by Eileen Korby 
Candidate for Republican County Committee (AD 25/ED 17)

It’s Election Day in November and you go to the polls to vote. You tick off your choices for the major Republican candidates you want (President, or Governor, or Mayor), then you continue down the column and you see something disturbing. In the election for local judges, there are only Democrat candidates, and they are running unopposed. I am sure that this has aggravated every one of us. But why does it happen? How do those judicial candidates get on the ballot anyway?

The short answer (to a complicated question) is that the County Committee plays a big part in getting candidates for judgeships on the ballot. Every county in New York State has both a Democrat and Republican County Committee. Those who serve on the County Committees are unpaid, elected volunteers. It might surprise you to learn that, in Queens, there are currently over 2,800 empty seats on the Republican County Committee. Perhaps that is part of the explanation for Republicans being underrepresented on the ballot for local elections.

But take heart! Things are changing in Queens. The Queens County Republican Patriots, a non-profit organization, is helping dedicated Republican citizens to fill those empty seats. A number of people, my father and I among them, will be on the Primary ballot on June 28th for the Republican County Committee.

Why are we doing it? Because we can’t stand watching our city devolve into the lawless nightmare it has become any longer. We want to see judges on the ballot who have our safety as their primary objective.

That’s not the only thing Republican County Committee members do. The committee elects party leadership and votes on party policies for the county. On occasion, the County Committee chooses candidates for special elections. This occurs if a state official dies or resigns during his/her term in office. The importance of this cannot be understated. According to a 2017 report by Citizens Union, 33% of the New York State Assembly, and 19% of the New York Senate were chosen in a special election. Many, if not most, of those legislators then go on to win those seats in the general election.

I want to leave you with two thoughts:

First, it is extremely important not to sit out the Republican Primary and wait for November. The Republican County Committee seats are only filled in the Primary election. We need to build the Republican Party in Queens, and we need to build it with people who are true Republicans, dedicated to the conservative values that will save our city, and our country.

Second, I would like to plant a seed in your mind that YOU might like to serve on the Republican County Committee yourself. Don’t just shake your head in anger at the destruction you see. Get involved. Build and strengthen the Republican Party in Queens. The deadline may have passed for this June’s ballot, but there is next year. I will write again, in another issue of the Queens County Beacon, explaining the process. It isn’t hard, so please let that seed take root. In the meantime, you can check out QueensCountyRepublicanPatriots.com and start coming to meetings.

Lastly, I want to ask you to vote on Tuesday, June 28th, in the Primary. And if you live between 188th Street and 199th Street, and between 73rd Avenue and Union Turnpike, please vote for my father and me: Sol Korby and Eileen Korby. Thank you.

Sol Korby is a veteran who proudly served our country.
Eileen Korby is a retired NYC public school teacher.