As a new infusion of unopposed Democratic alders prepare to take municipal office this November 8, the Republican Party in the City of Kingston seems to have collapsed. The Republican line will offer no candidates on the ballot. Enrollment numbers show red-party voters badly outnumbered across the city.
John Quigley, former head of the Republican Committee in Kingston who stepped down in August, said that no candidates had come forward to represent the Republican line in the time frame in which petitions were being circulated.
The Kingston Democratic Committee reports 40 members currently serving in the city’s 27 election districts, The Republican committee reports just 14.
City of Kingston purchasing agent Brian Woltmann has been nominated and approved to lead the party into 2024. He says he looks forward to discussing the party platform after the elections have passed.
Whether there will be much to discuss is an open question. Like bowling clubs and the Masonic lodges before them, the grand old party in Kingston has been stagnating.
“The party isn’t losing members,” a Republican operative explained. “It’s just this steady influx of Democratic Party voters moving up from New York City.”
Active voter rolls in Kingston describe an insurmountable blue-party advantage. As of February, there were 7384 registered Democrats versus 1944 registered Republicans. An additional 144 voters registered with the Working Families Party tend to vote Democratic, and 254 residents are registered with the Conservative Party, which swings Republican. Democrats outnumber Republicans three to one in most wards .
While charismatic or loathsome candidates can inflame or dampen turnout and distort these odds, examination of the turnout in past alder contests bear these percentages out. Even if a Democrat in Kingston runs unopposed for a seat on the common council, the number of blank votes recorded averages anywhere from between 30 to 35 percent.
Blank votes, also called protest votes, are sometimes cast to demonstrate dissatisfaction with a candidate or candidates offered. An unchecked box might be an expression of displeasure.
In a contest with two or more participants, the incidence of blank votes cast shrinks to about three percent of the total.
The City of Kingston has recorded a net gain of around 300 residents over the last decade. If population influx were why Republicans are being routed at the polls, hundreds of Republicans would have to be moving out to other municipalities as fast as Democrats were moving in to account for the lackluster GOP membership numbers. And this is not happening.
Voter registration rolls show 2111 active registered Republicans in the year 2013. By this year the Republicans had lost 335 members. Democratic numbers over the same decade started with 4878 Democrats and ended with 2506 more than that.
According to the U.S. Census, the population of Kingston in 2010 was 23, 893. By 2023, the city had gained 414 people.
The massive shift was caused by the registration of new voters within the existing population. Democratic registrations dramatically benefited,
While Republican numbers saw modest new registration bumps during the 2016 and 2020 presidential races, Democratic registrations dramatically increased. Doomed excitement for their presidential candidate in 2016 saw over 500 new Democrats register in Kingston. The fear and loathing of a repeat defeat inspired almost 1000 new registrations four years later.
The only thing left to account for such a massive shift is the registration of new voters within the existing population. Democratic registrations dramatically benefited,
The last time a Republican won a seat at the common-council table was a result of Ward 7 Mike Olivieri’s decision to run on the Republican Party line after being passed over for nomination by the Democratic Party, his first choice.
The numbers suggest that Republicans in Kingston will be lost in the hinterlands of Kingston City politics for some years to come while they search for a galvanizing and charismatic new slate of candidates to lead them back to the promised land.
That representation will double if Lopez and Gurgui both succeed on November 7. Gurgui is running for the open seat in the Saugerties, Ulster, Town of Kingston district. If he wins, ensuring transportation options for all will be at the top of his agenda.
Kingston Common Council candidates
Ward 1 – Democrat Sara J. Pasti. During the June primary competition to replace council member Barbara Hill, ex- council member for the City of Beacon Sara Pasti won against For-the-Many-supported candidate Charlotte Lloyd. The housing activist group For-the-Many attacked Hill mercilessly for what they saw as Hill’s tepid representation of tenants’ rights at the Stony Run apartment complex. When Hill resigned early, Pasti was endorsed by the Democratic Party ahead of the nominating convention. She gained the party nomination and was already placed on the council.
Ward 2 – Democrat Michael Tierney. Young Turk and political sophisticate employed at the county office as a senior legislative employee, Tierney also serves as a tenant representative on the Rental Guidelines Board. Tierney will replace outgoing single-term alder Carl Frankel, who will serve out his term.
Ward 3 – Democrat Rennie Scott-Childress. In the only race on the council to be contested by an opponent on a party line, the incumbent, an assistant professor of history at SUNY New Paltz, will face a challenge from Republican Jean C. Jacobs, a salty opponent running on the self created Jacobs for People party line. Jacobs rose to infamy in a 2017 legislature race for supplying an unsolicited and tone-deaf art critique of an O Positive mural which depicted indigenous persons. Jacobs’ opining came across as racist to many. So much so that the candidate was dropped from the Republican Party line when the organization rescinded its endorsement. Previously Jacobs has served as head of the Kingston Republican Committee.
Ward 4 – Democrat Jeanne Edwards. Building inspector for the City of Kingston replaces majority leader Rita Worthington to represent the ward with the highest crime rate and the lowest voter turnout in the city. It also holds the distinction of being the most diverse ward in Kingston. Worthington will serve out her term.
Ward 5 – Democrat Teryl Mickens. A former Manhattanite and Kingston Landmarks Preservation commissioner, Mickens replaces outgoing single-term alder Naimah Muhammad. Mickens ran for the same seat in 2017, losing decisively to William Carey. Muhammad will serve out her term.
Ward 6 – Democrat Bob Dennison. Former chief engineer for the New York State Department of Transportation (and before that regional DOT director for the Hudson Valley, Dennison replaces second-longest-serving alder Tony Davis. Dennison gained the Democratic nomination and was installed on the council after Davis resigned. Dennison is a compulsive public servant, serving as a commissioner of Public Works as well as a board member of the Land Bank. “I spent my career was in public service,” says Dennison. “So it’s kind of like an illness.”
Ward 7 – Race wide open. Mike Olivieri resigned too late in the season to get his name off the ballot. Votes to Olivieri will be essentially sap write-in votes. Sources say the Democratic Party prefers currently appointed Center for Creative Education executive director Drew Andrews to fill the seat. This ward has one of the higher concentrations of Republican voters in the city proportional to the number of Democrats and voted for a Republican candidate in the 2021 contest. Without Andrew’s name on the ballot, a well organized write-in campaign could upset Democrat Party plans.
Ward 8 – Democrat Steve Schabot. Longest-serving alder on the council, the friendly raconteur came out on the winning side of an ethics complaint earlier in the year for his failure to recuse himself when voting on a matter related to The Kingstonian, the controversial mixed-use development project pursued by Brad Jordan, Schabot’s employer. The incumbent will return to represent Ward 8 with his usual aplomb.
Ward 9 – Democrat Michelle Hirsch. Daughter of a police officer, founder of the Ulster County Children’s Advocacy Network (UCCAN), the two-term incumbent will return to afflict the comfortable and keep conformity at bay through speeches and protest votes.
Council president/alder member-at-large – Democrat Andrea Shaut. The council president serves a four-year term on the same cycle as the mayor. Pursuing a law degree, the talented pianist and incumbent seeks four more years.
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