By KEVIN LIMITI • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
The race for Otsego County Board of Representatives District 3, which covers Laurens and Otego, could stand among the more competitive contests on November 2.
Republican incumbent Richard Brockway once again faces off against Democrat Caitlin Ogden in a repeat of their 2019 campaign for the seat.
By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
LAURENS – A rematch is shaping up this fall in the race for the county Board of Representatives’ District 3.
As they did in 2019, Democrat Caitlin Ogden, Laurens, will again face Republican Rick Brockway, West Laurens, to represent the towns of Laurens and Otego.
“I am running to give the people of Laurens and Otego the representation on the county board that they deserve,” Ogden said today in announcing her candidacy.
To the Editor:
I’m so pleased that Caitlin Ogden is running to represent District 3 (Laurens-Otego) on the county Board of Representatives.
Caitlin brings to the race a life of public service. She spent her high school years volunteering to help rescued marine life.
She moved to New York seeking open spaces and a sense of community often found in Upstate New York, and over her 13 years in New York, she has strived to give back to her community.
She has made a career working in the non-profit industry with a special fondness for museums. A graduate of SUNY Oneonta with a master of arts degree, Caitlin has continued to seek ways to be active in her community, even plunging into Goodyear Lake in February’s annual Polar Bear Jump.
Caitlin’s career in non-profits and as a grant writer has given her the background to work on the county’s behalf: project management, communication, creative approaches to complex problems.
Her understanding of political office as public service means she knows her role is to be an advocate, to work for her neighbors, not for herself.
I’m supporting Caitlin Ogden for county board because we need a problem solver who will work for Laurens and Otego and all of Otsego County.
AMY CROUSE-POWERS
Otego
To the Editor:
I’ve driven all over New York State and worked with community organizations and their leaders, and there is a commonality that unites them all: an investment in a better future.
The same can be said for Otsego County, where success and momentum are building.
Our county has no shortage of dedicated and committed leaders who put service to their communities first and strive to improve them.
It isn’t politics that prompt people to contribute to their community. As we look to the future of Otsego County, there is great potential for making our region a draw for business development and new residents.
This future is dependent on strengthening our infrastructure and putting systems and tools in place to make Otsego County competitive and give us a fighting chance.
Our county government is a piece to this puzzle, and we are finally making an investment in county infrastructure, which has been long delayed and ignored.
Part of this process has been two years of due diligence in looking at a county administrator position (and one can’t ignore the many, many years of past discussions and debate on this topic by our predecessors), which culminated recently in the approval of a local law and position by our Administration Committee that will next be considered for approval Nov. 6 by our full county board.
This effort is increasing the momentum pushing Otsego County forward to attract new investment and interest in our towns. Politics are not what have made this possible, but partnership and unified vision.
With this in mind, I am writing to endorse my fellow county board colleagues Dave Bliss, Meg Kennedy and Peter Oberacker.
I started with them on the county board in 2016, and with their support, we have made strides to work smarter and more effectively. We may represent different parties, but our effort is a bi-partisan one.
With the upcoming election on Nov. 5, and the emphasis on party, I would ask my fellow community members from across the county to consider making an investment in keeping us on the path of improvement.
Consider not what party we represent, but the future we offer.
In addition to Bliss, Kennedy and Oberacker, I support my colleague Michelle Farwell, who has made a tremendous contribution in her first two years on the Board. And finally, I am supporting Caitlin Ogden, who is not a political pawn, but an investment in the future success of Otsego County.
ANDREW MARIETTA
County Representative
Town of Otsego/Cooperstown
Friends, the Democrats are coming to get us, and it isn’t going to be pretty.
Chad McEvoy, the local party’s brainy director of communications, sent out an email on Oct. 1 that affirms an editorial that appeared here in early summer – the future of party politics in Otsego County will be determined in District 3, where two newcomers, Republican Rick Brockway and Democrat Caitlin Ogden, are competing for an open seat on the county Board of Representatives.
