John Mason is reporting in the Register-Star the race for alderman in Hudson's Third Ward is now a three-way contest following the entry of businessman William Kappel. Kappel will challenge incumbents John Friedman and Henry Haddad, both Democrats, in November. He is running on his own line, the Progressive Unity Party. The city GOP has not put a candidate forward. Born in Manhattan, Kappel moved to Hudson with his family in 1956, when he was 13. Following graduation from Hudson High School, he entered the U.S. Navy. Kappel owned and ran several businesses in the city before he retired. Kappel said he wants to get things in government back to the way they used to be, when people were more interested in the city, and less concerned about political parties. Haddad is running without the backing of the city Democrats. He was born in New York City, but has lived in Germantown and Hudson since he was six months old. Haddad is in property management and volunteers as part of the Hudson City School District’s mentoring program. Haddad said he “conducts a pretty good Police Committee meeting, with civil conversations,” and believes he’s been a pretty good intermediary between his constituents and the police chief. Unlike Haddad, Friedman was endorsed by the Democratic committee. He told the paper, “I’ve never campaigned. I just do my job. I try to be available when people ask for it; I try to be as effective as I can, on a street level, as a representative of my constituents on the Common Council.” Friedman said his priorities include the lodging tax, and the elimination of the weighted vote system. " The weighted vote is not good for the citizens of Hudson: It undermines certainty, and people’s understanding of how our system works," he said. Read the full story in the Register-Star.