Gordon Cuffy’s mother was robbed repeatedly in his hometown of Brooklyn, N.Y.
“That is probably the major reason I went towards being a prosecutor,” said Cuffy, the attorney for Onondaga County and a former prosecutor in the county district attorney’s office.
Now Cuffy is looking to change jobs. He is the Democratic candidate for Onondaga County court judge. He faces Republican Tom Miller, a village justice for Fayetteville. The Onondaga County court has three judges. Anthony Aloi and Joseph Fahey already fill two of those judgeships. The third seat became vacant after Judge William Walsh retired in December.
The election is Nov. 6.
Onondaga County judges are elected for 10-year terms and are paid $147,100 annually.
Family and friends say Cuffy gained valuable “judge” experience by growing up in a lower-income neighborhood. They also say Cuffy is a dependable problem-solver and a role model for the community. Cuffy and those who know him well say he has been working towards becoming a judge for much of his life.
“It’s been everything that I’ve been leading up to,” said Cuffy. “I think I’ve been telling my wife since the first day I became a lawyer, that’s where I was headed.”
Cuffy, 51, has his undergraduate degree from Syracuse University and his law degree from Brooklyn Law School. From 1990 to 2001, Cuffy worked in the Onondaga County District Attorney’s office. From 2001 to 2008, Cuffy worked in the New York State Attorney General’s office. Since 1996, Cuffy has been an adjunct SU law professor.
Since 2008, Cuffy has been the county attorney of Onondaga. He runs a department of 40 employees and his job includes representing the county legislature and County Executive Joanie Mahoney. Cuffy is the first African American Onondaga County attorney, a source of pride for him and many of his supporters.
Cuffy grew up in a low-income neighborhood in Brooklyn. He was the youngest of four. His siblings, he said, helped him hone his problem-solving skills at a young age. “It taught me how to mediate, let’s put it that way,” Cuffy said with a laugh.
Cuffy’s childhood also helped him learn about different types of people – an experience, he says, that prepared him to be a good judge. “You have to be able to be open-minded so that you can be fair and impartial,” said Cuffy. “To do that, you have to respect other people’s backgrounds and cultures etc. and look at them as human beings.”
That ability to relate to people of different backgrounds wins praise from supporters. Gabe Rosetti from Labors Local 633, a group that endorses Cuffy, calls Cuffy a “down-to-earth” person. Cuffy’s experience, said Rosetti, in “blue-collar” and “white-collar” environments will make him a great judge.
“The city of Syracuse is diversified as it is. There’s a lot of people that make a very high income and a lot of people with lower income,” said Rosetti. “You got to kind of weigh the difference on what the crime may be and see the individual for what they are.”
Former WCNY-TV host and friend George Kilpatrick Jr. describes Cuffy as uncommonly generous. Kilpatrick recalled driving in a snowstorm with his kids when his car was sideswiped by a tractor-trailer. For a rescue, he called Cuffy. “I said “Gordon, I’m stuck. I need you to come get me,”’ said Kilpatrick. “He dropped everything and spent the rest of the afternoon getting me situated.”
Kilpatrick cites Cuffy’s status as the first African American as county attorney as inspiration to others in the African-American community. “They’re proud of who he is,” said Kilpatrick. “He is somebody just like them who inspires hope in a community.”
Cuffy has previously joined efforts to increase minorities in public office. “We thought maybe kids needed to know what the county jobs were and how to get them. They needed exposure,” said Cuffy.
Cuffy’s wife, Nadine Cuffy, says showing the community minorities in leadership is a good influence. “It’s very important for the community to see, just the exposure of someone, especially someone who came up from the ‘hood,”’ said Nadine Cuffy.
Nadine Cuffy, now a psychologist and fiber artist, and Gordon Cuffy met as undergrads at Syracuse University. In an interview at Starbucks, the two joked about their first meeting and shared similar hopes for Gordon Cuffy’s campaign for the county judgeship. Of their first meeting, they can recall the exact date and place: Sept. 21, 1979, in their freshman dorm.
“We had some sort of floor meeting,” Nadine Cuffy reminded him, “and you threw a paper airplane at me.” That, argued Cuffy, was his attempt at a “smooth move.”
Her husband has remained much the same in their 33 years together, said Nadine Cuffy. “He’s always been about doing the right thing,” she said. “And it sounds corny but it’s really true. And that’s what I find so compelling about him.”
For his part, Gordon Cuffy stresses his views of what a judge should be. “I will be deliberate,” said Cuffy. “I will respect the people that appear in front of me and I will always be trying to do the right and just thing.”
(Alexandra Montgomery is a senior with dual majors in broadcast journalism and political science.)
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