A court ruling means there will probably be a Conservative Party primary in September in the race for the 49th Senate District seat.

Because local Conservative Party chairs had such strong disagreement about the state party's choice of Republican Assemblyman Jeff Brown, they had initially backed Tom Dadey. When Dadey officially declined, they replaced Dadey's candidacy with Nancy Brown, a registered Conservative. Jeff Brown had filed a lawsuit challenging the legitimacy of petition signatures collected on behalf of Dadey and later transferred to Nancy Brown.

A New York State Supreme Court judge ruled last week that there had been no fraud in the petition process and that Nancy Brown could replace Dadey as a candidate in the Sept. 12 primary.

Cayuga County Conservative Party Chairman Greg Rigby said Tuesday he expects the ruling to be appealed and that an appeal could be heard as soon as next week. Rigby said area Conservatives were displeased with the state party's selection of Jeff Brown because they don't see strong philosophical differences between Jeff Brown and incumbent Democratic state Sen. David Valesky.