Lorin Rose, whose first bid for local electoral office fell short in 2011, when he finished as a respectable runner-up to current Woodstock supervisor Jeremy Wilber, has announced that he will seek the same position in this year’s balloting, beginning with the primary contest for the Democratic nomination.
Rose confirmed his candidacy in a January 29 interview. “I am absolutely running for the office of supervisor. I had such a blast the last time,” said the Bearsville native, whose folksy persona and punchy aphorisms enlivened the 2011 campaign. In response to a recent e-mail query, Wilber said that it was much too early for him to decide whether to seek another term in the upcoming election. Wilber previously served as supervisor from 2000 to 2007.
Rose noted that he has converted his voter registration status from unenrolled — that is, unaffiliated with a party — to Democratic, in order to run in that party’s primary. He said that he would also seek the nominations of other parties. Among registered voters in Woodstock, approximately 2800 are Democrats, 1100 are unenrolled, and 650 are Republicans.
Dates have yet to be set for the Democratic primary and the caucus at which the local Republican Party will choose its candidates. In recent years the Democratic primary has been held in September. The general election will take place on November 5. In addition to choosing a supervisor, Woodstock voters will elect two Town Board members and one town justice, all of whom will serve four-year terms.
The 2011 supervisor contest pitted Wilber, the nominee of the Democratic and Working Families parties, against Rose, who ran with the endorsements of the Republican Party and the ad hoc Common Sense Party, which Rose devised for the occasion. Wilber tallied 961 votes to Rose’s 823. The supervisor serves a term of two years, functioning as the town’s chief fiscal officer as well as one of the Town Board’s five members. The current salary for the full-time position is about $49,000.
Reasons for running
If elected, said Rose, who is the retired owner of a construction business and a member of the Planning Board, he would strive to improve the maintenance of town properties and broaden public participation in government.
“We need to do better maintenance on some of our stuff. We need to do some things differently, like putting together our infrastructure,” said the candidate. “The roof of the highway garage has been leaking since it was put up, but the town has just ignored it. The roof leaks terribly whenever it rains and whenever snow melts. The heating system was installed improperly, is expensive to operate, and doesn’t work. These problems are killing employee morale.”
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