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Downtown Independent Democrats

125 Greene Street #5
New York, NY 10012

PRSRT. STD.
U.S. Postage
PAID
New York, NY
Permit No. 757

VOTE THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 10

JUDICIAL DELEGATES
(Vote ALL 5)

It is not in the media, but on Thursday, September 10 we have an important election.

The influential position of JUDICIAL DELEGATE will be up for grabs.
Nothing else will be on the ballot in our area. We estimate only about 1,000 votes
will be cast for this important position. So your vote Thursday is critically important.
What is a Judicial Delegate?

ALTERNATE DELEGATES
(Vote ALL 5)

Judicial Delegates are local activists elected by voters like you, tasked to select
competent justices for the NYS Supreme Court at a Judicial Convention held in
Manhattan every September.

JOYCE BRODY-SKODNEK

AYO HARRINGTON

WEI-LI TJONG

JOSEPH KELLEY

Who Are The Downtown Independent Democrats?

SIDNEY BAUMGARTEN

Our members have successfully fought to build schools and parks; to protect
tenants rights; to save the historic seaport; to support small businesses; and to
promote good government, both in the legislature and in the courts.

NANCY CHAMBERS

Since 1972, the Downtown Independent Democrats has served as the progressive
Democratic club for lower Manhattan.

As a reform political club, we oppose patronage, insist on an honest election

process, and were early leaders in the fight to elect judges who are found
qualified by an independent screening panel.

You realize the importance of good judges. You want your rights addressed by a
judge chosen by a judicial delegate based on experience, knowledge, wisdom
and fairness. You dont want a delegate who is told how to vote by political
leaders, as happens too often downtown.
On Thursday, September 10 vote for the slate that will serve you best vote the
independent slate of five judicial delegates and five alternate delegates that will
select the most qualified judges for our city and state.

SARA ROMANOSKI

GEORGETTE FLEISCHER

Vote the INDEPENDENT SLATE

PAUL NEWELL

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 10

You can bring this card into the poll site with you for reference

STEVEN GRADMAN

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Joyce Brody-Skodnek was born in Manhattan and works as a licensed real estate broker. She lives in Battery Park City with her husband.
Joyce moved to Nassau County to raise her three children, where she quickly ascended in the political arena. She was elected to the prestigious
post of State Committeewoman and also was appointed Deputy Commissioner of Finance in the town of North Hempstead.
With her children grown, she returned to the city and soon became active in local politics and charitable work. Joyce volunteers at the Red
Cross, lecturing on Emergency Preparedness post 9/11. She has also worked as an end-of-life coach for the Jewish Board of Family and
Children Services.
Politics runs in the family. Joyce is presently supporting her daughter-in-laws campaign for mayor of Nashville, where she is engaged in a run-off
election.
Selected as a Delegate to the Judicial Convention last year, Joyce asks your vote on September 10th to return her to that
position.
A native New Yorker, Wei-Li Tjong has been a lifelong Democrat and community activist on the Lower East Side.
He went from PS 124 in Chinatown to Phi Beta Kappa at Johns Hopkins University and honors from NYU School
of Law, where he was online editor of the NYU Law Review.
JOYCE BRODY-SKODNEK

Wei-Li is managing law partner at Tjong & Hsia, and also serves as an administrative law judge for NYC's Office of
Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH).
Tjong was a decade-long director, and recently the president, of Seward Park Cooperative on Grand Street, one of
the largest commercial and residential cooperatives in the city where his parents settled in the 1970s and where
he lives today.
Raised in Connecticut, Ayo Harrington has lived in the East Village since the 60s. She built affordable housing with
her own hands in the 80s, led the United Parents Association to reform public education in the 90s, produced prison
reform community radio in the 2000s, and has developed and advocated for community gardens for the past thirty years.
Currently, Ayo heads the Coalition to Establish a Community Gardens District and serves on the boards of Sophie Gerson
Healthy Youth, Loisaida United Neighborhood Gardens (LUNGS) and the Rod Rodgers Dance Company.
Ayo is a member and the former co-chair of the Coalition for a District Alternative (CoDA). She founded and
chaired Friends the African Burial Ground, and is a proud, former member of the acclaimed singing group, Sweet
Honey in the Rock.

WEI-LI TJONG

Joseph Kelley is a nationally recognized Democratic political consultant based in New York City.
AYO HARRINGTON

Joe works with Democratic candidates and progressive causes, like NARAL, Pro-Choice America, and various
Federal candidates. His past experience includes consulting for US Senator Chris Murphys 2012 campaign; the
2012 Democratic Convention Host Committee; America Votes; Womens Voices, Women Vote; and the Democracy
Alliance. In the 2010, Kelley served as US Senator Richard Blumenthals finance director. Kelley also worked on
Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes gubernatorial campaign, and with the Democratic Congressional Campaign
Committee.
Joe graduated from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania with a BA in American History.

JOSEPH KELLEY

Paul Newell is a community organizer and has been our neighborhoods' Democratic District Leader since 2009.
As District Leader, Newell has led the efforts to protect and expand tenant rights in Lower Manhattan. Paul is also one of the
most prominent advocates for ethical government in New York State.
The Daily News has called Newell "a well-qualified representative who is both in sync with the district's political leanings and in
touch with grass-roots concerns about traffic, schools, affordable housing and sustainable neighborhoods.
PAUL NEWELL

A lifelong downtowner, Newell lives in a Mitchell-Lama co-op on the Lower East side.