TOWN OF WAWARSING
In an interesting turn of events, residents of the Town of Wawarsing swung all the way to the left, as candidates running on the Democratic line took a clean sweep of every race. For the position of Town Supervisor, challenger Lenny Distel defeated one-term incumbent Ed Jennings by a margin of 354 votes, about 15 percent of the votes cast for the position. The two contested seats on the town council also went to the Democrats, with newcomer Steve Bradley and incumbent John Gavaris garnering 1,500 and 1,114 votes, respectively, while Republican challengers Richard "Doc" Craft and Dan Johnson were unable to crack the thousand-vote mark.

The closest race of the election was for the position of Highway Superintendent. Challenger Tony Paes, an Independent endorsed by the Democrats, took the win over one-term incumbent Gil Davis by a margin of just 191 votes, or about 7.6 percent of the total votes cast for the position. Ulster County Board of Elections Commissioner Tom Turco said on Wednesday that there were 253 absentee ballots applied for in Wawarsing, with 173 received by the board. He said it was conceivable for Davis to still pull out an extremely tight win if most of the absentee votes go his way, but that such a turn of events would be unlikely.

The races for Town Clerk and Tax Collector were won by wide margins by the Democrat-endorsed Roxanne Shamro and Robin Andersen, respectively, who each earned over 70 percent of the votes for their respective races. The two candidates had served, respectively, as deputies for their newly won positions for over ten years, and it seems as though their reputations served them well over their respective Republican opponents, Sue Cummings and Tom Stack.

Democrat Wayne Lonstein won another term as Wawarsing's Town Justice, having run unopposed this year.

TOWN OF MAMAKATING
In a stunning reversal of the election results two years ago, the Republican Party appears to have swept every single race in the Town of Mamakating, a sweep that includes the defeat of the incumbent Town Supervisor, Democrat Robert Fiore. Two years ago, Fiore had won the seat based upon a platform of change and open government. But budget problems hamstrung Fiore's ability to deliver on many of his campaign promises, and led to a certain amount of disaffection within Democratic Party ranks.

Harold Baird, GOP/Conservative/Jobs for Mamakating candidate for supervisor, received a total 1,153 votes, with 934 votes coming on the Republican line. Democrat/Working Families/Independence candidate Fiore received 1,052 votes, 913 of these appearing on the Democratic line.

The race for two open council seats also appears to have broken the GOP's way. Newcomer John Moul received the largest vote total with 1,222 overall, and running mate Regina Saunders came in second with 1,050 votes, overall. Democratic candidates Ron Weathers and Julius Greenberg received 1,023 and 886 votes, respectively. It should be noted, however, that the vote totals for Saunders and Weathers are quite close; the handful of absentee ballots currently left uncounted could change the order in which the second and third-place candidates finish. As of Wednesday morning, the Sullivan County Board of Elections had received 64 of the 107 absentee ballots issued, but only 48 had been counted thus far. It remains to be seen how many of the remaining 43 ballots the board will receive over the next several days. The top two vote getters overall each win one of two open council seats.

In the third major race this election cycle, incumbent Highway Superintendent Richard Johnson fought off a challenge by Democrat Riley "Buddy" Platt, III. Republican/Conservative candidate Johnson received 1,265 votes overall, with 957 coming on the GOP line. Platt, who was also on the Working Families line, received 1,106 votes, with 995 coming on the Democratic line.

In the race for Town Justice, incumbent Marcelle Matthews easily defeated challenger Councilwoman Judith Young. Matthews won a total of 1,913 votes, with her name appearing on the Democratic, Republican, Independence, and Conservative ballots. Young, a Republican who is retiring from the town board and was seeking to unseat Matthews, appeared solely on the Working Families ballot line, ironically, and received a total of 314 votes.

TOWN OF CRAWFORD
The atmosphere at the Town of Crawford Government Center on election night was a mix of good cheer and a slight sense of unease. This was the first election in a while that had Democratic Party challengers to the Republican incumbents.

However, the early results brought jubilation to the crowd of candidates, family members, and well wishers, as it soon became apparent that the Republicans had swept the board, maintaining an advantage almost two to one throughout the vote. Supervisor Charles Carnes collected 1,076 votes, running unopposed. Town Clerk, Kelly Eskew, also unopposed, received 1,086.