If Ogden wins, control of the board shifts from Republican to the first solid Democratic majority in county history. (In 2006, Democrats allied with Republican Don Lindberg and took control, but without a true majority.)
In the emailed memo that begins to the right of here, McEvoy points out “the political stars are aligning … This could be huge for the future of our community,” and he ticks off what would be slam dunks for a Democratic majority: Creation of a county manager, improving energy efficiency of county buildings, a community college, buying up and repairing blighted properties.
Nothing wrong there, but things get a little iffy when he gets into the “diversity of thought” in the party on two issues in particular. One is “doing our part to fight climate change” – that likely means no fossil-fuel bridge to green energy. Two is “whether we want to roll out cannabis production and retail sales locally in a post-legalization world.” We know how that’s likely to go.
As the Cooperstown Village Board – all Democrats – has proved, an ideology-driven governmental body with no opposition will do what it wants.
In control for almost a decade now, Democrats are only now hitting their strides and the community is shocked, shocked.
One, using a Comprehensive Plan that was largely developed without public input (as most are), the trustees stirred a hornets nest by looking to plunk an apartment house in one of the village’s finest single-family neighborhoods.
Two, the trustees approved flying the Pride Flag next June at the downtown flagpole, against the advice of the village attorney and the one attorney-trustee. If the Ku Klux Klan seeks a similar permit, Village Hall can’t deny it because of the precedent set; fight, it will lose, the attorneys said.
Three, blinking signs are popping up everywhere, blinking, blinking, blinking into local living rooms. Are they needed? Do they work? They are an irritation, and there’s an ethical question about government applying stimulus-response to the citizenry.
The point is, absent any viable opposition (for now), the village trustees can do whatever they want, and are doing so. New Trustee MacGuire Benton was explicit: If people don’t like the trustees’ decisions, they can run for office. So there.
Other than no fossil-fuel bridge and Big Pot in our future, there’s a lot of nuttiness in Albany that’s headed our way, with the Democrats in control of both houses and the Governor’s Office.
An interesting vote in point was the county board’s resolution against the “Green Light” law authorizing “illegal immigrants” from getting drivers’ licenses.
Every Democrat on the county board voted nay or abstained on that resolution, except Andrew Stammel, D-Town of Oneonta, who voted aye angrily, saying he had been sandbagged.
This month, county Rep. Gary Koutnik, D-Oneonta, even voted nay on the “Justice for Jill” resolution. The whole issue of the new Democratic majority emptying prisons will have to wait for another day, but it’s real, and the impacts will be far-reaching.
And this is just the beginning. The other day, New York City’s Human Rights Commission imposed a $250,000 fine on the use of the term, “illegal immigrant,” in certain context. Just the beginning.
On the other hand, give Otsego County Democrats credit. In the wake of Donald Trump’s election in 2016, they mobilized and organized. The county went for Trump, but a motivated party swung it in 2018 for Democrat Antonio Delgado, our new congressman.
The Republicans need to show similar vigor, as they are in the Town of Richfield, in organizing against a Democratic effort to impose a restrictive comp plan and zoning code on the community.
With a 7-7 split on the board – the Republicans keep control through weighted voting and an alliance with Meg Kennedy, Mount Vision, a Conservative Party member – the GOP failed to mount any effective challenge in the City of Oneonta, where Republicans as recently as 2015 controlled two of the four county board seats, plus the Town of Oneonta’s.
In District 1 (Butternuts/Morris), no Republican has challenged Michelle Farwell, nor was Stammel challenged, vulnerable if anyone is.
The Republicans need some soul searching, and to pull up their bootstraps.
District 3 is a good place to get started.
The Democrats, according to the McEvoy Memo, are going to give it all they’ve got. A sneak attack in the primary won the Independent line for Ogden, where only Brockway’s name appeared on the ballot.
The numbers were too small (30 to 4) to be meaningful, but it showed what can be done – what might be done. If Brockway is to be elected, Republicans need to give him all the support they can.
