Primary Primer

Postcards from the Board of Elections announcing the 2023 election dates arrived a few weeks ago. Since then, Gossips has gotten some inquiries about what we'll be voting on this year. This is the year for city and county elections, and this post provides some election prep for the Primary Election that takes place later this month.

For the primary election, Election Day is Tuesday, June 27. Early voting starts on Saturday, June 17, and continues through Sunday, June 25. For Hudson, the primary is only for Democrats. Democrats in all of the five wards will be voting to determine which of three candidates--Brian Herman, Mark Portin, Michael Howard--will be the two candidates for county judge whose names appear on the Democratic line in November.

Hudson Democrats residing in the First, Second, and Third wards will also be voting for the two candidates that will appear on the Democratic line in November, running for the two seats for each ward on the Common Council. 

• In the First Ward, the candidates are Margaret Morris, who is currently serving on the Council; Gary Purnhagen, who submitted designating petitions two years ago, withdrew from the race in July, announced he was running again in October, but lost in November; Randall Martin, who currently serves on the Planning Board and is the vice chair of the Hudson City Democratic Committee. 
• In the Second Ward, the candidates are Dewan Sarowar and Mohammed Rony, who are both currently serving on the Council, and Kevron Lee, who is running with the support of HCHC Collective, a 501 (c)4 organization affiliated with the Hudson/Catskill Housing Coalition. 
• In the Third Ward, the candidates are Shershah Mizan, who served for two terms on the Council but did not seek reelection in a timely manner in 2021 and lost as a write-in candidate; Lola Roberts, another candidate, according to Gossips' intel, running with the support of HCHC Collective; and Daniel Schmeder, who is new to Hudson politics. 

In November, the two Third Ward candidates who win in the primary will face a challenge from Bill Huston, strident critic of Hudson government and author of the blog Hudseen. Last week, Huston submitted designating petitions to run for Third Ward councilmember on his own line, the name of which is not known to Gossips at this time. 

Photo: Hudseen

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