Highlands Current Audio Stories

Residents ask for study of Route 9 intersection The Philipstown Town Board voted on Nov. 5 to ask the state Department of Transportation to study whether a traffic light is needed where Route 9 intersects with Hustis Road and the entrance to the Glassbury Court development. A resolution approved by the board seeks an analysis of traffic volumes and speeds, along with a crash history, sight distances and turning patterns at Hustis and Revolutionary Road, which leads into Glassbury Court. Along with recommendations for a signal or other safety measures, the town is asking for the design, engineering and funding requirements. Richard Schunk, a 12-year resident of the 55-plus development, said he and his wife promised each other that they would not pull onto Route 9 when northbound or southbound cars were approaching Revolutionary Road. "I'm finding it harder and harder to keep that promise," he said. A telephone pole and trees limit the view when looking south to turn north onto Route 9, said Schunk. Or, after waiting for an opening in the southbound lane, "all of a sudden they're coming north, and then someone will pull up on Hustis," he said. "If you get a little opening, you have to compete." Dennis O'Brien, who also lives in Glassbury Court, said a driver and passenger are needed to cross the intersection. "My wife takes the left, I take the right," he said. "Clear. Clear. Go! That's how we do it." Plans for Glassbury Court once included a traffic signal, but "at the last second it was removed," said Supervisor John Van Tassel. In 2015, safety concerns prompted Barbara Scuccimarra, then the Putnam County legislator who represented Philipstown, to ask DOT to install a streetlight at the development entrance. In response, the agency said it did not install lighting "except for certain limited access highways," but noted the town could install one. Van Tassel, who lives on East Mountain Road, said "it does seem like it's very difficult to get in and out of our roads" during the morning and evening rush hours. A study could show "what's coming into town at the north end and what's going out of town at the south end," he said. "That will tell us how we're contributing to the traffic on Route 9 versus commuter traffic." Van Tassel added that he is cautious about bringing too much attention to traffic on Route 9 "because I think the result will be what happened" north and south of Philipstown, "which is a four-lane road with a divided road." He also cautioned that DOT has refused to install traffic signals because it prefers to keep traffic moving. The Town Board voted to close the public hearing on its proposed regulations for short-term rentals such as Airbnbs. Board attorney Mary Kate Ephraim said she would review comments from residents and board members before composing a final draft for a vote. Under the proposed rules, STRs are limited to zones where single-family homes are permitted, and solely in single- and two-family dwellings or accessory apartments with a certificate of occupancy. Operators would need a permit, renewable every two years. The draft law sets the initial fees at $90 for the application and $100 for an inspection by the Building Department. Its guidelines also ban renting more than one unit at a time on a single property and limit the number of guests per room to two, except when the additional person is a child age 5 or younger. Hosts offering bookings to more than four people must obtain Planning Board approval for a minor site plan, and all hosts have to purchase at least $500,000 in liability insurance. Two board members, Nat Prentice and Ned Rauch, will form a committee to study regulations for campaign signs installed on public property. The number of signs placed along streets and other public property this year was "ridiculous," said Van Tassel, who ran unopposed for reelection on Nov. 3. In Cold Spring, which limits political signs to private property, Philipstown's code enforcement officer "was...

