Editor,

Independence Party Members: This year you have the opportunity to vote in a primary for Chenango County Court Judge. It is very important that you take the time to vote. There hasn’t been a time in many years that you have had the ability to select a candidate to represent your party in the general election.

I am only going to talk about one of the candidates, Diane DiStefano, who I feel is the most qualified for the position of Chenango County Court Judge. Diane began working at Vitanza, Shabus & Fertig, LLP during her first year of law school in 1996 as a legal assistant. She became associate counsel with the firm in June of 2001 and a partner in the firm of Vitanza, DiStefano and Dean, LLP in January of 2004. Her private practice is primarily concentrated in the areas of Family and Matrimonial Law, including child custody, child support and Matrimonial cases at the trial and Appellate levels along with other type of Civil and criminal litigation in Chenango, Madison, Otsego, Delaware, Broome, Cortland, Oneida and Herkimer Counties.

In 2006 Diane was appointed as an Assistant Public Defender by the Chenango County Public Defender to perform legal representation of individuals financially unable to obtain counsel in Family Court, Criminal Court and surrogate’s Court proceedings and has handled more than 750 Family Court cases involving child custody, visitation , child support, child neglect and family offenses and more that 800 criminal cases for that office