And there’s mischief to contend with, too. Outgoing Otego-Laurens county Rep. Kathy Clark sought out Ogden at the last county board meeting and chatted with her cheerfully for a few minutes. Later, Ogden said Clark advised her to increase the size of her name on roadside signs.
Clark broke with the GOP last year when the Republican County Committee failed to endorse her husband, Bob Fernandez, for sheriff. Republicans shouldn’t underestimated the damage she might do.
In the last county board election, this newspaper endorsed the Democratic slate, and several are performing splendidly – Farwell among them, but also Andrew Marietta, Cooperstown/Town of Otsego, and even Liz Shannon, City of Oneonta, who is retiring after one term.
This year, though, with the doings in Albany and local Democratic militancy on the energy issue, Otsego County needs the county board as a bulwark against a potentially destructive Democratic tide.
Come on, Republicans, shake it off. Keep District 3.
Editor’s Note: Chad McEvoy, the Otsego County Democratic Party’s communications director, emailed this memo Oct. 1, alerting county Democrats they are one seat away from winning a majority on the county Board of Representatives, and what it means if that happens.
By CHAD McEVOY • OCDC Communications Director
In 2019 the political stars are aligning just right to give Democrats the best shot yet at capturing an outright majority on the Otsego County Board. Building on the work we did in 2017, we are now just one district pickup away from flipping the county legislature blue for the first time in history, as far back as anyone can remember.
This could be huge for the future of our community, so why does it seem like no one has really noticed?
Certainly people tend to pay less attention to local races. We all also worked really hard in 2018 on state and congressional campaigns and we might understandably be a little burned out. Perhaps, however, there is such an ingrained assumption that we live in a Republican-dominated area that even dedicated Democratic activists can scarcely imagine an Otsego County where the agenda is being set by a Democratic chair.
In meetings earlier in the year, when we first began to see the opportunity before us, we were almost shocked to realize that a majority was within grasp. Were we doing the math right? What had we missed? What would it mean if we actually won? For years the possibility of a Democratic majority seemed so inconceivable that we were not even practiced in formulating the question. This, I think, is the real reason for the awkward gap we are seeing between the very real possibility of victory and the seemingly anemic level of enthusiasm on the part of the normally engaged Otsego County Democratic activist base. People just can’t quite envision it yet.
In an effort to answer this question about what we would actually do if we won, over the last several weeks I have had focused conversations with some highly engaged Otsego Democrats, each of whom came with different sets of interests and subject matter expertise. I spoke one-on-one with them about their visions for what the county could be in a world where Democratic policies and principles are actually setting the political agenda and not constantly being stymied.
Everyone I talked to agreed that Otsego County needs to create and fill some form of a county manager role. In order to revitalize county administration we need to take the burden off the 14 part-time politicians and vest an individual professional with the authority to manage many aspects of county business with an executive function. A good manager, appointed by a Democratic majority, could bring new energy to the county bureaucracy, perform a structural reorganization of its staff, streamline government functions, and be a singular advocate for the needs of our communities when aggressively pursuing grants and funding. As Democrats, we support the idea that competent government professionalism should be nurtured and can provide great dividends.
Everyone I talked to also agreed that a Democratic majority could finally pursue critical green initiatives, with the goal of protecting our natural and agricultural land, increasing our appeal to tourists, and doing our part to fight climate change. Ideas for what we could accomplish given the power to do so included things like smart invasive species control, improving energy efficiency in government buildings, pushing the county to use more renewable products, curtailing the overuse of carcinogenic pesticides and herbicides, continuing to resist fracking and other extractive land uses, supporting and promoting organic farming, keeping XNG trucks off roads where they don’t belong, and exploring the idea of selling carbon offsets to fund reforestation projects on county land.
Personally, I am motivated to win in 2019 by the idea that a Democratic majority will be able to push our part of the world to do what it can to prepare for and resist the coming destabilization of the global climate. With a majority at our backs, a whole menu of environmentally positive initiatives moves into the realm of possibility. Under continued Republican leadership, however, nothing like this seems remotely feasible.
