Shandaken, Olive, Hurley election results

Republicans roll again in Hurley: Bellow wins tenth term as supervisor

Gary Bellows

Gary Bellows won his tenth non-consecutive term as Hurley Town Supervisor this week, alongside a solid GOP majority that will allow him to continue his tight control over town matters, no matter this year’s Democratic opposition calls for greater transparency and more full-time commitment to municipal matters.

Bellows received 1,120 votes to 711 for Evan Matthews; while Republican incumbent John Gill and party-mate John Dittus, a political newcomer, easily defeated Democratic challenger William McKnight with an unofficial vote count, as of Wednesday, of 1,442, 1,338 and 822, respectively.

For town justice, incumbent Republicans Michael Jordan and John Parker received vote tallies of 1,349 and 1,184, respectively, against Tracy Kellogg, a Democrat and former Woodstock supervisor, who received 679 votes, and Christopher Burns, running on the Conservative and Independence lines, with 556 votes.

The town’s closest race was for highway superintendent, where incumbent Clyde Russell, a Republican with Independence Party backing, won a third term with 1,154 votes versus 856 for Michael Paul, who ran as a Democrat with Conservative Party backing.

The best talley was won by incumbent Town Clerk/Tax Collector Judy Mayhon, a Democrat with Conservative Party backing, who received a total of 1,675 votes running unopposed for a third two-year term.

Legislature races

For county legislature, the town went with two Democrats running against nominal opponents. Richard Parete easily defeated Conservative Party candidate Arthur Bowen in District 18, which encompasses most of the town beyond West Hurley, and Don Gregorius beat out Republican James Monserrate in the remaining District 23 portion of the town nearest to Woodstock and Olive.

As for any prognosis or meaning from the match ups, which can’t be examined by voting district until official results are released by the county Board of Elections in the coming weeks, it seems that the town has shifted back into a more conservative stance since electing a full Democratic slate nearly a decade ago.

Then again, that may have had to do with lower numbers at the polls. From the basest of numbers available, it seems that turnout equaled about what it was in 2009, but only two thirds of turnout in 2007 and 2005, the latter being when Bellows lost his one election of the past 20 years.++

Paul Smart