Democrats could take second seat on Legislature Kevin Byrne, running on the Republican and Libertarian lines, fought off a challenge from Brett Yarris on the left and Tatiana Brahimi on the right to win a second, 4-year term. Byrne received the Conservative Party endorsement in 2022, when he ran unopposed, but this year the party backed Brahimi. She received 5.4 percent but didn't pull enough conservative votes away from Byrne to elect Yarris, the Democrat and Working Families candidate. After the Conservatives declined to endorse Byrne, he angered the Libertarian Party of Putnam & Westchester by collecting enough signatures to take its line. A mailer distributed by the chapter explained that Yarris was its candidate. Yarris issued a statement on Election Night saying the race, with 595 votes separating the two leaders, was too close to call. "The outstanding mail-in ballots alone number over twice that margin," he said. "On top of those, an unknown number of affidavit ballots still have to be counted, and more mail-in ballots need curing [correcting] before they can count." Absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day must be received by the Board of Elections by Nov. 10. Military and other special ballots must be received by Nov. 16. Affidavit ballots are those cast at the polls that need verification, such as if a voter lost their mail-in ballot. The Board of Elections said it would update its vote totals daily; the numbers here are as of Monday (Nov. 9) at at 3 p.m. The Board of Elections said on Wednesday that 1,164 mail-in ballots had been sent but not yet returned. Assuming all 1,164 of those ballots were postmarked by Nov. 3 and enroute to Carmel, Yarris would need to win at least 76 percent to overtake Byrne's lead, as well as a large portion of affidavit ballots. Of the 3,352 mail-in ballots tallied by Election Night, Yarris won 66 percent, Byrne 31 percent and Brahimi 3 percent. The Putnam Legislature could add a second Democratic member if Election Night results hold up after outstanding mail-in and affidavit ballots are counted. In District 3, which includes north-central Putnam, Democratic candidate Kathy Kahng held a 32-vote lead over Joseph Cunningham, the Republican and Conservative candidate, as of Thursday. The only Democrat on the nine-person Legislature is Nancy Montgomery, who represents Philipstown and part of Putnam Valley. The winner will succeed Toni Addonizio, who could not run because of term limits. In District 2, which includes most of Putnam Valley, the Republican and Conservative candidate, Christian Russo, defeated Maia Gilleo, who had the Democratic and Working Families lines, with 52 percent of the vote, according to the unofficial tally. He will succeed William Gouldman, who was term-limited and ran for Putnam Valley supervisor. In District 8, in south-central Putnam, Tanner McCracken, the Republican and Conservative candidate, easily defeated Gwendolyn Burke, who held the Democratic / Working Families lines, with 63 percent of the vote. He will succeed Amy Sayegh, who did not run for reelection. Dana Levenberg, the Democratic incumbent, easily defeated Republican challenger Laurie Ryan, to win a third, 2-year term representing the district that includes Philipstown. With 45 percent of precincts reporting, Levenberg had received 75 percent of the vote. She won in 2022 and 2024 with more than 60 percent of the vote. Even though it handles hundreds of cases, many voters likely know little about the Coroner's Office. Three coroners serve 4-year terms, but the office hasn't been contested in 26 years, since William Stahl (who later retired after 32 years) defeated Dr. Cynthia Ligenza in 2000. This year, three candidates ran for two open positions. Dr. Michael Nesheiwat, a longtime incumbent, received the most votes, followed by challenger Dr. Michael Strauss. A second incumbent, John Bourges, was not reelected; Nesheiwat and Bourges ran unopposed in 2014, 2018 and 2022. The third coroner pos...

Dismisses Cold Spring, Philipstown claim A state judge issued rulings on Monday (Nov. 2) denying Cold Spring and Philipstown the right to challenge Dockside Park's use for the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail and dismissing Putnam County from their lawsuit over the state's environmental review for the project. The decisions are the first issued by Judge Gina Capone in a lawsuit the town and village filed in May to overturn the state's environmental review for the 7.5-mile trail between Dockside Park in Cold Spring and Long Dock Park in Beacon. In addition to state parks and Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail Inc., the project's developer, the lawsuit names as defendants Putnam County and Laura Bergman, who owns the property used to access Dockside Park. That access, at North and West streets in the village, is needed for one of the trail's key segments: an elevated boardwalk over the Hudson River between the state-owned Dockside and Little Stony Point, where the rest of the trail continues north through Hudson Highlands State Park Preserve. Visitors currently enter the 26-acre Dockside through land owned by Bergman but controlled by the state under an easement signed in 1988. That easement allows the state to enter and exit by foot or vehicle for vegetation maintenance and activities such as installing utility lines, grading and paving. But Cold Spring and Philipstown argued that it only allows access to Dockside, "not structures or properties adjacent to it," such as the proposed trail. According to the town and village, "there is no basis to interpret the Dockside easement so broadly as to permit access to an 8,800-acre park by the general public." In asking the judge to dismiss their claim, state parks and HHFT said that neither Cold Spring nor Philipstown had an "ownership interest" in the easement or was a party to the agreement. Therefore, they "lack standing to bring a claim concerning its scope." Cold Spring has an agreement with the state to manage and operate the park, but the agency said it can "revoke the license at will." Philipstown "is even further removed, as it does not even have a license agreement," according to court documents. Capone agreed, ruling that no legal rights supported the town and village's "efforts to bootstrap their standing to challenge the scope of the easement" onto their right to challenge the environmental review. Contesting the scope of the easement, she said, is reserved for Bergman, who is also challenging HHFT's plans to use Dockside for the Fjord Trail. Bergman said the easement signed by Richard Siskind before he sold her the property in 2012 "contains no grant of public access, no authorization for a linear park, no right to accommodate high volumes of recreational visitors and no right to extend or convert the easement into a public trail or multi-use path serving a regional linear park system along the Hudson River." In a subsequent agreement signed in 2020, Bergman granted the state a 20-foot-wide easement for $1 to create an unpaved recreational trail. She claims that state parks presented a "superseding agreement" in 2022 that would have permitted additional uses such as walking, hiking, jogging, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, biking and other non-motorized activities, but it was never executed. Bergman has asked Capone to rule that the 1988 agreement is the only valid easement, saying that the circumstances since 2020 have "materially and substantially changed," given that she could not have anticipated the development of the Fjord Trail. While a ruling on her request is still pending, Capone issued a second ruling against Cold Spring and Philipstown by granting Putnam County's motion to dismiss it from the lawsuit. Before the town and village sued, they mounted an unsuccessful campaign to have the county join them as a plaintiff, but the county Legislature refused. The two municipalities instead listed the county as a defendant because, they said, Putnam "will bear the financ...

