Madison County Republicans are backing Rhonda Youngs in a highly unusual write-in campaign for a county judge seat, rescinding their endorsement of a local prosecutor whose house was the site of an overdose incident last month.
The name of the assistant district attorney, Bradley Moses, will remain on the ballot in November on the Republican and Conservative lines, GOP county chairman Todd Rouse said. It’s too late to remove his name, he said. There is no Democratic candidate.
But GOP and Conservative parties plan to actively campaign for Youngs, a Cazenovia village justice who also has worked as an attorney in another county court judge’s office.
“We’re going to support the write-in campaign based on the fact that we believe the previously endorsed candidate has a severe integrity problem for the office he is seeking,” Rouse said.
Rouse acknowledged Moses could end up being elected as a Madison County Court judge. That job includes presiding over criminal, family and surrogate courts.
Rouse said he’s seen successful write-in campaigns at the town and village level. But he couldn’t think of a situation where the GOP and Conservatives teamed up to try to elect a countywide write-in candidate.
If elected, Youngs would become the first female county judge in Madison County.
Rhonda Youngs, a Republican, has launched a write-in campaign for a judge seat on the Madison County Court.Source: provided photo
When asked if he planned to campaign for the criminal court seat this fall, Moses wrote to syracuse.com | The Post-Standard Friday that he was the only candidate on the ballot.
In that lengthy statement, Moses criticized Republican and Conservative party leaders for jumping to conclusions and trying to strong-arm him out of the race. Moses also repeated his denial that he had any illegal drugs in his system following the incident.
“I have received an outpouring of support from friends and community members who have urged me to stay in the race and who believe I am most qualified to serve as Madison County judge,” Moses wrote.
Moses is resigning as an assistant district attorney, county officials have said.
Madison County deputies and emergency officials responded to Moses’ home as two people were having trouble breathing and turning blue, sheriff’s records show. Moses was one of the two persons, according to sheriff’s documents.
Before deputies arrived that Saturday night, a witness saw Moses, 44, and another man, Michael C. Eno, 42, preparing a white powdery substance for inhaling, according to the deputies’ reports. The two men were cutting it into three lines, the witness told deputies.
The witness told deputies he saw Eno snort the substance. The witness told deputies he then heard another person snort and turned to see Moses wiping his nose.
Moses, through his family, has denied using illegal drugs. He also told that to deputies the night of the incident, reports show.
Moses did admit to drinking about a dozen High Noon alcoholic seltzers that day and using marijuana, the documents show.
Moses has told syracuse.com in an email that a toxicology screen performed during his hospital stay showed no illegal drugs in his system. He did not make that complete medical report public.
Youngs has worked for former Madison County Judge Patrick J. O’Sullivan as his court attorney, according to her campaign. She’s also been an attorney with Stokes Youngs PLLC and Mitchell Goris Stokes & O’Sullivan LLC. She’s also worked at Hancock Estabrook in Syracuse.
She lives in Cazenovia with her husband, Jim, and two young children.
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2022-08-19 17:01:00Z
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