Democratic Primary Firms Up

For Oneonta Town Board Seat

ONEONTA – A contest is heating up for the Oneonta Town Board seat vacated when Republican Janet Hurley Quackenbush joined the county Board of Representatives Jan. 1.

Democrat David Rowley, the retired school superintendent, submitted petitions to run on both the Democratic and Republican lines this fall.

And Republican Patricia Riddell Kent, whom the town board appointed to fill Quackenbush’s seat, did the same.

Both of Rowley’s petitions were challenged, however – the Republican one by Steven Kent, Riddell Kent’s husband; the Democratic one by Nicole Camarata, according to Lori L. Lehenbauer, the deputy Republican election commissioner.

Tuesday, the county Board of Elections held a hearing and Rowley’s Republican petitions were declared invalid.

That means Riddell Kent is assured the Republican line in the November election, but she and Rowley will contend in a Democratic primary Sept. 9.

If she wins the primary, she will appear on both the Republican and Democratic ballot lines in the Nov. 4 election, Lehenbauer said.

Rowley could still run as an independent, as long as his petitions are filed in mid-August, and then he and Riddell Kent’s names would both appear on the Nov. 4 ballot.