If approved, seniors and disabled vets could apply The Beacon City School District is considering expanding its property tax exemptions for seniors for the first time since 2007 and adding an exemption for disabled veterans. The district exempts up to 50 percent of a home's assessed value from taxation for property owners 65 or older if their annual household income is less than $32,400. If adopted, the scale would expand to align with the City of Beacon's, which exempts up to 50 percent of assessed value for seniors earning $49,999 or less. The proposal for disabled veterans would exempt 100 percent of assessed value for individuals with a 100 percent service-connected disability rating from the federal Department of Veterans Affairs. The district would not lose revenue if the changes are approved; the shortage would be spread among the remaining taxpayer base. The school board must hold a public hearing and approve a resolution by March 1, ahead of the 2027 tax bills. Seniors (and veterans if the board approves the proposal) would have to apply for exemptions by March 1 of each year. Deputy Superintendent Ann Marie Quartironi told the board on Monday (Nov. 2) that she would estimate how many residents are eligible and the effect on other taxpayers.

Legislators ask sheriff for briefing Funding for a system of remotely operated drones that can be deployed to police, fire and medical emergencies in Putnam County has been temporarily grounded until Sheriff Brian Hess briefs the Legislature and the public on its details. Despite support among legislators for a Drone as First Responder program similar to one in Dutchess County, Putnam's legislators voted on Oct. 28 to set aside the $312,000 requested by Hess. The Dutchess Sheriff's and District Attorney's offices launched a Drone as First Responder program in June 2025, under a contract with Flock, which also makes license-plate readers. Next year's proposed budget includes $60,000 for three drones made by Skydio. Nancy Montgomery, who represents Philipstown and part of Putnam Valley in the Legislature, requested that the funding be held back from the sheriff's operating budget. She said at the Legislature's Budget and Finance Committee meeting on Oct. 20 that lawmakers failed to gather public input when the previous two sheriffs — Robert Langley Jr. and Kevin McConville — introduced and expanded a system of license-plate readers, including three in Philipstown, that left residents "freaked out." Having Hess review the program at the Legislature's Protective Services Committee meeting on Nov. 18 will "correct that mistake," said Montgomery. "In the long run, having a public process diffuses all of that concern that we're hearing right now about license plate readers," she said. Hess agreed. "If the public wants more input, I'm OK with pushing this back," he said on Oct. 20. "I really want everyone to feel comfortable with the program because I think it is a great program and it's going to help everyone." In addition to requesting county funds, the Sheriff's Office has applied for two federal grants to purchase a fleet of drones that would be stationed across the county and controlled by an officer at headquarters in Carmel. In May, legislators authorized an application for $2.5 million to fund a countywide fleet, and another in August for a drone that Hess said would be based in Philipstown for emergencies on the Hudson River. Unlike the hand-operated drones that deputies bring to the scene, the first-responder technology would be dispatched ahead of the arrival of officers, firefighters and paramedics to relay images while they are en route, said Hess. "I can have a drone on top of a scene in 30 seconds, where our average response time is 10 minutes," he said. "How much quicker do you get information back to the responding units? This is not a fire: Everyone slow down. This is a bad accident: Two lanes are blocked. All this information is better for officer safety; it's better for the public." As of February, 1,005 emergency-management agencies, including police and fire departments, had received waivers from the Federal Aviation Administration for Drone as First Responder programs, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which received a list from the agency through a Freedom of Information Act request. It includes 93 agencies in New York state, including the Dutchess Sheriff's Office, the state police, state Department of Environmental Conservation, NYPD, Peekskill Police Department, Westchester County Department of Public Safety and Carmel Police Department. Montgomery said she attended a demonstration of the technology organized by Hess and was impressed. But at the same time, communities are balking at the use of surveillance cameras. Dutchess County announced in September that it would cease using 65 license-plate readers supplied by Flock. The company's cameras photograph vehicles, sorting them by plate number, make and model, and color and any damage for a nationwide database searchable by police. Earlier this year, the Beacon Police Department withdrew from Flock's national network and reduced, from thousands to 400, the number of agencies with access to its data. City attorney Nick Ward-Willis has been ...

