Opinion 90-02

January 18, 1990

Digest:        A part-time judge may run for election to a local library board where the election is not a primary or general election.

Rules:           22 NYCRR 100.7.

Opinion:

         A part-time judge inquires whether he may run for election to the local library board. The particular local library board in question is a nonpartisan group, and is not a municipal corporation, but is a corporation organized under the “Act for the Incorporation of Library Associations,” and is governed by a Board of Trustees who function pursuant to the Education Law and the Not-For-Profit Corporation Law. The electors are all persons holding library cards.

         Section 100.7 of the Rules of the Chief Administrator states:

                                       No judge during a term of office shall hold any

                                       office in a political party or organization or

                                       contribute to any political party or political

                                       campaign or take part in any political campaign

                                       except his or her own campaign for elective

                                       judicial office.

         Canon 7A(3) of the Code of Judicial Conduct provides:

                                       A judge should resign his office when he becomes a

                                       candidate either in a party primary or in a general

                                       election for a nonjudicial office * * * .

         The part-time judge may run for election to the local library board, as it is a nonpolitical, nongovernment office, and as the election is not a primary or general election.