Political fireworks exploded over Kingston last Sunday afternoon after alders Michael Tierney and Michele Hirsch shook out a barrel of gunpowder in the public square and then passed matches around.
The two released a statement on Monday, March 5, taking aim at Gabi Madden, the unendorsed challenger running ahead of the Democratic primary for the party line. Madden hopes to unseat first-term incumbent assemblymember Sarahana Shrestha.
Hirsch and Tierney called for Madden to return contributions from Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) board members Mary Ann Tighe Hidalgo ($500) and Jeffery Gural ($1000) as well as a contribution from Richard Lanzarone ($1000), whose pro-landlord group, the Hudson Valley Property Owners Association, sued the City of Kingston in an unsuccessful attempt to get the court to throw out that city’s adoption of its Emergency Tenants Protection Act.
Also a contributor was New Jersey property manager Seema Gruman, CEO of Opus Management, the company that manages the Chestnut Mansion complex in the Rondout, where the alders say tenants have faced gas shutoffs, winter heat outages, and gas and carbon monoxide leaks that displaced a dozen families.
“It’s no surprise that the real-estate industry is wading into local elections as part of their campaign to keep taking in record profits and block tenant protections,” Tierney said in the statement. “But candidates seeking to represent our community should reject their donations and make clear that they will fight for tenants in our district.”
In her reply, Madden fired back, and then some.
“I’m beholden to no one other than my constituents,” she said. “Michelle and Michael’s press release is not about housing or what’s best for our tenants, it’s about trying to slander my name regarding fundraising. I’ve been transparent with voters from the start. The same cannot be said for my opponent, who claims not to accept corporate donations.”
Madden has made no secret regarding her intentions to accept corporate donations. She declared her campaign would do so openly at a February meeting of the county Democratic committee, ahead of the Democratic nominating convention.
Madden accused Shrestha of being the first to go negative in the race with sexist and misogynistic attacks, characterizing the statement as being “a red herring to distract true Democrats from my opponent’s links to the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and For the Many.” She also lambasted Shrestha and Hirsch for “sitting as panelists for a housing forum co-hosted by the Communists of America.”
The panel on March 22 in question, billed as a town-hall discussion about a good-cause eviction law, attracted the likes of county social-services commissioner Mike Iapoce and state senator Michelle Hinchey chief of staff Morgan Weinberg.
Madden accused the Shrestha campaign of accepting corporate donations funneled to her campaign through money raised by the DSA and For the Many, a housing activist group whose non-profit status is underwritten by the Tides Advocacy, a San Francisco-based 501(c)4. Tides Advocacy accepts and distributes contributions through a process as opaque as that of the right-wing 501(c)4 Americans for Prosperity.
Hadley Parum, campaign manager for Shrestha, responded with their own statement.
“There are so many inaccuracies in this rant it’s hard to know where to start,” Parum said. “But as a tenant who has been able to stay in Kingston only because of rent stabilization, I’m appalled that our opponent is raising money from the same people seeking to destroy it so they can keep hiking rents and kicking people out of their homes.”
With both candidates taking the gloves off and political infighting within the dominant party breaking out into the open, it’s the surest sign yet that election season has officially begun.
Buckle up. It’s going to get bumpy.
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