Two primaries in the 43rd State Senate District are heating up along with the weather.
The newly redrawn district includes part of Saratoga, Washington and Rensselaer counties, as well as all of Columbia County, and now three challengers are looking to wrest control from incumbent Roy McDonald.
Petition signatures were filed last week by Kathleen Marchione on the Republican and Conservative lines, Edward Gilbert on the Conservative line and Robin Andrews on the Democratic line. McDonald filed signatures to appear on the Republican and Independence lines.
That means Marchione, Saratoga County Town Clerk, will be the only one facing off against McDonald in the Sept. 13 Republican primary, while Gilbert and Marchione are set to battle over the Conservative line. Marchione, who has been campaigning for a number of weeks, has over $100,000 in her war chest, while McDonald is sitting on nearly $370,000.
Andrews, of Claverack, has a background in budget and planning consulting for publications like The Wall Street Journal and is Claverack’s town supervisor, a post she has held since 2010. She’s said she loves being in public service in part because she can listen to people’s concerns and do something about them.
“Albany is not the Albany it was three years ago, we’ve made a lot of progress but I wanted to bring some fresh energy to solve the problems that are out there and get results,” she said.
Like Marchione and McDonald, Andrews views jobs as a priority and said if elected she would try to forge public-private partnerships to foster job creation. She said job training programs would be an example of such a program.
“The district especially has a nice mix of having the opportunity for manufacturing or tech jobs as well as really enhancing our rural communities and small businesses and helping to support the farmers,” said Andrews.
Andrews acknowledged the race will be a tough one but said she’s not worried about running in the predominantly Republican district, pointing out she was the first Democrat elected to her current position in 35 years.
Andrews got 2,164 signatures from the Democratic line and to date has raised over $26,000 for her campaign.
Gilbert is employed by New York State Higher Education and was a candidate for Town Board in his hometown of East Greenbush. He said in a statement he’s running because he believes he can better address issues of real importance to Conservatives and upstate families.
“I thank voters for their support and look forward to the coming campaign,” said Gilbert in a statement.
Gilbert also said he’d be focusing on the economy in Upstate, reducing the tax burden and creating and creating new jobs.
“The main issues facing New Yorkers are high taxes and job creation, not social issues that are put out to distract and confuse voters from the real issues,” he said.
Gilbert filed nominating petitions with almost 530 signatures, according to his campaign. A financial disclosure statement for his campaign due Monday, July 16, was not on the state’s database as of press time.
