State Supreme Court Justice Rosemarie Montalbano resoundingly defeated Civil Court Judge Dweynie Esther Paul in the race for Kings County Surrogate Court Judge, handing a victory to reformers over the county party in a race that, in some ways, came to be a referendum on political patronage.
As of Wednesday morning, Montalbano held a 25 point lead over Paul, per the city Board of Elections, 62.2 percent to 37.25 percent, with nearly 97 percent of precincts reporting. Since judicial races are under the purview of state election law, ranked-choice voting was not in effect (though it wouldn’t have been in play anyway, since there were only two candidates), so Montalbano declared victory Wednesday morning.
