Sean Eldridge speaks to supporters in Kingston Tuesday night as husband Chris Hughes applauds. (Photo: Phyllis McCabe)
Additionally, Eldridge was never able to shake the “carpetbagger” label that has dogged him since he first announced his candidacy. Eldridge was born in Canada and grew up in Ohio. He and his husband, Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, moved to the Westchester County riverside town of Garrison in 2011 and appeared poised to run in the area’s 18th Congressional District. In January 2013, with Eldridge’s path to office in Westchester now blocked by the election of Democrat Sean Patrick Maloney, the couple purchased a $2 million home in Shokan, well within the 19th. Eldridge quickly opened an office in Kingston for Hudson River Ventures, a firm which invests in small and mid-sized businesses in the region. He also took seats on the boards of Planned Parenthood of the Hudson Valley and the environmental group Scenic Hudson while helping to fund a climate-change study in Kingston.
Gibson, who returned to his Columbia County hometown of Kinderhook after a distinguished military career and who stands in the bottom-fifth of Congress in terms of personal wealth, rarely missed an opportunity to contrast his background with his opponent’s, while accusing Eldridge trying to buy a House seat. He labeled his campaign “The Home Team.” Defending his support for the Koch Brothers’ Pledge, he described the damage wrought by energy taxes on his working-class family. His dismissed his opponent’s accomplishments, saying, “He married well.”
GOTV? DOA
By Election Day, with polls showing Gibson holding a near insurmountable lead, Eldridge supporters pinned what was left of their hopes on a well coordinated get out the vote (abbreviated GOTV on social media) effort. Eldridge spent the final day of the campaign on a relentless canvass of Democratic strongholds in Ulster County. His volunteers did the same. In the end, it didn’t matter. When the votes were counted it was clear that the Gibson was poised to outperform the Siena/Time Warner poll by five points or more.
Gibson said Wednesday that in the final week of the campaign he and his staff had noted a trend on social media and on the streets. Previously undecided voters were beginning to publicly state their intention to vote for him.
“I actually think the Siena poll got it right,” said Gibson. “But in those last eight or nine days, the undecideds starting breaking for me. That’s not always the case, usually they break for the challenger.”
For Eldridge and his supporters, the campaign ended in the ballroom of Kingston’s Garden Plaza Hotel. Local Democrats, including County Executive Mike Hein and Kingston Mayor Shayne Gallo, appeared more focused on the outcome of races for Family Court judge and state Senate than the demonstrably doomed Congressional race. Meanwhile, Eldridge’s campaign staff occupied a corner table staring at laptops where news of landslide defeat trickled in from the state Board of Elections website. A projection screen set up to track results in the race was quickly folded.
Shortly before 11 p.m., apparently as Eldridge was calling Gibson to concede the race, his press liaison, Sophie Friedman, quietly informed reporters that the candidate would not be taking questions after his statement. A few minutes later, Ulster County Democratic Chairman Frank Cardinale took the podium to congratulate Eldridge on an energetic campaign. Then Eldridge emerged, accompanied by Hughes, to give his final speech of the campaign season. He thanked his staff and volunteers, congratulated his opponents and said that the fight, while lost, had not been in vain.
“Although we fell short tonight, I am proud of the issues we focused on in this race,” said Eldridge. “From building an economy that works for all Americans to the need to address campaign finance reform and climate change with much greater urgency, and I remain committed to fighting for those issues and working to make life better for families in our region.”