A number of other ideas on a wide range of topics surfaced over the course of my conversations. One commonality, however, was a sense that these ideas could never come to full fruition if we continue doing political business as usual in Otsego County. We discussed the idea of an Otsego community college, various infrastructure improvement projects, beefing up the planning board, developing long-term capital improvement and economic development plans, improving county constituent services, and dramatically improving how the county communicates with its citizens. The problem of rural EMS availability came up several times, as did housing issues and support for animal shelters.
A favorite of mine is the idea of establishing a land bank with the mandate to buy up blighted properties. The properties would be cleaned up, historically important structures stabilized, and wetlands, farmland, and forests rehabilitated. These properties would eventually be resold at a higher price; all of this would stimulate our economy and tax base, remove unsightly messes, preserve our architectural history, and help us do our part for the natural world. It is an idea that could make a huge difference in our community, but again, nothing like it is even conceivable under the status quo.
There are also several areas where there is a diversity of thought on the Democratic side about how to proceed—for example, on the specifics of how fossil fuel infrastructure projects should balance economic interests with environmental concerns or whether we want to roll out cannabis production and retail sales locally in a post legalization New York. We may not always have 100% consensus, but we do have a shared understanding that we would much rather entrust these decisions to Democrats than to the Republicans who have clearly been making the wrong calls, and for the wrong reasons, for decades.
There is a fundamental sentiment that current and past leadership has done little more than manage the slow senescence of our region. Our current economy is a reflection of the ills of decades of declining population, unhealthy demographic trend lines, and systematic underinvestment in our physical, energy, information, and human infrastructure. If tax cuts, penny-pinching, and government inactivity were the real paths to prosperity, that would be plainly evident by now. Instead we need to bring in new energy, new ideas, and new decision makers who will take positive, proactive steps toward revitalizing our region.
My purpose here has not been to prescribe all the possible things a Democratic-led county could finally accomplish, but to try to get people to start their own ideation on the topic. What would you like to see happen in Otsego County? It’s now time to start dreaming big.
Why do we think we can win?
Because of our success in 2017, the Democrats are now in a tie with the Republicans in terms of board seats, with a total of seven each. Yet we are denied the chair of the county board (and everything that comes with it) because of the way the votes are weighted by district. The reason that 2019 provides such an opportunity is that there are only three contested seats. Two of these seats are currently held by Democrats, and we expect them to be fairly easy to defend.
This leaves just District 3 (covering the towns of Otego and Laurens) as the likely swing district that will determine the political fate of the county. And while Republicans have a moderate numerical advantage in District 3 by registration numbers, there are several factors that make us feel extremely optimistic that we can take this seat:
We already almost did! In 2017 the Democratic candidate came up only 17 votes short in the absentee ballot count.
The longtime Republican incumbent is retiring, leaving this an open race.
We have an extremely hardworking and dedicated candidate in Caitlin Ogden, who has been knocking on doors in her community for months, already laying the groundwork for an effective get-out-the-vote blitz in October and early November.
We have already proven we can outwork the other side. A dedicated group of activists mounted a write-in campaign in the primary this summer to challenge the Republican on the Independence Party line and won. It wasn’t just a victory. It was a blowout, with Caitlin garnering 88% of the vote as a write-in against someone whose name was actually printed on the ballot.
How do we win?
We simply have to significantly outwork the other side. Small, local elections like this hinge on so few votes (see 2017) that the side that tries the hardest is virtually assured victory. This is why I am saying that a Democratic Otsego County is ours for the taking—if we work hard enough for it.
Of course, we will use every technique and tool at our disposal as well. The core group of volunteers on the Ogden campaign have extensive professional experience running local- and state-level campaigns. We are already applying battle-tested best practices around voter communications, field operations, and data collection. But we don’t yet have enough support or resources to execute a campaign plan commensurate with the size of the opportunity before us. Quite simply, we need more money and more volunteers.
What can you do to help make this a reality?
Start dreaming big about what a Democratic future in Otsego County will look like.
