James H. Ridgeway Admonished

James H. Ridgeway, a justice of the Richland Town Court in Oswego County, New York since 2000, was admonished by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct for directly or indirectly making more than $6,000 in political contributions prohibited under the Code of Judicial Conduct. Ridgeway, who also worked for years as a staff representative with the United Steelworkers Union, made 138 automatic payroll-deduction contributions totaling $3,311 to the union's political action fund between 2006 and 2017. He separately made 33 contributions totaling $824 to ActBlue, the Democratic Party's online fundraising platform, between 2006 and 2016, and eight contributions totaling $265 to Senator Bernie Sanders's presidential campaign between 2015 and 2016. Ridgeway acknowledged his conduct was improper and agreed to the admonition.