices at once is barred by state law, so Garguilo knocked Davis off the Suffolk judicial ballot.

The Working Families party substituted Ambro's name on the Suffolk ballot, but Cartier objected.

The 10th Judicial District covers Nassau and Suffolk counties, and the court dispute delayed the mailing of more than 50,000 absentee ballots. The court decision did not address whether the local election boards must reprint the ballots with Ambro's Working Families designation.

Nassau Democratic Elections Commissioner William Biamonte said that due to the decision, reprinting won't be necessary. But Bill Ellis, the Nassau Republican deputy commissioner, said, "this could be appealed. We don't know what will happen." Ambro, a clerk to Suffolk's administrative Judge C. Randall Hinrich, declined to comment.