For the past two years, Lloyd Koedding has been a ubiquitous presence in Hudson. According to his own account, he moved here in 2021, but to Gossips' knowledge he only emerged as a "public figure" in May 2024. Since then, he has attended every public meeting, been a regular fixture at the library, and is frequently spotted walking or sitting someplace on Warren Street. Once calling himself "Your Voice of Reason," Koedding now assigns himself the titles "Bright Light" and "Savior of the Tree of Peace."
Last November, Koedding ran for mayor of Hudson as a Republican. The 68 votes he got may well have influenced that outcome of a race that was decided by just 42 votes. This year, Koedding has changed his party affiliation from Republic to Democrat and is challenging incumbent Third Ward supervisor Sonja Okun in the Democratic primary on June 23. (Early voting for the primary is going on right now.)
But Koedding's zeal for public office doesn't stop there. To ensure that he would be on the ballot in November, Koedding gathered signatures on nominating petitions for two independent parties of his own creation: the Harmony Party and the Prosperity Party. (Last year, in his run for mayor, Koedding was on the ballot on the Republican line and his own Harmony Party line. The Prosperity Party is a new creation.)
For reasons unknown to Gossips, the nominating petitions for the two independent parties were rejected by the Board of Elections. Koedding filed a legal protest to the action, and the case is scheduled to be heard in court on Tuesday, June 16, at 1:00 p.m.
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You mean the homeless guy the police allow to sleep in his vehicle that has been parked unmoved in the City Hall parking lot for the past 18 months or more? Yes, that guy. Don't you have to have a physical address to get on a ballot? Or will an unnumbered parking space do? Is all of the City Hall parking lot in the third ward? How many "residents" live in that parking lot that the police may or may not know about?
ReplyDeleteThis raises a question that I believe already came up last year when Lloyd was running for office.
DeleteIs it really such that if you don't have an address, you are de jure excluded from actively and passively participating in elections?
If so, this really rubs me the wrong way. If you're a citizen, I believe you should be allowed to vote and run for office, at least somewhere.
Maybe that's not currently the letter of the law but surely it's the spirit.
Before you get all rubbed the wrong way, Max, let me clarify that being unhoused does not preclude people from voting. I was informed by a former Commissioner of Elections that an unhoused person can register from whatever site s/he frequents. I believe Koedding uses the address of the parking lot.
DeleteGood poinys, all, Bill.
ReplyDeleteWasn't it Sonja Okun, the sitting Supervisor Loyd is running against, who filed the objection to toss his other party line?
ReplyDeleteAnd does anyone know why, residency (him being homeless) or bad signatures (what Matt Murrell did to Sam Hodge last year)?
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This is academically interesting... the progressives in town use the WFP as a back up line when they lose the Democratic primary... (how Kamal ran and lost against Ferris twice).
I have no intention of getting into a back-and-forth on this, but happy to provide a few points of clarification:
ReplyDelete— I did not see the Objections filed, but I did see the petitions themselves and they were rife with errors. (No, not the kind of spurious “errors” claimed by Murell at all - eg not including “street” etc.). Lloyd had people who didn’t actually live in the ward, missing dates, duplicates etc. The petitions did not appear to meet the threshold number of valid signatures.
— Filing Objections to petitions that don’t meet the threshold for valid signatures is not remotely an uncommon practice —it’s part of the process. In fact, another Dem Supervisor candidate in Hudson successfully filed Objections against an opponent’s Dem petitions in this same cycle. The difference is that their opponent accepted the BOE’s decision. Which is almost invariably the case. Not so, Lloyd.
— It is worth noting that *both* BOE Commissioners (Rep & Dem) must review each Objection in conference and both rule that a petition is invalid for it to be so.
Hope that helps.
As much as I love Lloyd for what he is and for what he added to Hudson's political scene, I am not surprised that there's a lot that won't stand up to even a moderate amount of scrutinity.
DeleteIn practice, none of this truly matters. He can never win an election. It has been pointed out that he may have tipped the scale in last year's mayoral election. I have my doubts - there are meme-lovers on both sides of the aisle that see hilarity in voting for him.
He's a court jester and yet, most of the time he is actually a voice of reason. Doesn't change the fact that the board of elections is rightfully applying the same standards to him as it is to any other candidate running for office.
Helpful, thanks Verity. The GOP said the same (but pointed the other direction) last year.
DeleteIt seems that more than half of Supervisor races are unopposed, even at the Primary level. Same might be true for other elected positions in the City.
Broadly, maybe it would be wise to let elections be elections... not de facto appointments by the Party... and to decrease the number of elected positions.