Plan would close gap with $32M from savings Dutchess County Executive Sue Serino shared her draft budget for 2027 with the Legislature on Oct. 30, citing many "tough choices" as she factored in a projected $90 million deficit, a precarious economy, rising inflation and federal cuts. Despite the challenges, Serino said during her presentation at the Legislative Chambers in Poughkeepsie, "we are delivering a budget that includes no cuts to services and no layoffs. That is a huge accomplishment in a year defined by rising costs and fiscal pressure." The $722 million in proposed spending represents a 10.4 percent increase over the $634 million budget for 2026 (and 5.6 percent over actual spending, which was $684 million) and would draw $28.5 million from the general fund reserves and $3.7 million from the five-year Community Benefit Fund, which was created in 2024 with federal pandemic relief money. The 2026 budget drew $28.6 million from reserves and $5.3 million from the Community Benefit Fund, according to the budget proposal. "While we believe this level of fund balance is responsible this year, it is not sustainable moving forward," it says. If the Legislature and state approve, the county sales tax would rise from 3.75 percent to 4 percent. The increase would generate $9.3 million in revenue, bringing sales tax revenues to an expected $302 million, Serino said. At the same time, the property tax rate would drop by 4.5 percent, to $2.02 per $1,000 in assessed value, although the tax levy would increase by 3.5 percent, to bring in an expected $109 million. Serino's proposed budget also anticipates $156 million in state funds and $48 million from the federal government, as well as $6.4 million from the hotel tax. The county executive touted several new programs, including a $20 million state grant that will fund a pilot of the state's First 3 childcare program, which provides full-time, year-round childcare to lower-income parents. The funds will add space for about 1,000 infants and toddlers in 2027, Serino said. "This initiative doesn't just support working parents; it strengthens the foundation of child development, workforce stability and long-term economic mobility," she said. Serino also highlighted a shelter scheduled to open in Poughkeepsie in 2027 after years of delay and the hiring of a coordinator to help residents navigate the changes and reductions in food security benefits. Last year's federal budget reduced funding sent to Dutchess for food stamps benefits by $1.8 million. In her address, Serino announced the creation of a deputy sheriff position, stipends for specialized volunteer emergency medical workers and a mental health program for 911 dispatchers and 988 help team members. She recounted an incident earlier this year when a Dutchess dispatcher calmed a woman who called from inside a burning home and guided her to safety. "Situations like this are incredibly stressful, not only for the callers but also for the dispatchers who carry the weight of those moments long after these calls end," Serino said. Democrats, who control 15 of the 25 seats in the Legislature, quickly criticized the plan, noting that when Dutchess asked the state two years ago for permission to increase the sales tax, it was turned down. "Over a decade of fiscal mismanagement by county Republicans has led to this day of fiscal crisis," said Assistant Majority Leader Kristofer Munn, whose district includes Red Hook, in a statement. "We're faced with a huge budget gap, a drained rainy-day fund and a troubling economic outlook thanks to Republican mismanagement at the national level." The Democrats claim that their offers to work on the proposed budget were rebuffed. "The Legislature was completely shut out of the process," said Yvette Valdés Smith, the legislature's chair, whose district includes Ward 4 in Beacon. Committee budget hearings are scheduled for next week (Nov. 9, 10 and 12) and a public hearing for Dec. 3. Legislators must ...

