Hurley politics will be seeing something new on November 7, a Republican slate composed mostly of long-time Democrats united under the banner of Keep Hurley Hurley. The nominees will be facing off against the Democratic nominees led by incumbent town supervisor Melinda McKnight.
The Democrats running in the Republican ticket call themselves local patriots. The Democrats running on the Democratic ticket call them local turncoats.
Heading the Republican ticket as Keep Hurley Hurley candidate for town supervisor will be Mike Boms, an incumbent councilperson defeated in the Democratic primary by McKnight, 353-234.
Running for town council on the GOP line will be Diana Cline, a registered Democrat, and Bill Mayhon, not enrolled in any party. Cline came within three votes of defeating Peter Humphries for town council at the Democratic primary.
Gregory Simpson is the other endorsed Democratic candidate.
Tracy Kellogg, running for town clerk, lost the Democratic nomination to Annie Reed by eleven votes. She will be trying again on the Republican line.
The Republicans also nominated two stalwart unopposed incumbents, outspoken highway superintendent Mike Shultis and uncontroversial town justice John Parker, the sole registered Republican on the Republican ticket.
The hitherto dominant Up Hurley faction of the feuding Democrats hopes to have a new comprehensive plan adopted by the town in the near future. The Keep Hurley Hurley folks have been criticizing supervisor McKnight’s spending and budgeting policies.
As immigration into Ulster County continues from New York City, political registration patterns make the local Democratic caucus or primary more important and the November general election less significant. The Republican Party is becoming politically irrelevant, its once-powerful organization enervated into political irrelevance.
Independent candidacy presents one route for dissident Democrats. Bennet Ratcliff and his colleagues in neighboring Woodstock are taking another bite of the electoral apple on a third-party ticket. With so few Republicans in Woodstock, that party’s support might lose the insurgent team more votes than it would gain them.
There are many more Republicans in Hurley. What is the GOP to do? The Trumpian alternative – grin and bear it – has little appeal on the local scene. Though a strategy largely untested in our area, Republicans supporting Democrats unsuccessful in their own primary offers a more palatable route for the Republicans.
“Maybe it will catch on in other municipalities and higher elections,” offered John Perry, the last Republican town supervisor and one of the supporters of the route the Hurley GOP caucus has taken.
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