Early voting for the primary election begins tomorrow at noon. (The full schedule for the nine days of early voting can be found here.) The primary involves both Democrats and Republicans. Republicans will choose their candidate for congressman--Peter Oberacker or Alexander Portelli. For Democrats, there are two races. For comptroller, incumbent Thomas DiNapoli is being challenged by Drew Warshaw and Raj Goyle. For assemblymember, incumbent Didi Barrett is being challenged by Sam Hodge.
In Hudson's Third Ward, however, there is a third race. Sonja Okun, who ran unopposed and was elected Third Ward supervisor last November, is now being challenged in the Democratic primary by none other than Lloyd Koedding.
The ubiquitous Koedding, who ran for mayor last year as a Republican and garnered a total of 68 votes, has since changed his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat and is challenging Okun to be the Democratic candidate for Third Ward supervisor. Readers in the Third Ward, choose wisely.
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Only in Hudson...
ReplyDeleteThe 3rd Ward seat went to Sonja Okun unopposed last November.
The moment someone contests it, the machine closes ranks: a Manhattanite with a Harvard MBA, who oversaw the Youth Center spending/hiring kerfuffle as Youth Commissioner, and a wall of Democratic insider endorsements assembled to box out the one challenger willing to face her, who attends more meetings than elected officials.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DZJMIqutynF/
That challenger, Lloyd Koedding, is an oddball. He did not get the memo about unopposed elections. His role in last year's mayoral election, some say, is why Joe Ferris prevailed with 41 votes.
He has worn both party hats and invented his own ballot/party lines. Not especially principled on party lines, plainly enjoying the attention. He self identified in previous campaigns as unhoused. Hudson has a housing crisis and a Housing Justice Director (Paid more than the mayor at $80k per year).
Still, the strength of a democracy shows in how it treats its oddballs. It's like free speech, even if we disapprove of you what say... we should defend.. your right to say it.
Some do not like his manner of approaching residents on the street. Fair. But then Hudson's previous CC President physically assaulted a resident and still served without any protest, and arguably shut down female CC members way more than others.
A confident democracy lets the oddballs run and beats them at the ballot box. A captured one circles the wagons the instant the seat is no longer a coronation.
HCS endorses neither. We only note the Hudson reflex to box out outsiders.
And that the last truly and sincerely contested Hudson Supervisor election was Madero vs Martin in the 1st Ward last year.
Madero won 3 to 1 votes, twice. She earned her spot fair and square against a better funded and better (politically) organized candidate.
hudsoncommonsense.com/2025electionscorecard
So... 5 supervisors, paid roughly $20,000 each, for a city of six thousand (~$100k). Kinderhook, Chatham, and Claverack each run on a single supervisor, roughly same population.
So here is an uncommon question:
If Hudson had one BoS County Supervisor seat, as we really should, who would actually win it in a free and fair election:
Alex Madero
Abdus Miah
Sonja Okun
Lloyd Koedding
Carla Sadoff
Rick Scalera
?
p.s. Of course some County leaders do not mind the 5 seats in Hudson... divide and conquer, as they say.