Asks city attorney to add requirement to proposal The Beacon City Council did not vote Monday (Nov. 2) on zoning amendments that would allow hotels in the district bordering Fishkill Creek. Instead, its members asked the city attorney to add language to the proposed law requiring a 50 percent residential component for new development in the zone. That means a hotel, if permitted, would have to be integrated into a residential complex. The Fishkill Creek zone currently requires developments to be at least 25 percent commercial. Hotels are not allowed, although bed-and-breakfasts and inns (defined as hotels with 10 or fewer rooms) are. Other permitted uses include fitness centers, restaurants, offices and community facilities. Buildings in the zone cannot exceed three stories and must be at least 25 feet from the creek. The construction footprint, including parking, cannot exceed 35 percent of a site, and 30 percent must be open space. The council is considering reducing the minimum lot size from 2 acres to 1. The council also must approve a concept plan for any proposal in the zone before sending it to the Planning Board for review. The discussion about amending the zoning code began in July, after Rodney Weber, owner of the former Tioronda Hat Works Factory at 555 South Ave., said he plans to build a hotel on the site. (If the council amends the code, Weber would still have to present a concept plan.) Most of the council has seemed amenable to allowing a hotel, although Carolyn Bennett Glauda asked last month to delay a vote over concerns about access to the site, which is adjacent to both Madam Brett Park and the dismantled Tioronda Bridge. The bridge has been out of service since 2006, so the only vehicular access is via a spur of South Avenue that dead-ends at the bridge. On Monday, Glauda repeated her concerns about drivers using nearby Tioronda Avenue, which has no sidewalks in that area, as a pass-through. Lastar Gorton has opposed the proposal, saying the city is allowing a developer's request to leapfrog other issues, such as affordable housing. On Monday, she sparred with Mayor Lee Kyriacou over what Gorton said were misplaced priorities. "One developer asked to add hotels, and that's who we're accommodating," she said. "This is not for the betterment of the city. It's for the betterment of the developers. We keep bending and bending and bending until we're going to break." Kyriacou challenged her claim that development in Beacon has contradicted the city's comprehensive plan. He referred to a 2023 article in The Current that analyzed the development boom, saying it concluded that "the things that were built were not only consistent with the comprehensive plan, they were less dense than what was allowed for in the comprehensive plan." Council members ultimately decided that the need for housing trumps other uses and asked City Attorney Nick Ward-Willis to add the 50 percent requirement to the draft. The council also asked to have its preference for below-market-rate housing written into the guidelines for developers submitting concept plans. The city cannot dictate what a property owner proposes, but "it's more productive that the developer knows that this is an expectation and develops a concept plan accordingly," said Council Member Sergei Krasikov. Because the changes to the draft are substantial, the council must hold another public hearing, following those in September and October, and refer the draft to the city and county planning boards. A hearing was not scheduled, but the city said it will likely take place on Dec. 21. After a public hearing last month, the council approved a series of amendments meant to make regulations easier to enforce. The changes require property owners to carry liability insurance, comply with occupancy-tax collection and meet state-mandated safety standards such as providing evacuation diagrams and a fire extinguisher. In addition, the law requires booking platforms to remove list...

