Democratic Chairs
Unite For Teachout
Otsego’s Abbate Joins Consensus
Democratic county chairs from across the 19th District met in Ulster County Saturday and emerged with a consensus that Zephyr Teachout should run to succeed U.S. Rep. Chris Gilbson, the Republican who is retiring at the end of the year.
Teachout, who won the Otsego County nomination for governor against incumbent Andrew Cuomo in the 2014 Democratic primary, was in Cooperstown Wednesday, where she obtained the support of with County Chairman Richard Abbate and the party’s executive committee.
Abbate attended the gathering of the county chairs on Saturday.
Teachout, a Fordham University law professor and author of “Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin’s Snuff Box to Citizens United,” bought a house in Dover Plains, Putnam County, last year, qualifying her to run in the district.
She may be challenged in the April primary by Julian Schreibman, a lawyer from Stone Ridge, who ran against Gibson in 2012. A former lawyer for the CIA and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, he was formerly Ulster County Democratic chair.
On the Republican side, attorney John Faso, who ran for governor against Democrat Eliott Spitzer in 2006, and Andrew Heaney, an oil-company executive in Dutchess County, are seeking to succeed Gibson, who is said to be considering a run for governor in 2018.