The contests for two justice seats were won by Bryan Kulak with 1,056 votes and Jane Harrington with 1,077. On the Democratic side, Marc Brunetti had 543, and Keith Ingber had 529.

The incumbent pair, Dan Flanick and Mike Menendez, won reelection easily with 937 and 923 votes. Their Democratic challengers, Michael Isgur and Lynn Lemyre, received 623 and 584 votes, respectively.

Tax Collector Connie Latimer defeated Democratic challenger Julie Murphy 948 to 654 votes, retaining her long-held seat. Assessor Robert Kolacz also defeated Susan Warms, 893 to 630, while Steve Russell retained the post of Highway Superintendent with 1,015 votes to only 581 for Al Robertson, the Democratic candidate.

TOWN OF ROCHESTER
The races in Rochester didn't favor one party over another, but experience seemed to win the day, as victory found every incumbent running for a position.

The vote for Highway Superintendent was extremely close, with Republican incumbent Wayne Kelder defeating Democratic challenger Eric Eck by 75 votes. The Town Justice race was even closer, with Democrat Paul Shaheen, who had been appointed to fill the vacancy left by Deborah Schneer after her appointment to the Ulster County Court bench earlier this year, defeated Republican Melvin Tapper by only 52 votes.

However, according to Ulster County Election Board Commissioner Tom Turco, there are enough absentee ballots in the Town of Rochester for either of these races to go the other way. With 116 out of 157 absentee votes collected, and with a collection deadline of Tuesday, November 10, Eck and Tapper may still find victory.

Both incumbents running for reelection on the town council won their seats: Democrats Tony Spano and Lynn Archer took home over 30 percent of the total votes each. Republican challenger Elbert DeJager received a respectable 23 percent of the vote, while Conservative candidate Harold Lipton only garnered 8 percent.

Carl Chipman won reelection to the position of Town Supervisor, and Kate Dennin-Sergio won the position of Town Clerk. Both ran unopposed.

VILLAGE OF ELLENVILLE
The one race in the Village of Ellenville brought few surprises, as incumbents Patty Steinhoff and Efrain Lopez were reelected to their seats on the board of trustees. While both candidates were endorsed by the Democrats, Steinhoff also garnered endorsements from the Republican and Conservative Parties — so it was not unpredictable that she wound up with the most votes. Republican and Conservative Party-endorsed Sue Nibe, a challenger, garnered about 20 percent of the total votes cast.

ULSTER COUNTY LEGISLATURE DISTRICT 1
The five-way race for four seats on the Ulster County Legislature put an end to the bid of self-proclaimed outsider Manuela Michailescu, who received only 11 percent of the votes — an unsurprising outcome since she only appeared on one party line compared to the multiple endorsements garnered by the other four candidates.

The three Democratic incumbents — Mary Sheeley, T.J. Briggs, and Joe Stoeckeler — each won reelection to their seats for another two years. The three were cross-endorsed by the Republican Party, though Stoeckeler's name was knocked off the Republican line by Michailescu after she forced and won the Republican primary a few months ago.

Republican challenger Terry Bernardo, also cross-endorsed by the Democratic Party, won her first term on the legislature, garnering the second-most votes after Mary Sheeley, and barely edging out Briggs by a margin of 20 votes.

ULSTER COUNTY LEGISLATURE DISTRICT 8
Republican victories in Ulster County have cemented GOP control of the county legislature. Jack Hayes, Cathy Terrizzi, and Ken Ronk were comfortable winners over Democrats, Tracey Bartels and Carl Zatz.

Hayes, Terrizzi, and Ronk all ran on the Republican, Independent, and Conservative lines, receiving 1,955, 1,802, 1,754, respectively. Bartels and Zatz ran solely on the Democratic line and received 1,456 and 1,412 votes, respectively.

ORANGE COUNTY LEGISLATURE DISTRICT 18
With 94 percent of the vote tallied on election night, Dan Depew had amassed an unassailable total of 1,950 votes, defeating Andrea Nilon, who had 861. Of these, 764 votes for Depew came from the Town of Crawford, while Nilon received 319 votes within the township. DePew, the incumbent, ran on the Republican/Conservative ballot lines, while challenger Nilon was endorsed by the Democratic, Independence, and Working Families Parties.