It's In Court; Orthodox Vote Will Have Final Say

The current count gives for David Storobin, 10,900, and 10,899 for Lew Fidler, and Lew Fidler is challenging in court.  According to the NYT’s metro section political editor, the court will review 389 contested ballots next week.

After initial proceeding between the lawyers, both sides will appear on Wednesday before Judge David Schmidt, an Orthodox Jew with a Yarmulke, who will make a decision sometimes afterwards. That is to say that ultimately, an Orthodox vote will be the decisive one.

If both candidates end up within 0.5 percent of the total votes (110 votes), which will most probably happen, it will also head to a hand recount.

Justice Schmidt is known to the Orthodox community as forcing hi-profile legal squabbles - where courts can't get involved due to the separation clause - to Din Torah (e.g. Bobuv, Viznitz Bnei Brak-Williamsburg). Since both candidates tried to paint them-selves as religious Jews, will he try to send them to a Beth Din? This would ensure that there will be no decision before the term and district are up…

You can read the Court documents on DailyPolitics.

UPDATE: Schmidt's support base, when winning his judgeship, was Borough Park, and he was endorsed by Dov Hikind. When running for reelection, over 5 years ago, Lew Fidler had nice words for him, but he said that he never appeared in front of him. This isn’t considered a conflict, and every judge in Brooklyn will probably have similar conflicts with the candidates. Just a good example how this business goes.


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