Participation dwindles among boys and girls For over 100 years, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts have had the same motto: "Be prepared." Whether the organizations are prepared to thrive in the 21st century is unclear. Scouting membership locally and nationwide has dropped significantly over the past decade. The ranks of Beacon Scout Troop 3041, which meets near the Elks Lodge on Route 9D, have dwindled to 12 boys, down from 35 before the pandemic, said Scoutmaster John Darcy. Philipstown Troop 437 has 20 Scouts, down from 40, said Matt Koch, the committee chair of the troop that meets at the Garrison Fish and Game Club in Philipstown. Those numbers track with declines across the Hudson Valley, which has 9,000 Scouts and Cub Scouts, down from 18,000 in 2019. Nationwide, Scout membership has dropped from 2 million in 2019 to 1 million. Scouting peaked in the 1970s at nearly 5 million. In 2010, the Boy Scouts were hit with thousands of claims of sexual abuse, dating to the 1940s. None of the accusations involved troops in the Highlands, though some allegedly occurred in the Hudson Valley, according to databases compiling the incidents and news reports. The claims led the Boy Scouts of America to declare bankruptcy in 2020. In 2024, the Boy Scouts began to accept girls and rebranded as Scouting America. Its president at the time, Roger Krone, said the organization hoped to "chart a course toward continued growth, relevance and impact." Richard Stockton, CEO of the Greater Hudson Valley Council of Scouting America, based in Fishkill, said the national group "hit a perfect storm between COVID, the bankruptcy and the sexual abuse scandals. We lost quite a bit of credibility." He said that adult volunteers now undergo training and are prohibited from being alone with Scouts. "We have to prove ourselves," said Stockton. The organization's focus is to recruit Cub Scouts. "The most effective way of recruiting is peer-to-peer: parents inviting other parents," said Jon Whitaker, the Hudson Valley Council's field director. The results in the Highlands have been mixed. Philipstown's Cub Scout Pack 137 has grown from 30 Cubs a few years ago to 45, said Cubmaster Paul Wynn. "Parents often tell me they're looking for activities that get their kids off screens," he said. Last month 50 scouts and parents gathered at Philipstown Park to launch model rockets. Recruitment in Beacon has been a challenge, said Ed McMillan, cubmaster for Pack 3001, which meets at the Memorial Building on Main Street. The pack has about 25 members, but nearly half are fifth graders who will leave when they enter middle school next year. Despite participating in events like Spirit of Beacon Day, they've had difficulty recruiting younger children, McMillan said: "There's just not as much engagement or interest as you'd expect." Jaiden Gunther, 17, who became an Eagle Scout in an Oct. 25 ceremony at Hubbard Lodge as part of the Philipstown troop, said children often prefer activities like sports and drama. A few years ago, he said, "we had a group of 15 Cub Scouts who graduated and crossed over into the Boy Scout troop. Over the past two years, it's down to three." Darcy, the Beacon scoutmaster, worries "the younger generation does not appreciate the ideas of helping in the community, living by the Scout oath and law, being trustworthy, helpful — all those things," he said. "There's no drive to be that better person." For the Girl Scouts, it's hard competing with school activities, said Kari Rockwell, the CEO of Girl Scouts Heart of the Hudson. Once a child gets home at 5:30 p.m., Rockwell said, the last thing a parent wants to do is "turn around and drive back out to a troop meeting." The numbers of Girl Scouts and adult volunteers in the Hudson Valley has dropped by about 40 percent, to 25,000, over the past decade, she said. In Beacon, Girl Scouts have dropped in half from a decade ago to about 50, said Rhonda Altonen, who leads the local troop. Older girls, she said, "...

This story originally appeared in New York Focus, a nonprofit news publication investigating power in New York. Sign up for its newsletter here. The New York state legislature is about to be bluer than ever. Democrats flipped more than a dozen seats around the state, further cementing the party's hold on Albany. They included District 39, which includes Philipstown and Beacon, where Lisa Kaul defeated two-term incumbent Rob Rolison. Down ballot from Gov. Kathy Hochul's dominant re-election win and Mike Lawler's loss to Cait Conley for the district in Congress that includes Philipstown, Democrats' gains could shift the balance of power in Albany in ways that remain to be seen. Wins in the state Senate will restore Democrats' veto-proof supermajority, which they'd lost after 2024, and the party made gains in red districts that were not thought to be competitive. Democrats' anticipated 111 Assembly seats will be their most ever in the 150-person body, according to Speaker Carl Heastie, while the party's Senate majority will be its largest since 1846, Politico reported. Here are some takeaways from Tuesday's legislative races. En route to their two-house supermajority, Democrats flipped at least six Republican-held seats in the state Senate and at least seven in the Assembly. Three more races were uncalled by Thursday (Nov. 5) and could yield additional Democratic pickups. Democrat Ian Phillips's lead over incumbent Republican Assembly Member John Lemondes in central New York is probably insurmountable, according to the Syracuse Post-Standard. Democrat Ryan Taughrin led Republican incumbent Patrick Chludzinski for an