The longtime leader of the sole remaining significant Republican stronghold in northern Ulster County, Town of Ulster supervisor James E. Quigley III, announced this Thursday at the meeting of the town board that he would be stepping down from office August 31.
Quigley was not optimistic about the role of his party in the county or in the Town of Ulster, predicting in an interview that the town he had dominated politically would go Democratic in a few years.
“This is a one-party state,” he said. “There is no Republican Party.”
A CPA, Quigley prides himself on his 30 years of experience in managing the finances of complex organizations and his skills in accounting, economic development, strategic planning, and problem-solving.
Since IBM’s departure from his town, he has struggled with innumerable legal complexities to encourage appropriate commercial development to replace the tax base the computer behemoth had provided. But he recognized the generation that supported his policies was aging out, and in his mind being replaced by an uncritical anti-development generation.
He has promised to fight on for his beliefs in the remaining almost six months of his time in office.
“Now the gloves are off,” he said.
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