Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson has won the Democratic nomination for a seat in state supreme court, ensuring that he will step down from the DA’s office after 27 years.
The vote was unanimous at the Democratic judicial nominating convention in the Bronx Thursday night.
Johnson, the city’s first black prosecutor, defended his record in office and his decision to seek a seat on the bench just weeks after he won the primary to run for re-election as district attorney.
“Don’t resign a job without a job,” he said.
“If I had resigned before this convention tonight, I would not have a job. If I had resigned January 1st of next year, I would not have a job. And I think after 40 years of public service that I deserve to be able to serve the community.”
Johnson also said his low conviction rate was a sign of his respect for the constitutional rights of defendants.
The timing of his nomination meant party officials — not voters — hand-picked a candidate to be his successor. In the heavily Democratic Bronx, that selection is tantamount to election.
The committee nominated Darcel Clark, an appellate judge who worked in the DA’s office for 13 years. She made no public statements to the convention.
Assemblyman Marcos Crespo, the Bronx Democratic chairman, said critics of the closed-door process should have nominated their own candidate to run against Johnson while he was still on the ballot.
"We're not handpicking a successor, we're picking our nominee, as we do in every cycle," he told WNYC.
State Senator Ruben Diaz, who attended the convention even though he was not a delegate, said the maneuver was perfectly legal.
"This is politics," said Diaz, a Democrat whose son is the Bronx Borough President. "Since the whites controlled the Bronx it’s been done that way. Now that minorities control it, now it’s a problem? It’s been done all the time, all the time. It’s nothing new. Nobody’s violating the law, nobody’s doing nothing wrong."
A handful of community activists and good-government advocates protested outside the event at the Eastwood Manor on Eastchester Road.
“Right now we don’t have the right to elect another DA,” said Julio Munoz, 60, a Pelham Parkway resident and former Democratic district leader in the 80th assembly district. “That’s a corruption message. That’s a lie.”
Dick Dadey of the Citizens Unions said the move goes against the spirit of the law, if not the letter.
“There’s nothing illegal, but it’s unethical,” Dadey said. “A lot of stuff happens in our city and state because our laws are so badly written that they protect those in power.”
Dady said the group may consider a legal challenge to the nomination.