Sign up to volunteer to write postcards, make calls, and knock on doors up until election day. Basically nothing in campaign tactics has ever proven more effective than an engaged volunteer with a big smile knocking on people’s doors and reminding them to vote.
Follow Caitlin’s campaign on Facebook and invite your friends to “like” it too. Sign up for her campaign emails while you are at it.
If you know anyone who lives in Laurens or Otego, PLEASE tell them about the District 3 race and how important every single vote will be on November 5. Get them to commit to vote.
Get involved with the Otsego County Democratic Committee. We are all deeply strapped for time and always need volunteers. We also currently have about 60 open seats across the county, and we welcome new voting members.
We also need to hold on to the other two currently Democratic-held seats that have challengers in 2019. Michele Farwell in District 2 (Pittsfield, Morris, and Butternuts) and Jill Basile in District 14 (Oneonta Wards 7 and 8) will need our support. If you live in those districts, please make sure every Democrat you know votes this November.
And, of course, please donate. Contributions will be used to fund materials, events, and advertisements to help us reach more voters. Remember, your political dollar goes miles farther at the local level than anywhere else. You simply cannot get a better return on investment in terms of actual impact on your life as an Otsego County resident than you can by helping us flip the whole of the county blue with a District 3 win. Giving $100 to your favorite 2020 presidential candidate is but a drop in the ocean, but in this race it could very well be what makes the difference in winning control of our entire county.
In working for this victory, we are also doing our part to further the rebuilding of the rural Democratic Party infrastructure, which has been nearly catatonic throughout areas like ours for decades—ignored by both the party establishment and the opposition. A strong county means a stronger base for our congressional candidate, which means a stronger national Democratic Party. We may live in the hinterlands, but what we do here really does matter. In fact, as citizens of a purple county in a purple congressional district, what we do here matters more on a macropolitical level than perhaps anywhere else in the state.
Sincerely,
Chad McEvoy
Chair of the Communications Subcommittee of the Otsego Democrats
Communications Director, Committee to Elect Caitlin Ogden
2017 Otsego County Board Candidate, District 6
2018 New York State Assembly Candidate, District 101
Voting Member of the New York State Democratic Committee
Sustainable Otsego PAC Board Member
Treasurer, Clark Oliver for Otsego County Board
Treasurer, Rural Majority PAC
Two more things you should know about voting in 2019:
For the first year ever, we will have the opportunity to vote early in New York State. Even if you don’t need to vote early, please do. The opponents of early voting will be sure to capitalize on low turnout rates the next time the issue is up for funding. The details are here.
In 2019 there will be two Democratic candidates on the ballot for New York Supreme Court. These seats come up just once every 14 years. You will have the ability to vote for three candidates. However, do not use your third vote for one of the Republicans. The three Supreme Court seats will be filled by the top three vote-getters of any party, and Democrats giving their third vote to a Republican could mean that no Democrat wins at all. Your two votes will still count if you abstain on the third vote. Please spread this information to every Democrat you meet between now and election day.
By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
LAURENS – When Caitlin Ogden was 11 and living in Palm Harbor, Fla., west of Tampa, her parents learned of a Black Arabian for sale near their native Elmira, and determined to buy it for their horse-loving daughter.
When they contacted the seller, it was gone. But the horse’s cousin, two months younger, was available.
Thrilled at the gift, Caitlin named it Black Knight, after a horse in the Thoroughbred Series novel she was reading at the time. She rode it, tended it, with no inkling of a danger ahead.
In August 2004, the news broke: Hurricane Charlie, Category 5 – the most dangerous classification – was headed for Palm Harbor. As recommended, she spray-painted her phone number on Knight’s side. The paddock gate was left open, in case her horse and the others needed to scatter in face of the storm.
The storm veered away, but for Ogden, already considering abandoning the busy Florida suburb with its congested roads for the pleasures of small town living, Charley settled it: She and her horse were moving north.
“I wanted some place to ride my horse in the woods, not on the street,” she said. “I wasn’t going to find that in Florida.”
