Elections 2011 will be ushered in next Tuesday with an extremely light ballot, featuring District Attorney Richard A. Brown seeking his sixth consecutive fouryear term which will extend his record in that department.

By virtue of the three-party endorsement bestowed on the Queens prosecutor again—Democrat, Republican and Conservative—Brown is assured of victory, running without opposition.

The undercard on the ballot, the only other activity this year, finds six state Supreme Court judgeships being contested by six Democrats and an equal number of Republican-Conservatives. Under this setup, the winners will be the six highest vote-getters. The winners get 14-year terms at an annual salary of $136,700-ayear.

All of the ballot information was furnished by the city Board of Elections. The polls will be open from 6 a.m. until 9 p.m.

Brown, who will be reaching his 79th birthday five days after the elections, started his career as district attorney in the 1991 election.

Up to that point, Brown had served as a state Supreme Court justice starting in late 1977. When given the call to become the district attorney, Brown had been serving in the Appellate Division for several years.

In his 20 years as DA, Brown has molded his office into a smooth functioning operation, considered among the finest in the state.

Brown is a past president of the New York state District Attorneys Association and also serves as chair of the New York Prosecutors Training Institute.

In the Supreme Court judgeship contests, five of the Democratic Party candidates on the ballot are sitting Queens Civil Court judges. They are:

•Janice A. Taylor of Jamaica.

•Allan Weiss of Forest Hills.

•Rudolph Greco Jr. of Jackson Heights.

•Vincent J. Dufficy of Breezy Point.

•Ira H. Margulis of Oakland Gardens.

The sixth Democratic candidate is Housing Court Judge Pam B. Jackson- Brown of Jamaica.

The six Republican-Conservative candidates are:

•Robert V. Beltrani of Jackson Heights.
•Gabriel Tapalaga of Middle Village.
•Joseph F. Kasper of Ozone Park.
•Kate Christoforatos of The Bronx.
•Milton Florez of Oakland Gardens.
•John F. Casey of Flushing.

According to

Queens

Conservative Party Chairman Tom Long, Christoforatos has been practicing law for 27 years and has an office in Astoria; Casey has been a parole officer and is now serving as an Administrative Law Judge in Queens; and Beltrani has been an attorney for 22 years and is presently also an Administrative Law Judge in Queens.

Of the others, Long said, Florez served as a prosecutor in the Army and has had a practice for 10 years; Tapalaga is a former Queens County prosecutor with extensive criminal law experience; and Kasper is a trial lawyer, served as a Special Assistant DA in Manhattan and also in the NYC Health Inspector’s Office.

Long stated: “All of our candidates are highly qualified and experienced attorneys and have been nominated by both the Conservative and Republican parties.” He pointed out that Queens is the most diversified of the five boroughs…“yet there is not a single Conservative or Republican judge currently serving on the Supreme Court bench. It is not in the public’s interest for one political party to dominate the judiciary in this way. On November 8 the people of Queens will have the opportunity to vote for six Supreme Court Justices that can correct this imbalance.”