Hugh Reynolds. (Photo: Dan Barton)
I thought Parete a bit snarky. So did Minority Leader Hector Rodriguez, who asked the chair for a point of order (cease and desist). Ronk ruled otherwise, finding Parete within the legislature’s rules of legislative decorum. Bruised but unbowed, Greene, the lone vote against the nominees, shrugged it off.
The incident suggests the new chairman will encourage vigorous debate.
Poly biz
Ulster County Republican Chairman Roger Rascoe says his party’s bottom-up process of county conventions to vet candidates for Congress in November, as contrasted with the Democratic top-down (code for boss politics) method, augurs well for a GOP victory. John Faso carried Republican conventions in 10 of our 19th District’s 11 counties. Dutchess voted for Millbrook’s Andrew Heaney, who early on withdrew from conventional scrutiny and opted to go direct to ballot in a June primary.
Heaney did request permission to press the flesh at last week’s Ulster convention, which Faso carried with 62 percent. Heaney, who did not address the convention and left before the vote, got 24 percent among about 100 committee members. Delaware’s Bob Bishop picked up the scraps.
Democrats, by comparison, seem in disarray. The county chairs first backed Mike Hein, who backed out in December. Then they opted for Zephyr Teachout of Dutchess. Columbia farmer Will Yandik has also declared. “We had over 1,000 committee members involved in our nominating process,” Rascoe boasted of his infamously cloistered compatriots. “What did Democrats have, a dozen or so party bosses? They missed an opportunity to get their committee people involved.”
Democrats will meet in convention (for the first time) at Kingston City Hall at 7 p.m. next Thursday, March 3. Ulster Democratic chairman Frank Cardinale declined comment about Rascoe’s political analysis.
