Democrat Amy C. Martoche is continuing the recent trend of State Supreme Court candidates to rely on spouses and family members for stoking the coffers of party leaders who single-handedly control the nomination process.
According to state Board of Elections records, the husband of the Buffalo city judge who will face Republican Gerald J. Greenan III this November has proven a generous contributor to the Erie County Democratic Party and its chairman, Jeremy J. Zellner, since at least 2016. State records show that Timothy Hoover, an attorney, poured almost $14,000 into the party treasury since then, as his wife began contemplating a Supreme Court candidacy.
Hoover has made 119 separate contributions to both parties and their candidates since 2016, records show, ranking him as one of Erie County's most prolific political supporters. He made one donation of $5,000 to Erie County Democrats. He also made a $2,500 contribution as part of the $2,850 total he gave Zellner, the party leader whose nod has traditionally determined the Democratic candidates for Supreme Court in the eight-county Eighth Judicial District.
Martoche's mother, Mary Dee Martoche, also gave Zellner $2,500 since 2017. Her father, retired Appellate Division Justice Salvatore R. Martoche, concentrated his donations mostly on the GOP, which in recent years has worked with Democrats to bestow bipartisan backing on more than half of Supreme Court candidates (though no cross-endorsements were issued for this year).
The Republican former judge gave $3,500 to the Erie County Republican Party since 2016, state records show. He also contributed $1,500 to the personal fund of former Erie County Republican Chairman Nicholas A. Langworthy, who now leads the state GOP. During his time as county leader, however, Langworthy also controlled judicial nominations and who would be guaranteed election resulting from cross-endorsement deals.
Amy Martoche said she believes state rules prohibit her from commenting.
"As a judge I'm very constrained by the Office of Court Administration," she said. "Without approval from them I can't say anything."
Greenan, who is also running this year on the Conservative and Independence lines, has raised and spent little on his campaign. In fact, his latest campaign finance report to the Board of Elections indicates a zero balance after a few in-kind contributions from his wife, Thalia, which were repaid.
But Greenan is required to meet several more reporting deadlines before the Nov. 3 election, and most political observers note the several hundred thousand dollars needed for a successful effort in the state's eight western counties. Last year he spent more than $318,000 in a close loss to incumbent Democrat Diane Y. Devlin.
In the 2019 campaign, Thalia Greenan donated $20,150 to Republican causes other than her husband's candidacy that included sums to Langworthy, the party chairman. One contribution of $8,000 in 2017 to the county committee was the sixth largest by an individual to the party in more than a decade. The West Seneca resident also gave $4,000 in 2017 to Erin K. Baker, who is Langworthy's wife and was a candidate that year for Amherst Town Board.
Gerald Greenan also did not return requests for comment. But last year he defended the contributions as resulting from his wife's personal decisions about her own finances.
"There's no way I could get to this point without doing the legwork," he told The Buffalo News last October, explaining the need for buying tickets to political events. "The public wants somebody who puts himself out there. And to characterize this as 'pay to play' would be a travesty."
Zellner, the Democratic chairman, this week dismissed any connection between donations and the Supreme Court nominations he controls as "absolutely absurd."
"A lot of people give a lot of money to our party who don't get judgeships," he said, noting no other potential candidates contributed because no others are running this year. He also said the two parties did not cross-endorse this year, with most sources indicting both parties remain confident of winning without bipartisan backing.