Erie County Assembly seat, while Republican state Senator Jake Ashby was just 177 votes ahead of Democrat Devin Lander in the Capital District, with thousands of mail ballots left to count. Republicans did manage to flip one Democratic-held seat: the GOP's Michael Gentile beat Democrat Jonathan Lipe by 5 points in a Mohawk Valley Assembly district that includes the cities of Utica and Rome. (Incumbent Democrat Marianne Buttenschon is retiring.) Democratic victors were quick to acknowledge that the national environment propelled them to victory. "The reality is that if you had a 'D' next to your name, it was a good year to run," said Joe Rand, who easily defeated Republican incumbent Bill Weber in a Rockland County Senate district that President Donald Trump won by 11 points. "I'd like to attribute it all to my prowess, but I am aware of the fact that there were other factors that went into it." Christopher Murray, who upset Republican state Senator Anthony Palumbo on the east end of Long Island, has been joking that "Donald Trump was doing his best to elect me." "Just going door-to-door or talking to people, I had never seen that type of anger toward one party or the other in my lifetime," he said. The defeated Republicans included notable names: Jim Tedisco, the legislature's longest-serving sitting member, lost his Saratoga-area Senate seat to challenger Sarah Rogerson, ending a 44-year legislative career. Alec Brook-Krasny, who has represented South Brooklyn on and off since 2006, was defeated by Chris McCreight in a rematch from two years ago — one of four Democratic flips in the borough. Turnover will be high: at least 51 new members will arrive in Albany in January, or nearly one-quarter of the 213-person legislature. That's double the 24 freshmen who were elected in 2024. Among the retiring members are heavy hitters like Senate Deputy Leader Michael Gianaris and Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes. Some new committee chairs are expected to be named in the coming weeks — including, potentially, a new leader of the powerful Senate Finance Committee. Current Chair Liz Krueger has suggested she might change roles as she recovers from a stroke she suffered in the spring. On paper, Democrats' new supermajorities give them the power to override potential vetoes from Hochul. But there's no indication th...

Democrats flip House, state Senate seats Rep. Mike Lawler, a Republican seeking a third, 2-year term representing the U.S. House district that includes Philipstown, conceded to Democratic challenger Cait Conley on Tuesday (Nov. 3) about 2½ hours after the polls closed. The Associated Press called the race for Conley at 6 p.m. Thursday. With 88 percent of votes tallied, the incumbent trailed 52 to 48 percent in District 17. The race was one of about 10 anticipated "toss-ups" before the election in Democrats' quest to regain control of the House by holding at least 218 of the 435 seats. Instead, as of Friday, Democrats had won 253 seats, with 20 races still too close to call. After graduating from Pine Bush High School, Conley enrolled at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. She served for 16 years as an Army officer, first as a military police officer and then in special ops leadership, deploying overseas six times to combat zones, including Iraq and Afghanistan. She previously served as director for counterterrorism on the National Security Council at the White House. Lawler, a native of Suffern, graduated from Manhattan College with degrees in accounting and finance. He served as deputy town supervisor of Orangetown, senior advisor to the Westchester County executive, executive director of the New York State Republican Party and served for two terms in the state Assembly. In the House, he is on the Financial Services Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee. In addition to Putnam County, District 17 includes Rockland and parts of Dutchess and Westchester. In unofficial results released by the county boards of elections, with some absentee and affidavit votes to be counted, Lawler won more than half the votes in Putnam, Rockland and Dutchess. But Conley had a wide early lead in the more densely populated Westchester, where officials were hand-counting ballots because of a technical snafu with the machines on Election Day. Lawler, who pitched himself as a moderate willing to break with President Trump, won the seat in 2022 and 2024 despite 41 percent of the district's 522,935 active voters being registered Democrats, versus 26 percent Republicans. Another 28 percent of voters are not affiliated with any party. Lisa Kaul, the Democratic and Working Families candidate for the district that includes Beacon and Philipstown, defeated two-term incumbent Rob Rolison, who ran on the Republican and Conservative lines. The AP called the race just after midnight on Wednesday. With 94 percent of votes counted, Kaul received 55 percent of the vote in the district, which includes parts of three counties. She won Putnam County with 59 percent of the vote and Dutchess with 54 percent. In a concession statement, Rolison said: "While tonight's results are not what we had hoped for, I am incredibly grateful to the people of the Hudson Valley who have placed their trust in me and given me the honor of serving them. "Throughout my time in public service, I have always believed that putting people over politics, working across party lines and doing what is right for our communities matters more than any political agenda. That belief has never wavered, and it never will. I spoke to Lisa Kaul and congratulated her on her victory tonight."