No Ulster County town supervisor’s election in 2025 was as close as that in Esopus between incumbent Republican-Conservative Danielle Freer and Democrat Roscoe Pecora. The count on the night of the election showed a twelve-vote margin: Pecora with 1507 votes and Freer with 1495. After the mail-in tallies were counted, however, Pecora had an unofficial total of 1534 votes, 14 more than Freer.
Which did Pecora think was more important to his victory, local issues or the backlash from the policies of the Trump administration? “Frankly, a little bit of both,” he replied. He ran a relentless door-to-door campaign, and he rode this year’s blue wave in evidence throughout the county.
At their June 25 primary, the Esopus Democrats gave councilmember contenders Stephanie Yeh and Paul Brooks the blessing of the local party apparatus to seek the seats on the town board being vacated by Jared Geuss, who was running (unsuccessfully, it turned out in November) against incumbent county legislator Joe Donaldson, and by Democrat Kathleen Quick, who wasn’t seeking another term.
But the Democrats fielded no candidate against Freer on June 25.
Esopus major political parties occasionally cross-endorse, as happened with council nominations two years ago. And historically they frequently decline to oppose popular candidates from the other major party. It seemed after the primary that Freer would be unopposed.
Yeh and Brooks were strong candidates. Yeh and her husband originally bought their Esopus residence as a second home. With an MIT degree and 20 years of executive experience on Wall Street, she recently became a digital nomad, working from home as the chief financial officer of Homebound, a home building and rebuilding firm. Brooks is a retired newspaper reporter and editor who has covered the Hudson Valley and has lived in Esopus for many years. Brooks’ campaign material featured the slogan “We Can Do Better.”
Pecora’s campaign
It was at the beginning of July — very late on the political calendar — that Roscoe Pecora announced that he wanted to run against Freer. By a vote of 64 to 13 at their caucus that month, the Democrats got themselves a candidate for the top town position.
It was too late for Pecora, who had served as a Republican county legislator from Esopus several decades ago, to ask for the Working Families minor-party endorsement, which Yeh and Brooks had received.
The Port Ewen resident was willing to fight the good fight. He raised money. He prepared mailings. He appeared at town events, shaking hands and making conversation.
Most importantly, Pecora knocked on doors. A lot of doors. He said he gave out 2000 palm cards (four-inch by nine-inch colored, glossy-printed cards listing a few points the candidate wishes to emphasizee). Esopus has a total population of 9500. Pecora originally had 2500 palm cards printed, but said he ordered another run of 300. He confessed there were a few small streets in Port Ewen he hadn’t visited, and he hadn’t gone door-to-door in the hamlet of Rifton in the western part of the town.
The day of the election came. Like several surrounding Ulster County towns, Esopus saw a Democratic sweep. Respected GOP county legislators were unseated, reducing that party from nine to four seats. Incumbent town supervisors and councilpersons found themselves unexpectedly out of their positions in January 2026. There’s been nothing like that in the political life of Ulster County since 1972, the Watergate year.
When the total votes for this year’s town council members were counted, Stephanie Yeh led the pack with 1759 votes and Paul Brooks was second with 1599, with their Republican-Conservative opponents, Erin Pascaretti (1349) and John Nagy (1312) trailing.
Ulster County Democrats usually perform better than Republicans in early, absentee and affidavit voting, and Republicans do better on election day. What happened in the race between Freer and Pecora in Esopus was an extreme example of that differential. Freer was not unpopular. The day of the election, she received a thumping 1291 Esopus votes versus Pecora’s 1048. By contrast, Yeh received more votes on the day of the election than either of the two Republicans opposing her.
Looking forward
The new all-Democratic town board consisting of the new winning team plus incumbents Evelyn Clarke and Laura Robinson has little time to rest on its laurels. New York State has decided to hold its local elections on the same year as federal elections, meaning that if Pecora runs again he’ll have to face the voters again next November. Clarke and Robinson, who will have completed three years of their previously four-year terms, will, too.
As of December 13, Pecora had not yet met with Clarke and Robinson regarding their roles.
Pecora’s heavily into collegiality on the new town board. He has been meeting with Yeh and Brooks to discuss who should do what in the new administration. They want to get going on organizing for the new year.
Yeh’s expertise makes her the obvious choice for financial matters and budgeting. Brooks will make recommendations for planning and zoning, including the role of Pecora’s sister Roxanne, who has chaired the town planning board for about 30 years. Roxanne Pecora had been removed from the planning board by the town board in September because “the chairman has been asked to meet with the town board on multiple occasions, and she has refused to accommodate the request.” The three Democrats, Clarke, Robinson and Quick, voted in favor of the motion. Supervisor Freer abstained, and councilmember Guess was absent.
A recommendation on the resolution of that hot potato will be made by Brooks, according to Roscoe Pecora.
Strong headwinds
Given the shortened terms for 2025 local elections, Pecora and his team are focusing on short-term goals. They are devising a 30-day plan, a 60-day plan, and a 90-day plan, Pecora said. Some matters highlighted in this year’s campaign, he said, will probably be a team responsibility: economic development, housing, recreation, building inspection, ethics.
Daily Freeman reporter William Kemble, whose brief story seven minutes before midnight on the evening of the lection had been headlined, “Esopus: Danielle Freer leads Roscoe Pecora in supervisor race.” The county elections board’s results history actually had Pecora ahead by 13 votes, not behind by 11.
Kemble provided an interesting follow-up with Freer three weeks later. The two-term supervisor acknowledged that the final result had been upsetting to her. There would be consideration of returning for another campaign in 2026, she told Kemble.
“Given what happened across the county, I’m pretty proud [of the work done by my administration],” she said. “As upsetting as it is, I think we were just up against some headwinds that we weren’t able to combat.”
Freer did not return calls left on the telephone answering machine at her office.
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