Editorial of November 6, 2025

Laissez-faire or Lazy?

Election Day will have come and gone by the time this editorial hits the newsstands, but we can’t help but wonder how candidates’ campaigns—or lack thereof—may or may not impact the results. We have come to expect low voter turnout for off-year elections, and history shows that the party not in control of the government tends to benefit from this. We are, however, somewhat taken aback by what appears to be a lack of effort on the part of some of those running for office this year.

First and foremost, though, let us say that we have great respect for anyone who serves in public office, regardless of their party, politics or personal beliefs. It is an often thankless job, in which few good deeds go unpunished. So thank you to those who are willing to serve, who are serving and who have served. Your hard work and dedication are appreciated.

However, we would be remiss if we did not point out that some people just didn’t seem to be in it to win it this year. Now maybe that’s because they were incumbents and felt secure in resting on their laurels. Or maybe it’s because they were new to politics and the campaign trail. Worse is the possibility that these candidates actively wish to be unaccountable to the public they seek to represent, preferring to campaign off the record and in private, allowed by their lack of publicized policy and funding commitments to govern with private commitments and the winds of political convenience.

We hope our ongoing reporting will provide some answers to those musings—campaigns end on election day; the paper does not. However, regardless of the root cause, and even given the general off-year election apathy, we were very surprised by the way things panned out.

Over the last two months, as promised in our October 9 editorial, AllOtsego has delivered to our readers the most thorough pre-election coverage that our limited resources could provide. We heard—in their own, unedited words—from candidates in contested races for the Otsego County Board of Representatives, City of Oneonta mayor, Town of Hartwick supervisor and town council, Oneonta Common Council, and Town of Oneonta supervisor and town council.

In that October 9 editorial, we wrote: “As we approach the oft-overlooked but always impactful upcoming local elections on November 4, we are excited to bring you, over the coming weeks, some of our most comprehensive electoral coverage in years. Contrary to popular belief, it is these elections that have the most immediate impact on our communities. Ensuring water is safe to drink, fires are put out, parks are clean, housing is safe, roads are paved, and so much more, are all issues most directly addressed by the people elected to village, town, and county government.

Yet these races are almost always decided by a small fraction of those who show up for presidential elections. We hope that by giving these races the attention they deserve, with whatever resources our small newsroom has, more of our fellow Otsego County residents will cast informed ballots for the candidates of their choice.”

We are pleased to have been able to live up to our own expectations, having provided a forum by which those running for office could introduce their platforms and state their case. We are not pleased, however, by what seems to be a lack of interest on the part of some candidates to represent themselves. For instance:

• Multiple candidates invited to debates sponsored by the League of Women Voters of the Cooperstown Area either declined to participate or didn’t respond to the league at all.
• Some candidates were going to opt out entirely of AllOtsego’s rather, let’s face it, softball Q&A, choosing in the end to simply skip the questions they found uncomfortable.
• When searching online for candidates’ platforms, campaign materials and contact information, it quickly became apparent that many of these materials were not readily available. We had to be clever, for instance, in making contact with a number of the challengers running for office for the first time, many of whom did not even have a dedicated Facebook page.
• Otsego County 7th District incumbent David Bliss, who remained on the ballot but had dropped out of the race, gave no official notice of this until Monday, October 20 when he called our office and officially endorsed James McCartney. Carolyn Marks also dropped out of her race for Oneonta Common Council, with no formal announcement of which we are aware.
• And, perhaps most disappointing of all, was the fact that out of the five contested races for the Otsego County Board of Reps (not counting Bliss and the 7th District) only one incumbent—Michelle Catan of the 4th District—even replied to our Q&A invitation. Throughout this process, we reached out to all candidates the same way: electronically. Our two e-mails to sitting Otsego County representatives James Powers, Richard Brockway, Jennifer Mickle and Donald Scanlon—all Republicans—went unanswered. We even checked with the clerk of the board to make sure their e-mails were working and were assured that they were. Makes you wonder how often our representatives actually check their government e-mails…

By the time this paper publishes, we will know whether this “let the chips fall where they may” approach to our local elections—at a juncture when Otsego County’s governing board could skew Democrat for the first time in many years—has harmed the Republicans or if they were, indeed, secure in their seats for another two years. Regardless, we can’t help but wonder if the attitude of many of today’s political candidates—both incumbents and challengers, conservative or liberal—is “laissez-faire” or just plain lazy.