Enrolling at Elmira College, she obtained a B.A. in History. Intrigued with a particular period, Ogden went on to SUNY Binghamton for a B.A. in Medieval Studies, while working as education services coordinator for the National Soaring Museum, Elmira.
She became interested in fundraising, and while earning her master’s (2018) at the Cooperstown Graduate School in Museum Studies, interned at the Roberson Museum in Binghamton, then in SUNY Oneonta’s development office, before joining the Baseball Hall of Fame as a grants writer.
She bought two acres in the Town of Laurens, near the former Edgewood Golf Course, big enough for her current horse, Leo – official name, Lucci the Lion. “I chose to settle here and call it my home,” she said in an interview at The Funny Farm, the restaurant and minimart on the Laurens/New Lisbon line.
Since 2016, “like many Americans, I was feeling stress and tension about how politics had become very divisive,” she said. Instead of “yelling at the TV set,” she volunteered for county Rep. Liz Shannon’s 2017 campaign.
There she met other politically minded young people, like Clark Oliver, who is running unopposed for county board in the City of Oneonta’s District 11, and MacGuire Benton, the Cooperstown village trustee and assistant Democratic elections commissioner.
“I’m doing my little part to get things back on track,” she said. Despite the national divide, “we have more similarities than differences.”
She has been going door to door every evening after work and 4-8 hours on weekends, “to get to know as many people as I can.”
Such hard work, she suggested, resulted in her winning the Independent Party primary in June. Her opponent’s was the only name on the ballot, but a write-in push won her the fall ballot line, 30-4.
“I’m quite honored they selected me by a large margin,” she said.
If elected, Ogden said she will seek to ensure the Cooperative Extension Service is sufficiently funded. (Its director, Don Smyser, was chided by county reps in September for a shortfall.)
Her goal is for local farmers to benefit from budgeting, grants and equipment, mental health and other available Cooperative Extension programs.
She favors rural broadband as soon as possible, noting satellite service is too expensive. Lack of broadband “is hurting property values; it’s hurting rural education,” she said.
She saluted the City of Oneonta for obtaining downtown-restoration grants, and said she will seek similar programs for downtown Laurens and Otego.
There no downtown in Laurens, she said, but she pointed to Rubera’s in downtown Otego, which began as a pizza parlor and has expanded serving lunch and dinner. It’s a model for others entrepreneurs to follow, she said.
Of her conversation at the last county board meeting with county Rep. Kathy Clark, R-Otego, the woman whom Ogden would succeed, if elected, she said, “That was the first time I actually talked with her.”
Clark suggested Ogden increase the size of her name on roadside signs.
“I appreciated the fact that she was pleasant to a Democrat who might be her success,” Ogden said.
LAURENS – Rick Brockway, Republican candidate for the county board from District 3, expected to coast onto the Independence Party line yesterday, Primary Day in Otsego County.
Instead, Laurens-Otego Democrats packed the polls and, by 30 votes to 4, seized the line for their candidate, Caitlin Ogden.
“Our campaign has a great deal of momentum and we’re looking forward to November,” MacGuire Benton, Cooperstown village trustee and Ogden For Otsego campaign manager, in an email.
By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
COOPERSTOWN – A dominant actor appears to be leaving the political stage: By today’s 5 p.m. deadline, county Rep. Kathy Clark, R-Otego, the former two-term board chairman, had not filed petitions to run again for her District 3 seat.
Absent an independent filing, it appears that either Republican Rick Brockway, the outdoors columnist and farrier from Laurens, or Democrat Caitlin Ogden, a grants administrator at the Baseball Hall of Fame, will be representing the Otego-Laurens district after the Nov. 5 election.
LAURENS – Caitlin Ogden, the Grant and Development Specialist at the Baseball Hall of Fame, has announced her candidacy for District Three on the Otsego County Board of Representatives.
Ogden holds a Masters in Arts in Museum Studies from the Cooperstown Graduate Program. Ogden moved to upstate New York in 2006 with her horse in pursuit of a rural small town life. She has since spent her career working in the nonprofit sector.