The 2023 Election in the Mid-Hudson
Personal rivalries, patronage, prognostications, and more than one person wanting to be coroner
Welcome back to The Hudson Line, first off I want to thank everyone who has subscribed to this newsletter. We had a big spike in subscribers the first day and we’ve been steadily growing over the course of the weekend. This is a pretty niche subject area so it’s been particularly heartening to see this number of people displaying an interest. As I stated in my inaugural post, this is going to be pretty rapid-fire in terms of content being released given election season is coming to a close and we’re going to have some fresh results to look at.
The way I am going to do this is begin with state ballot measures, then go on a tirade about Supreme Court “races” (you’ll see why I use quotes), and then go county-by-county and town-by-town. This will not cover every race, but rather the ones of particular significance. It should not be thought of as a voter’s guide but more a recap of the dynamics at play. I encourage you to CTRL+F for your specific town or city if that kind of minutia doesn’t interest you. Makes sense? Alright, let us begin!
Statewide
There are two ballot measures in New York State this year and in true New York fashion, they’re incredibly bureaucratic. They both have to do with the constitutionally mandated debt limits of government entities.
Ballot Measure 1 has to do with the debt limit of small city schools, which is currently limited under the constitution to 5% of taxable real estate. Districts like Beacon, Kingston, Newburgh, and Poughkeepsie all have this limitation while neighboring school districts have no such limit. At risk of going on a tangent about what a disaster tying school funding to local property tax revenue is, I expect this to pass.
Ballot Measure 2 would extend the existing moratorium on counting debt from the construction of municipal and county sewer systems towards that entity’s debt limit for another 10 years. Likewise, I expect this to pass.
Supreme Court
New York Supreme Court races are the closest we have to honest-to-god Tammany patronage jobs in the year 2k23. It is slightly better upstate than in the city but only marginally so.
You may have noticed, given by reading this you’re probably a diligent voter, that you didn’t vote for any of these people during the primaries in June. That’s because there was no primary. Judicial candidates are effectively handpicked by party insiders at closed conventions, where there is often one candidate. The only dignity we have over our friends downstate is that their jurisdiction is over several different counties, so at least it’s not literally a single party boss picking them, as is generally the case in the city, though larger counties dominate. We can at least take some solace in that despite the name, this is actually the lowest level of the NYS courts.
Voters in Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, and Westchester Counties are in the 9th. In 2019, the Republicans only put up one candidate for these, leading to a jarring situation where three of the four judicial candidates were simultaneously nominated by the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, the Conservative Party, and the Independence Party. This year, Republicans have managed to put up a slate, though as we’ll get to in a minute, it’s not a particularly serious one.
Voters will be able to choose four of eight candidates: Francesca Connolly (D, C), Charley Wood (D, C), Rolf Thorsen (D, C), Larry Schwartz (D, C), John Sarcone (R), Karen Ostberg (R), Susan Sullivan-Bisceglia (R), and John Ciampoli (R)
That “C” next to the name of the Democratic candidates is for the Conservative Party, which would rather back the winning horse in these races than the Republican sacrificial lambs. Connolly and Wood are both incumbents, Schwartz and Thorsen are Rockland County judges.
On the Republican side, Sarcone is a lawyer from Croton, Ostberg a town judge from Minisink, and Sullivan-Bisceglia a town judge from LaGrange. Hilariously, Ciampoli is an election lawyer from Long Island, they couldn’t even fill a slate with candidates who live in the district. This is not unique either, at least one other Long Islander is running for Supreme Court in the 7th district, metro Rochester.
Particularly controversial among the judges running is Wood, who switched registration from the Republican Party four years ago and ruled for Project Veritas against the New York Times. He barely won a floor vote at the convention in August. You can probably see why the Working Families Party refuses to endorse in the 9th on principle. These races are decided downstate by the Rockland and Westchester Democratic Parties long before any ballots are printed.
Voters in Ulster, Columbia, Greene, Sullivan, Rensselaer, Albany, and Schoharie Counties are in the 3rd.
I know little about these races besides that the Working Families Party actually endorses candidates in it, and the Conservative Party doesn’t endorse the Democrats, which hopefully means things are slightly better than in the 9th. Unlike the 9th, there are three seats. Candidates are Richard Rivera (D, WF), Daniel Lynch (D, WF), Sherri Brooks-Morton (D, WF), and Dana Salazar (R, C).
Rivera and Brooks-Morton are Albany Family Court judges. Lynch is the Albany County Deputy Executive. Salazar is a lawyer in East Greenbush. All but Salazar are expected to win handily.
