Hein and Cahill remain at odds over state budget manipulations in June that resulted in Ulster’s temporary $25 million sales tax being extended, over Cahill’s objections, in exchange for the county picking up some $600,000 in election expenses Hein had passed down to the towns a few years ago.
Presumably, other state legislators representing the area were as concerned about their constituents as the county executive, but they weren’t mentioned, either.
A few eyebrows must have been raised by Hein’s decision to give some 1,200 county workers the day off after the storm, supposedly to hold down traffic on storm-ravished roads. Indications are most people in the private sector made it to work, however belatedly. County workers were back on the job on Tuesday.
There was no truth to the rumor that Hein declared martial law.
“Why is the DA here?” one reporter whispered to another at a press conference featuring emergency response leaders. “He’s running for re-election, fool,” whispered the other.
DA Holley Carnright offered not one word to the proceedings, but he looked seriously concerned. The event was eerily similar to March of 2008 when the district attorney called a press conference in the million-dollar lobby of the Law Enforcement Center. He announced at that time that a grand jury report on the jail debacle had handed up but one minor misdemeanor, adding, sorry, its findings were sealed forever.
Yo, democracy!
As Gen. George Armstrong Custer liked to say, it’s good to get out in the field once in a while. So, off I went to the New Paltz Democratic caucus last week, the only one that counts in that one-party town. One horse or not, Huguenots, whether gnarly native or new arrival, love their New Paltz, and Democrats stand by their party’s values.
The marquee event of the evening was Legislator Susan Zimet’s challenge to four-term Supervisor Toni Hokanson. The contest, as it turned out, was more in the minds of pundits than the 223 Democrats who actually cast votes. Zimet scored a resounding and to some astounding 167-to-56 vote victory. The almost three-to-one margin over a seemingly solid incumbent gave pause to Zimet’s claim that she had decided to run only a week before the caucus. Nobody, especially a lightning rod like Zimet, wracks up a 74 percent landslide with only a week’s preparation.
