Ulster County Democratic Party Chairman Frank Cardinale and his executive committee have decided “not to put a finger on the scale at this late date” by not offering a vote among the seven congressional contenders at last week’s annual party nominating convention.
Did anybody get the license numbers of those bulldozers that buried Paul VanBlarcum and Abe Uchitelle at the Ulster County Democratic convention in Kingston Monday night? I think they had blue plates.
Say what you will about retiring the Republican state senators John Bonacic and Bill Larkin, but they brought home the bacon.
I wonder whether Andrew Cuomo had any idea before he took the stage at Sunday’s “blue-wave” Democratic rally in Kingston that his two-time running mate, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, would be accused of multiple instances of abusing women the next day. And resign a day later.
Bonacic’s retirement announcement last week did not come as a huge surprise to those who follow these things. He’s been inching toward the door for at least the last two terms, allowing speculation to foment before returning to the lists. He will be 76 in June. His signature achievement after 20 years in the House of Lords was the opening this year of the near-billion-dollar Resorts World Catskills in Sullivan County.
Those who try to figure out how power flows in Ulster County government might find the following of interest. Let’s call it the last autopsy.
Several weeks ago I filed a column item tagged “Everyone Loves Nina,” a send-up in my mind on the long-running TV comedy, “Everybody Loves Raymond.” Therein, tongue-in-cheek, I then described county legislature Democratic minority leader Hector Rodriguez of New Paltz as “an Hispanic terrier named Hector.” That was ill-considered and hurtful. I apologize.
Gubernatorial candidate Marcus Molinaro’s enlistment of former congressman Chris Gibson as his campaign manager may have come as a surprise to some, given Gibson’s retirement from politics for family reasons two years ago.
If the Democratic candidates challenge the signatures of rivals, it could narrow the field, which increases the number of votes needed to win. What to do?
Pat Ryan steals a march on the crowded Democratic field by holding a “town hall” event as a candidate. But it’s still early, and the gun issue will play far differently outside of Ulster in November.