Opinion 88-132

December 8, 1988

Topic:          Whether a judge may attend a victory party for a newly reelected state assemblyman.

Digest:         Unless the judge himself is a candidate for election during the year in question, he may not attend a victory party for a reelected           assemblyman.

Rules :         22 NYCRR §100.7(a), (e)

Opinion: 

         A judge has inquired whether he may attend a Thanksgiving and victory party in honor of an assemblyman who was recently reelected.

         The Rules of the Chief Administrator addresses the parameters of a judge's participation in politically-oriented functions and nonpolitical functions sponsored by political organizations. Section 100.7(a) of the Rules of the Chief Administrator forbids:

The purchase, directly or indirectly of tickets to politically sponsored dinners or other affairs, or attendance at such dinners or other affairs, including dinners or affairs sponsored by a political organization for a nonpolitical purpose, except as, follows:

(1) This limitation shall not apply during a period beginning nine months before a primary election, judicial nominating convention, party caucus or other party meeting for nominating a candidate for elective judicial office for which the judge is an announced candidate, or for which a committee or other organization has publicly solicited or supported his or her candidacy, and ending, if the judge is a candidate in the general election for that office, six months after the general election. If the judge is not a candidate in the general election, this period shall end on the date of the primary election, convention, caucus or meeting.

         Based upon this provision, the judge should not attend the victory party in question if it is sponsored by, or under the auspices of, a political party or partisan political committee. This prohibition, however, would not apply if the judge was also a candidate for election in the same election year, as provided by section 100.7(a)(1).