Tompkins County, New York July 8, 2019 Letter To The Editor, We are writing this letter to the editor together in order to promote unity in the Democratic Party and to do what is best for our community. Some people have expressed frustration with the truncated selection process of the next Democratic nominee for County Court Judge. It is important to note that our legislature had no control over the timeline. In addition, the benefit to our community of an additional County Court Judge cannot be denied. We thank those involved in this process. Their years of hard work lobbying to bring this essential position to our community is appreciated by both of us. It is a tremendous benefit to the people of Tompkins County. Since the timing of this race was so abbreviated, we met as close friends and colleagues in our mutual friend's kitchen. We spent the evening talking about how best to move forward, undivided, for the benefit of our community. We are both busy working parents. We both love the law and love our work. Neither of us want to be politicians. Our young children only get one summer of 2019. We would like to spend our time with them rather than running against each other. To that end, we had an honest and collaborative conversation. We write this letter to share our thoughts from that conversation with the public. Given the timing of this race, and in order to preserve the integrity of the judiciary, we have decided the following: Judge Kennedy-Smith will not be seeking the position of Tompkins County Judge for this election cycle and will not oppose Judge Scott Miller for the Democratic nomination.While we came to this race with different backgrounds, interests, and | strengths, we believe both of us would do an excellent job and are highly qualified to sit on the bench. We discussed this decision at length and we | both agree this is the best way, given the circumstances, to move forward. In the end we are both judges. When the law reflects the values of our community, everyone wins. We are writing this, unified, so everyone will win, now and in the future. (2B — fat A Mp Judge Maura Kennedy-Smith Judge Scott Miller