Ellen DiFalco, former confidential secretary to former Kingston mayor Shayne Gallo, predecessor to current mayor Steve Noble, submitted designating petitions on Thursday to challenge Noble this November. She will be running on the Independence and Republican Party ballot lines and hopes to pick up the support of dissident Democrats.
“I didn’t think it was fair to the voters, to let the seat go unchallenged,” DiFalco said in a prepared statement quoted in a story on the midhudsonnews.com website. “No one should get a free ride.Voters should have the opportunity to choose the candidate who can best represent the people, not select groups.”
An employee at Ulster County Department of Tourism for 27 years, DiFalco later in 2004 became the first woman to serve as clerk of the Ulster County Legislature. Joining on the ticket is a partial slate of aldermanic candidates seeking to unseat members of the Democratic-dominated common council are DiFalco’s husband, Joseph DiFalco, who is running in the Third Ward against incumbent Democrat Rennie Scott-Childress. Other candidates on the slate are Ursula Ingham for First Ward alderman, running against incumbent Democrat Jeffrey Morrell, and Fifth Ward candidate Madeline Watson Hoetger, running against newcomer Democrat Don Tallerman.
The DiFalcos have been vocal critics of the Noble administration since the current mayor took office in 2016.