Lawyer cleared of voter fraud conviction seeks judgeship in Brooklyn

John O’Hara’s 1997 voter fraud conviction–for allegedly casting a ballot in the wrong district–was overturned just a few months ago.  O’Hara is now seeking to take on Brooklyn’s Democratic machine:

O’Hara’s slate for the Democratic primary in September includes himself and five other candidates, as part of what he is calling a “rage against the machine” to challenge the Brooklyn Democratic Party’s status quo of choosing who gets the gavel.

The party’s Judicial Screening Committee nominates a candidate through the screening process and then backs them — but the process is far from independent, and O’Hara’s slate of six is looking to take on the machine, he said.

“Because the whole so-called independent judicial screening panel is not very independent. We have nothing to do with that,” he said. “Machine-backed candidates, those are the people we are running against. We are all independent candidates.”