While a majority of Greene County village races coming due March 15 are seeing little in terms of competitiveness, something else is astir in Columbia County, at least in Chatham, There's a political uprising underway in the Village there, where The Columbia Paper reports that a new party will be running two candidates in the March 15 elections. And last weekend the same candidates secured those Democratic line on the village ballot with no opposition. Tom Curran will run for mayor on the Democratic line and presumably on an independent Chatham United party line, unless the petitions for that line are successfully challenged. He will be joined by Joanne DelRossi, who will run for one of the two open seats on the Village Board. The incumbent mayor, Paul Boehme, said this week that he would seek another term, setting up the first contest for the leadership of the village in several years. Curran and DelRossi received the unanimous backing of village Democrats at a party caucus Sunday, January 23, where no one challenged the nominees. Boehme said he was aware of the caucus but chose not to attend. The mayor and the seats of two trustees, Patrick Wemitt and Lael Locke, are up for election with Locke collecting signatures to seek another term and Wemitt had not having made a public announcement on whether he intends to run again. The new Chathan candidates are seeking greater shared services among neighboring towns, among other issues.


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Across the river in the Greene County Village of Tannersville, longstanding mayor Lee McGunnigle noted this week that after losing his community's Democratic nomination to a newcomer, he was planning to run on his own party, or as a write-in candidate.