Margarita López Torres wins primary, clearing the path to reelection

D. Bernadette Neckles and Caroline Cohen also win spots on Brooklyn's bench.

June 26, 2019 Rob Abruzzese

The Brooklyn Women’s Bar Association was at the Surrogate’s Court recently when its members sat down with Hon. Margarita López Torres for its monthly “Lunch with a Judge.” Eagle photos by Rob Abruzzese

Hon. Margarita López Torres won the Democratic primary judicial election, and is likely to be reelected to Brooklyn's Surrogate's Court. Eagle file photo by Rob Abruzzese

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The election results are in from Tuesday’s judicial primaries, with a clear winner emerging in each race.

Justice Margarita López Torres won the Democratic primary for Brooklyn’s Surrogate Court, raking in 52.69 percent of the vote with 99 percent of scanners reported. She became a surrogate judge in 2006, despite an initial lack of support from the Democratic party.

A total of 46,707 votes were tallied across Brooklyn in that election, and López Torres garnered 24,610 of those. Meredith Jones, a court-attorney referee in Surrogate’s Court, was a distant second at just 11,536 votes, and Hon. Elena Baron, a judge in Brooklyn’s Civil Court, received 10,385.

D. Bernadette Neckles won her primary by a wide margin, beating candidate Ed King by 71.64 percent (31,160 votes) to 27.58 percent (11,994 votes), respectively. Neckles will serve a 10-year term as a judge in Brooklyn’s Civil Court. She will join the bench after an unsuccessful run in 2017.

D. Bernadette Neckles was inspired at an early age to become a judge. While she lost the election in 2017, she is running again for the countywide Civil Court judicial seat and hopes that the lessons she learned the first time around will help her prevail in her latest attempt. Eagle photo by Rob Abruzzese — D. Bernadette Neckles. Eagle photo by Rob Abruzzese

In the most crowded primary of the night, Caroline Cohen beat out three opponents with 43.4 percent of the vote (6,477 votes) for the Sixth Municipal Court District judgeship.

Nobody seriously challenged Cohen’s vote total, but Alice Nicholson racked up 22.75 percent of the count, Chinyelu Udoh garnered 19.34 percent, and Tehilah Berman came in last with 14.12 percent.

Caroline Cohen. Eagle file photo by Rob Abruzzese

While none of the three have officially won their elections (these were primary elections, not general), it is likely that they all cruise to victory in November without Republican challengers.