BALLSTON SPA — A candidate for Saratoga County sheriff who was removed from the primary ballot has filed a complaint with the state Commission on Judicial Conduct against the justice who made the decision, saying his ruling was political. Ryan Mahan, who was disqualified in an April 29 decision by state Supreme Court Justice James Walsh, said in his complaint to the commission that Walsh’s decision was based, in part, on the endorsement his wife, Assemblywoman Mary Beth Walsh, gave to Mahan’s opponent, Undersheriff Jeffrey Brown. “Prior to the assignment of my case, I expressed concern to my attorney that Judge James Walsh would likely be assigned,” Mahan wrote to the commission on April 30. “Despite assurances that judicial assignments are conducted randomly by a rotation system (the wheel), events that followed support my initial concern that the system was compromised or manipulated.”
He noted the Walshes’ strong political ties to the county’s Republican Committee that is backing Brown, and a March 13 video on the county’s Republican Committee’s Facebook page in which Mary Beth Walsh endorses Brown.
“Watching Jeff come up over the years just shows that he will be able to just step in seamlessly and continue the sheriff department’s great path it’s on,” she says in the video, adding her criticism of Democrat-backed changes to the bail system and “Raise the Age.”…