Voters in Plattsburgh’s Democratic primary have chosen a veteran county legislator to run for mayor in the general election, while the current mayor lost his bid for a ward seat on Tuesday.
The only primary races in Clinton County were Democratic city races for two council seats and the mayoral post.
Current Clinton County Legislator Wendell Hughes and Clinton County Assistant District Attorney Dan Lennon faced off after Democratic Mayor Chris Rosenquest decided not to run for a second term.
Hughes won the primary, 57 percent over Lennon’s 41 percent. Hughes says he is humbled to win.
“I’m happy. I mean the turnout was very low. Turnout is always an issue in these. It’s what always scares you is the turnout,” Hughes said. “You know I’ve just got to thank everybody for getting out and voting today, whether they voted for me or not, thank everyone that voted.”
“Why do you think the voters chose you over Dan Lennon?” asks Pat Bradley.
“Well, maybe it’s because of the experience that I do have as a legislator. He is young,” considers Hughes. “And hopefully that’s it. I just cherish everybody that voted for me and thank them.”
Lennon stopped by the Hughes watch party to offer congratulations.
“What a campaign. You’re a good opponent,” Lennon tells Hughes. ”Great, great campaign. I think you have a great shot in the general.”
Hughes shakes hands and tells his younger challenger, “Don’t give up on yourself.”
“Thank you,” replies Lennon. “It was actually a pleasure running against you. It was a fun experience.”
Lennon says he is proud of the campaign he and his supporters ran.
“What I heard a lot from voters was that they like the idea of new blood in city politics,” said Lennon. “They like the idea of the vision for a future that we can all believe in. And you know that’s always going to be my message down the road because I like to look ahead and I like to look for planning in the future. But at the end of the day, I’m happy with the way we ran our campaign and this will not be the end for me. I’m 29 years old. I’ve got a lot of future ahead of me and I look forward to that.”
Lennon would not comment when asked if a criminal investigation against him regarding an undisclosed offense impacted voters.
“I don’t want to speculate and you know what voters made their decision none-the-less. And I don’t want to take away from the result that Mr. Hughes got because at the end of the day he still won.” Lennon continues, “I mean going door to door certainly some people had those concerns. But generally, when I would walk away from doors I think that they had faith in me. But I think that they ran a great campaign on the other side and so I don’t want to take away from that because I think that would be unfair for me to do so.”
Lennon says he will support Hughes in the general election. Hughes faces Republican former mayor Don Kasprzak in November.
“He hasn’t been around in probably 13 years. I’ve been here,” Hughes said. “The last 13 years I’ve been doing a lot of things around the city of Plattsburgh. Listen, I have the utmost respect for him being a mayor but times have changed and I look forward to running against him.”
In the Ward 3 Common Council primary, incumbent Elizabeth Gibbs turned back a primary challenge from Mayor Rosenquest 69 to 30 percent. Rosenquest says he’s lost elections before.
“This is not a personal setback,” asserts Rosenquest. “One of the biggest reasons why I ran is to make sure that people understood there’s a difference in the future of our community and we want the continuity of the work that we’ve been doing, the projects that we’ve been doing and the parks, the attractiveness of our community, the opportunities for economic development that have been presented to us over the last several years, the relationships that we’ve built over the last several years with the state and other regional partners. And that’s something that I wanted to highlight and hopefully that does continue even without me as the mayor, even without me as a councilor, a sitting councilor. But again that’s how politics go. You put your name out there. You run. You win. You lose. But you just move on.”
Rosenquest said he has not decided whether to endorse a mayoral candidate.
"My primary concern is running this organization as a CEO,” explains Rosenquest. “Separating the political piece of being the mayor from the executive piece of being the mayor is critically important for our community and for the sustainability of our community.”
“So do you plan to not endorse or campaign for anybody over the course of the general election?” queries Bradley.
“I think at this point I’m going to leave it up in the air,” replies Rosenquest.
In Ward 6, a manual recount completed Wednesday morning confirmed incumbent Jeff Moore lost to newcomer Amy Collin, who notched 56 percent of the vote.
Both the Ward 3 and Ward 6 winners will be unopposed on the November ballot.
The Clinton County Board of Elections reports overall turnout was 20.8 percent.