Dutchess
Countywide
The first test of the County Republicans post-Cult of Molinaro (something I will write about eventually) is taking place in this year’s county level races. The boy mayor of Tivoli, first elected to public office at age 18 and having not left it since, enjoyed a great deal of bipartisan goodwill during his 11 years as County Executive. During the blue wave of 2018 while Senator Gillbrand carried Dutchess County by a 15-point margin, Molinaro carried Dutchess in his run for Governor by 7 points, an unbelievable 22-point overperformance on the same ballot while only outperforming the Republican for Senate by three points statewide. He would be re-elected the next year by an even wider 16-point margin in the light blue county. Much of this goodwill dried up last year when he ran for federal office and lost to Pat Ryan, though he successfully won a congressional seat just north of Dutchess County that November, resigning his county office and moving to Catskill. The acting executive is William O’Neil, who is not seeking a term in his own right.
With that said, Republicans have certainly found their ideal candidate in Sue Serino (R, C). A Dutchess County institution in her own right, Serino was elected to the Hyde Park Town Board in 2010 and recruited to run for State Senate in 2014 against a vulnerable first term Democratic incumbent. She would go on to serve four terms in a State Senate district comprising most of Dutchess and Putnam Counties, including narrowly winning by 688 votes in 2018. In redistricting, her district lost all of Putnam and southern Dutchess and gained Columbia, Greene, and parts of Ulster County, most notably the part where first-term State Senator Michelle Hinchey lived. Serino lost re-election against Hinchey. Regardless, her name recognition and image in Dutchess will certainly be a great asset in this race.
The other candidate in the race is Tommy Zurhellen (D, WF), a Navy veteran and Marist associate professor of English. Serino is the favorite in this race, but it will be very interesting to see by what margin she wins, given how important Molinaro’s coattails were for other county candidates on the ballot in 2019.
In the race for County Clerk, there is a rematch of four years ago between incumbent Brad Kendall (R, C) and former Fishkill boardmember Kenya Gadsen (D, WF). Kendall won by 10 points in 2019 and is widely expected to be re-elected, though his share of the vote has narrowed from 60% in 2015 to 55% in 2019. There is certainly room for an upset, but I would not count on it.
Perhaps the most interesting race this year is for County DA. Incumbent William Grady is retiring this term, following a near-upset in 2019 when the DA who had never faced a serious challenge in his 40 years in office barely eeked out a victory against Democrat Richard Berube by about 800 votes.
Running to replace him are two assistant DAs, his handpicked successor Matthew Weishaupt (R, C) and Anthony Parisi (D, WF). Parisi has alleged that Grady asked for his resignation upon entering the race allegedly due to the tension created by running against a colleague. Grady backtracked the next day and even Weishaupt has stated he considered this improper. This is about as close to a true toss-up race on the ballot this year, but I give a knife-edge advantage to Parisi.
For Family Court, Joseph Egitto (R, C) is facing a challenge for re-election against James Rogers (D, WF). The incumbent is heavily favored.
Beacon
Mayor Lee Kyriacou (D) is unchallenged for re-election, as are all seven City Councilors. Justice McCray of Ward 2 is retiring and will be replaced by Jeff Domanski (D) as is George Mansfield who holds an at-large seat, he will be replaced by Pamela Wetherbee (D). Notable among councilors re-elected is MHV-DSA’s Dan Aymar-Blair (D, WF) in Ward 4.
Poughkeepsie (City of)
Poughkeepsie will have a new mayor for the second time in a year, with Republican Rob Rolison resigning to take up his seat in the State Senate earlier this year and City Administrator Marc Nelson taking office, the first Democrat to serve as mayor for some time. A professional city administrator, Nelson came to the city from Hartford, CT about a decade ago. He ran for a term in his own right, but came in a distant third in this year’s Democratic primary. He will be the town manager of Simsbury, CT after leaving office.
The winner of the Democratic primary was Yvonne Flowers (D), a close ally of former mayor Rolison who bested For The Many-endorsed Wesley Lee in a low-turnout primary this summer. The longtime city councilor of Ward 5, Flowers began her career running as a Republican until a ferocious challenge in 2019 that she won by only 6 votes induced her to change her affiliation. She faces Anthony LaRocca (R), a teacher at Our Lady of Lourdes High School. Flowers is favored to win.
Notable among City Council races, MHV-DSA’s Megan Deichler (D, WF) is unchallenged for re-election. For The Many-endorsed Evan Menist (D, WF) is being challenged by Victor Feit (R, C) but is heavily favored to win.
Ulster
Countywide
At the county level, Jen Metzger (D, WF) is unopposed for County Executive. She won a special election last year upon Pat Ryan vacating the office to take his congressional seat. Metzger ran after losing re-election to her State Senate district in 2020, which has since been drawn out of existence.
