New Paltz Deputy Mayor Alex Wojcik announces election run for Ulster County Clerk

New Paltz Deputy Mayor Alex Wojcik kicked off a campaign to wrest the county clerk’s job from the late Nina Postupack’s appointed successor on January 26, at the Muse in Rosendale. Ulster’s acting county clerk Taylor Bruck announced his election run last month. Postupack retired last year after 18 years in office. Two months before she lost her two-year battle with cancer, Postupack installed Bruck in her stead as acting county clerk

The space at the Muse had a vibe that very much matches Wojcik’s aesthetic: college activists offering pocket-sized zines about voting rights and community-focused Covid protocols, test kits for fentanyl and xylazine, packets of wildflowers labeled “bee the change you want to see in the world,” and Bombas socks handed out by celebrated ten-year-old homeless advocate Bethany Moultry. By the time the candidate spoke, the room was warmed by 30 or more bodies, among them former legislator Laura Petit and L. Grace Harmon, a current legislator who will not be running for another term. 

Petit was showing support because “I want activists in office, not political hacks.” Wojcik has worked with Petit on a number of initiatives ranging from housing to public transportation, leading Petit to believe that Wojcik has the knowledge to do the job, and the passion to imagine entirely new ways to work as the county’s main keeper of records and information. The ideal clerk will be “accessible and willing to help — that’s what we want.” 

Harmon was also full of praise for Wojcik, saying that the candidate has a long history of managing the practical details that would be essential as county clerk. “Most people don’t know what the county clerk does, and Alex would manage it openly and creatively.” 

Several allies rose to spoke about Wojcik’s bona fides during the formal part of the afternoon. Daniel Atona called Wojcik “a movement candidate . . . who is always moving and builds movements.” Atona praised Wojcik for not being content with the status quo, and said that this is a candidate who could turn the clerk’s office into a place where county residents could learn about all the services available in Ulster County. “Alex as clerk could be a game-changer” for an office that is largely perceived as not being a competitive elective position. 

Noting that “knowledge is power,” Phil Erner said that clerks control the availability of public records, which in Ulster County include centuries of land records, treaties and other documents that summarize the story of colonial settlement in this area. Building on the existing DMV bus — which is run through the county clerk’s office — Erner said that Wojcik could make it possible for residents to access virtually every county service without traveling to Kingston. 

Matthew Mackey said that the county clerk “has gone unseen for too long,” and that it’s important to have a candidate who will speak for those who are often marginalized, such as people of color and those outside of the legacy gender binary construct. 

Echoing a theme, Marisa McClinton declared that the county clerk is not a position to be passed down, and that voting for Wojcik would ensure that everyone from “the rainbow-haired jogger on the rail trail to the struggling college student” would be able to avail themselves of services ranging from obtaining official ID to researching land records to defend against eviction if Wojcik were clerk. 

In the candidate’s own remarks, Wojcik rejected the idea that the county clerk is a “routine role,” seeing it instead as an opportunity to educate county residents about the wide variety of services available through the county government by leverage the power of information. Wojcik additionally wants to go even further, by partnering with nonprofit organizations to expand the reach of those services, as well. “I have been told to wait my turn,” Wojcik said to jeers, “but people have waited too long.” 

Among the campaign promises Wojcik made are to expand the hours and locations of the DMV bus, to personally hold office hours in every municipality, to reach out to all town and villages rather than waiting for there to be problems to solve, to collaborate with the Office of the Aging to deliver services following the model of delivering vaccines during the pandemic and to work more closely with the leaders of veterans’ organizations. Additionally, Wojcik intends on issuing an annual report on what the clerk has been doing, and to provide education to immigrants as to what services they are entitled. 

Wojcik will be running in the Democratic primary. In order to be eligible to vote in that primary, individuals should register by June 14. Learn more at https://elections.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2024/12/2025-political-calendar-quad-fold-final-12.5.2024.pdf