The Nyack Democratic Committee met tonight to endorse candidates for Mayor and two Village Trustee seats. It was a sad turnout for such an important meeting, where only 15 of the 25 members attended, and 5 of them were candidates. But Richard Kavesh made a strong showing, winning the endorsement with 9 votes. There were 2 votes for Marie Lorenzini, and 1 for Denise Hogan. Five people abstained. Marianne Olive, owner of Olive’s restaurant, also attended (she is not a Committee member) to ask for the Committee’s endorsement.
The Committee also unanimously endorsed unopposed candidates Jen White and Doug Foster (which is me, in the interest of full disclosure) for Village Trustee.
The endorsement does not necessarily “mean” anything, because all three of the other mayoral candidates said they would continue campaigning, guaranteeing a primary, which should be lively with four candidates. In recent history there has been no competition in the Mayoral race. The primary process involves the collection of signatures, as the candidates “walk” the Village to get at least 119 of the required signatures from registered Democrats (5% of the total). In practice, the candidates get much more since opponents are likely to contest some of them, which can be disqualified for a variety of reasons. Having a large number of signatures is also shows strength.
In the end, whoever wins the primary will likely be Mayor since the Village is overwhelmingly Democratic, with 2,363 registered voters compared to the Republican party’s 522. The last time there was a seriously contested Mayoral race was 1997, with Terri Hekker and Brenda Hudson. The Trustee races were also pretty hot that year, which was the last time the Republican’s made a serious bid for office in the Village.
The dirty little secret is that County and Town Republicans LIKE when there is no Republican candidates in the Village because it tends to depress the turnout in the Village, which is overwhelmingly Democratic, and helps elect Republicans town-wide.
Kavesh said he was humbled to get the Committee’s endorsement, but that this was just the beginning of a marathon, and he takes nothing for granted.
