Trachte enters race for Newburgh justice, faces LoBiondo

Traffic tickets, evictions and small claims will help define the next Town of Newburgh judge after Democrat Kenyon Trachte entered the race and set up a November contest with Republican Anthony LoBiondo.

Trachte announced his candidacy on May 19, 2026, with the backing of the Democratic Committee of the Town of Newburgh and the Working Families Party. He is running for the seat now held by Jude Martini, who is retiring at the end of the year after more than two decades on the bench.

The Town of Newburgh Justice Court is where many local disputes begin and, for many residents, end. It hears misdemeanors, violations, preliminary felony matters, traffic and parking infractions, Town Code violations, eviction cases, civil lawsuits up to $3,000 and small claims up to $3,000. Town officials say many residents will have their first and only court experience there, which makes the choice of judge especially significant in a community of 31,989 people in the 2020 census and an estimated 31,849 in 2024.

Trachte said the town deserves a justice committed to making sure litigants understand their rights and the legal process and that everyone has meaningful access to experienced legal counsel. His candidacy leans heavily on courtroom breadth: he has spent the last two decades as a private defense attorney, special prosecutor and public defender, and he has handled thousands of criminal and civil cases at both the trial and appellate levels. He earned his law degree from Dickinson School of Law and has lived in the Hudson Valley since 2007.

LoBiondo entered the race earlier with a different profile. The Town of Newburgh Republican Committee endorsed him unanimously on February 18, 2026. He said he has been an attorney since 1991, served as a prosecutor in the Orange County District Attorney’s Office from 1991 to 1997 and now owns a law firm in town. He also said he would leave the Town Council seat he has held for five years and take the bench in January 2027 if elected.

Martini’s departure closes a long period of continuity in a court that sits at the base of New York’s judicial system. Town justices are elected to four-year terms beginning January 1 after the election, and the winner in Newburgh will take on a role that blends traffic court, landlord-tenant disputes and low-level criminal cases with the public’s confidence in the bench. Martini’s town biography says he previously served as legal counsel and principal law clerk to a New York State Supreme Court Justice in the Ninth Judicial District, where he drafted thousands of court decisions and orders.