No Real Choices in Local Elections

In the City of Kingston, voters will likely have little or no choice this November for county or city offices.  Democrats will have some choices for some races on Primary Day.

City Democrats are greasing the skids (as noted in a prior posting) to try to force the nomination to Noble and Noble thus setting up a primary between them and Gallo and Provenzano.  Frankly, the latter is more likely to win the primaries though the Noble Provenzano race will be very interesting.  Gallo will trounce the younger Noble.

Republicans, however, seem to have little options.  I hope this will change, but right now City Republicans have only 1 confirmed Aldermanic candidate and 2 possibilities.  They have no Alderman-at-Large candidate and no Legislator candidates even though one district is wide open.

They have 2 possible Mayoral candidates with Ron Polacco likely to win either the nomination, the primary, or perhaps both.

On the county level, there are no challengers for any of the incumbents.  Holly Carnright and Judge McGinty have no challengers.  Mike Hein did have a challenger, but when that credible challenger went to the County Republicans, he was told he would get no support as the County Republicans refuse to offer any challenge to Mike Hein.  (This will likely be denied, but my information is very solid and is confirmed on this.)

It would appear that the only choices this year will be for City Democrats who will have several primaries.  Tom Hoffay and the extreme far left of the City Democrats are not only seeking to replace Gallo with a puppet they can control, but are also going after any of the incumbent Democrat Alderman that are perceived in any way as moderate or favorable in any way to Gallo.

While Republicans are sitting this one out (except for Ron Polacco), there is a civil war within the City Democrat Committee.  The old school Democrats (Gallo, Provenzano, and so forth) are being pressured by the far left contingency (Hoffay, Landi, Will, Dunn, etc.)  One might even refer to this battle as the Blue Collar Democrats versus far left (largely relocated NYC'ers).

Their battle could set up an interesting paradox and decision for the general election.  Suppose hypothetically that after the primaries, Gallo has the Democrat line, Noble has Working Families, Green, and Independence lines, and Polacco has Republican and Conservative.  The question becomes whether Hoffay and his merry band of left wing fringe decide that defeating Gallo is more important than having four years of Republican control of the Mayor's office.  If all 3 candidates run hard in such a scenario, Polacco would have an outside shot of pulling off the upset.

As I watch all of this stuff, all I can think is ......what the hell has happened to the City of Kingston?  What happened to honor?  When will the Republicans drop their current leader and actually put up a fight?  And perhaps more strange still -- why on God's green Earth is anyone even listening to Tom Hoffay anymore?