NEWS
Cobleskill Tops Interesting Slate of Supervisor Races
COBLESKILL - Although the Schoharie News has primarily been focused on the sheriff's race since our launch earlier this week, we also have to take into account the other pivotal elections set to take place this fall - such as the Supervisor contests in Cobleskill, Jefferson, Schoharie and Wright - all of which are contested and will have a significant impact on county government policy.
Take the Cobleskill race for example: incumbent Democrat Tom Murray versus Republican nominee Leo McAllister. Although both candidates are close politically (Murray caucuses with Republicans and so will McAllister) and their differences are primarily in the way they will govern, this election will have a profound effect on the county board/political arena for two reasons.
One because the Republican Party has fielded two consecutive strong candidates for the seat and fell twice by small margins (falling short by ten votes in 2009 and 150 in 2011) and another strong candidate failing to prevail in the county's largest town would start to raise questions about the party's effectiveness, which brings us to the second reason-- Cobleskill holds the most power on the county board due to the weighted vote system, meaning the town's Supervisor can instantly hold the balance on almost any issue brought up to a vote and the man who holds that position essentially plays political kingmaker during his term in office.
But Cobleskill isn't the only race worth watching. The rematch between former Supervisor Martin Shrederis and current Supervisor Gene Milone in Schoharie will be an interesting contest, as will the race to fill the Town of Wright's top spot after William Goblet's unfortunate passing earlier this year and let us not forget the Jefferson race between Bill Cherry's hand picked candidate Sean Jordan and incumbent Dan Singletary who lost the Republican caucus last month because of the County Treasurer's activism, but will continue to fight on the Conservative and Independent lines.
I hope everyone brought some popcorn, because Schoharie County's political theater is just getting started.