ELIZABETHTOWN — The one contested race in Essex County this year is for Essex County judge.

The candidates are Lake Placid attorney and Democrat Bryan Liam Kennelly and Essex County District Attorney Kristy Sprague, a Republican.

Kennelly was the new democratic pick after the previous candidate, Lake Placid attorney Amy Fisher Quinn, was appointed to the New York state Court of Claims in June. Sprague launched her campaign in January. The current county judge, Richard Meyer, is finishing his second 10-year term. The mandatory retirement age for this position is 70.

Candidates for judicial positions are subject to additional ethical guidelines outlined by the New York State Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics. Among other things, these guidelines ban candidates from participating in partisan activity, making campaign promises and discussing specific cases. In adherence to these guidelines, candidates were asked to discuss their experience and qualifications for this story.

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Bryan Liam Kennelly

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Kennelly, 42, tracks his interest in politics to becoming student body president at Lake Placid High School. Now, 14 years into his law career and living back in his hometown with his wife and 2-year-old, he is looking to make the ultimate commitment to his home as Essex County judge.

“It is personal to me that we have the most qualified judge,” Kennelly said. “I am part of this community, and I’m not going anywhere.”

Kennelly has lived in New York his whole life, except for a brief stint across Lake Champlain while attending law school at the University of Vermont. He previously studied political science at SUNY New Paltz. In some ways, becoming a lawyer was his ticket back home, since he knew he could find work in Essex County. He opened his own private practice shortly after graduating law school in 2010, and has been in Lake Placid since.

He feels that his life has come full circle in many ways. He served on the school board at his own school district from 2018 to 2022 and he currently serves as the town of Keene’s attorney, which is where his family is from originally.

Kennelly had an interest in running for judge in part because it’s a natural progression for a lawyer who is experienced in county court proceedings. When Quinn withdrew from the race, Kennelly was a part of numerous discussions as to who should replace her as the democratic candidate.

“There’s a moment in your life when you realize that you are the most qualified person in the room,” Kennelly said. “Both having that desire and then also realizing, ‘Oh, if not me, who else?'”

In terms of his qualifications for judge, Kennelly emphasizes his extensive experience in multiple areas of law, working in multiple courts and many different judges. The majority of his business is dealing with Essex County court, and within that court, a lot of the proceedings are in family court, which includes cases with juvenile offenders.

“That process of working with your clients and being in the trenches with them, experiencing the highs and the lows and really being able to put myself in their shoes,” Kennelly said, describing the work that he does and adding that the most rewarding part is working with and helping people.

Kennelly said that impartiality and fairness, while important, are a given for a judge. Something he thinks fewer people understand is the leadership role that judges play. In short, judges are responsible for the administration of justice in the broadest sense, and he wants to use that leadership role to advocate for the Essex County court. This might mean modernizing facilities, or proposing a traveling court so that people can have easier access to justice. As a local, Kennelly said he is attuned to the needs of the community and knows that transportation can be unreliable.

“One of the determinants of whether you’re going to be successful in court — it’s not the lawyer you have, or the case — it’s whether you show up,” Kennelly said.

Kennelly is also aware of the immense responsibility that judges hold as leaders tasked with applying the law. The precise wording of a verdict can have a profound impact on people involved with a case.

“For a judge, your words matter,” Kennelly said. “I think a good judge appreciates his role and that the slightest twist on what you say can affect the outcome of a case.”

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Kristy Sprague

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Sprague, 52, was born and raised in Essex County, and most of her extended family still lives here. She lives in Moriah with her husband of 25 years, Steve Trow, and they have two college-aged kids. Sprague is proud of her blue-collar background. Most of her family worked in construction and so did she, for a while, along with the waitress and cleaning jobs that she worked to pay her way through school.

“As my dad always said, never lose a sense of where you came from and who you are, no matter what position you serve in,” Sprague said. “I think that’s taught me well over the years.”

Although she always had a bent towards public service and law enforcement, Sprague thought her first step would be to become a state trooper and work her way up from there. In fact, she had already taken the New York state trooper exam during college. Then, one of her professors at SUNY Plattsburgh insisted that she apply to law school. When she was accepted to both the state police academy and law school, she opted for the latter.

After graduating from Albany Law School in 1998, she applied to work as an assistant district attorney in Clinton County. She hadn’t even gotten her bar results back yet, but landed the job. She worked in various roles in Clinton County, but as soon as she saw an opportunity to return to her home county, she took it.

She was first elected to the position of Essex County district attorney in 2009 on the Republican and Conservative party lines and has been reelected in unopposed races three times since then.

As a qualification for county judge, Sprague points to her 26 years in public service serving in “quasi-judicial” roles.

As a prosecutor, she is trained to be ethical, zealous and fair, Sprague said. However, Sprague is cognizant of the fact that she is often dealing with people during some of the worst times in their lives. The people she works with in court are in very tough situations, which presents a challenge for her, as well as a responsibility.

“I’ve been making the tough decisions for many, many years,” Sprague said. “Ones that affect people at the core of their very lives.”

Sprague is confident that she has learned to take this responsibility seriously and to navigate these difficult situations well. She said she has learned to be tough while not losing sight of compassion and respect.

“People remember kindness, and that’s what I’ve always said,” Sprague said. “A little smile goes a long way, and it puts them at ease so they know that you get it, you understand what they’re going through.”

As a DA, Sprague deals with cases in the highest court, the county court, which also means she has to meet the most stringent burden of proof. And although she doesn’t technically practice in family court, she deals with a lot of criminal cases that deal with families and children, so she is familiar with civil court and family court proceedings. Her experience and her record is public, and Sprague said she is committed to transparency.

“I’ve lived in this county my entire life, and I want my communities to know and be assured that I’m in it for them,” Sprague said. “My track record is out there for everybody to see, and there’s decades of it to allow for the proof and the transparency that I have of a fair and even temperament and a record of integrity.”

Public service extends beyond the courtroom, and Sprague is proud of the ways she has used her leadership position as DA. She was responsible for bringing the North Country’s first Child Advocacy Center to Essex County, a program established to serve child sexual abuse victims. She has served on many boards, coalitions and panels, and has founded numerous teams, including the Essex County Elder Abuse Multidisciplinary team, the Child Fatality Review Team and the Animal Cruelty Task Force.