Once rock-ribbed Republican, Hurley has gradually been trending Democratic. According to the board of elections, there are now 1,504 enrolled Democrats in the town, as compared to 1,348 Republicans. Those registrants who choose no party at all number 1,533 in Hurley. The mischievous Independence Party, with 205 registrants, could be influential.
Town Democratic Chairman Kevin DuMond, the ever-optimistic former county health department inspector, has reason for hope. “We got issues,” he said. “We got issues.”
The Dems currently don’t have any representation on the town board. Uncle John’s niece is hoping to change that.
Ode to the Resnicks
Harry Resnick, 94, the last of the celebrated Resnick brothers of Ellenville, died last week in Florida. His burial in the family plot in Wawarsing was attended by some 200 mourners.
The story of Harry (the oldest), Lou and Joe Resnick (the two-term congressman) was an epic of invention and industry (Channelmaster), great wealth and influence, community renewal, and tragedy. Joe, with electronic training from his World War II Navy days, invented a TV antenna that the brothers parlayed into a $45 million fortune. Tragically, Harry’s daughter Trudy was kidnapped and murdered. Her father built the Trudy Resnick Farber social services center in Ellenville in her memory. Joe, the politician, died after a heart attack in early middle age.
Lou Resnick was a former county legislator from Ellenville and county Democratic chairman. Resnick and wife Mildred were among the county’s leading philanthropists. Joe Resnick was twice elected to Congress and was a candidate in a Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in 1968. The county highway department building in Kingston is named for him.
Though the brothers returned much of their Channelmaster millions to their home town, they followed their avocations in different ways. Or as Joe Resnick once said after a weary day of constituent work, “Lou has his horses [champion trotter Nevele Pride], Harry has his [vintage] cars, and I guess I have my newspaper headlines.”
Harry’s passing marks the end of a remarkable era, as County Comptroller Elliott Auerbach, who grew up in Ellenville during the Resnick salad days, put it.