The only contested race this year at the county-level is for District Attorney, where Manny Nneji (D, WF) faces Michael Kavanagh (R, C, L). This is after current DA Dave Clegg decided not to run for re-election. Nneji is the chief assistant DA and Kavanagh is a personal injury lawyer. Nneji is heavily favored.
Legislature
In District 4, comprising most of the towns of Ulster and Kingston, there is a contested race to replace retiring incumbent Brian Cahill, whose brother Assemblyman Kevin Cahill was unseated by DSA-endorsed Sarahana Shrestha last year. Tamika Dunkley (D, WF) faces Eric Kitchen (R, C). Cahill won the district by a 6-point margin in 2021 and this race will be hotly contested.
In District 6, covering much of southwestern Kingston, activist Greg McCoullough (D, WF) faces math teacher Suzanne Timbrouck, (I) in the race to succeed retiring DSA-elect Phil Erner. Timbrouck ran as a Republican for the same office last cycle. McCoullough is heavily favored.
Kingston (City of)
Kingston has a race for mayor, with eight-term incumbent Steven Noble (D) facing retired car salesman Scott Denny (R, C). Noble is heavily favored. No aldermen face serious challengers. In Ward 9, For The Many endorsed City Councilor Michele Hirsch (D, WF) will win her third term.
Woodstock
A bizarre personality-driven race is taking place for the office of Town Supervisor. Despite losing the Democratic nomination to incumbent Bill McKenna (D) 770 to 673, Councilman Bennet Ratcliff (WF) resigned as chair of the town Democrats and is still running for office on the Working Families line. To be clear the WFP has no endorsement in the general election and asks candidates to withdraw if they lose the Democratic nomination, Ratcliff refused to do such. Ratcliff accused McKenna of sexually harassing a town employee (he was cleared of wrongdoing by an independent investigator) and mishandling a report of illegal dumping. Ratcliff has in turn been dogged by accusations of involvement in a 2009 coup in Honduras. Yes, really. Allies of Ratcliff are running similarly on the WFP line for Town Board, specifically Linda Lover and Michael Veitch. Population 6,287. God, I love Woodstock. Advantage McKenna.
Orange
Newburgh (City of)
Mayor Torrance Harvey (D, WF) faces two challengers for re-election: former city councilor John Guidice (R, C) and Newburgh Preservation Association interim president Hael Stewart-Fisher (I). Harvey is expected to be re-elected.
On the ballot for the two At-Large City Council seats is Anusha Mehar (WF), who was endorsed by For the Many in a crowded Democratic primary. After an apparent 30-vote victory on election night, incumbent Omari Shakur (D) pulled ahead by four votes when absentee votes were counted. Shakur and Robert McLymore (D) have secured the two slots for the Democratic Party. It is unclear to me if Mehar is still actively seeking the office or if there was some difficulty in withdrawing her name from the ballot, but regardless Shakur and McLymore are expected to win.
Columbia
Countywide
This will be an interesting test of the post-COVID county Democrats, as while the 2019 election was dominated by the county Republicans, Columbia County has trended left faster than any other county in the past three years.
With incumbent Republican District Attorney Paul Czajka retiring, the county Republicans are backing Assistant County DA Ryan Carty (R, C). Challenging him is NYS Assistant Solicitor General Chris Liberati-Conant (D). This and all subsequent competitive Columbia County races will be determined more by turnout than much else, but as I see it Liberati-Conant is a moderate favorite.
Also on the ballot are two seats for County Judge, on the ballot are former Hudson Judge Brian Herman (D, WF), Assistant County Public Defender Michael Howard (D, WF), Assistant County District Attorney Joyce Crawford (R, C), and County Commissioner of Public Services Robert Gibson (R, C). I would give a slight advantage to Herman and Howard.
In the race for County Coroner, which is apparently an elected office, we have a competitive race between former crime scene technician Kevin Marchetto (R, C) and funeral home director Russell Gonzales (D). The incumbent Republican is retiring. I’d give a slight edge to Gonzales.
Incumbent County Treasurer Paul Keeler (R, C) is unchallenged for re-election.
Hudson
All city offices including Mayor, Treasurer, and Council President are uncontested. For The Many-endorsed Ward 1 Supervisor Claire Cousin (D) is unchallenged for re-election. Notably, she is challenging incumbent Assemblywoman Didi Barrett next year, a race I will cover further in the future.
In closing…
Many of the races on the ballot this cycle were last elected in 2019, before COVID-19 and much of the migration we’ve seen to our region.
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