Putnam Democrats back Degnan in Assembly race
June 4, 2008
Former Brewster Mayor John Degnan, a registered Republican, received the endorsement of the Putnam County Democratic Committee last night in his run against Assemblyman Greg Ball.
The Putnam Democrats, at their convention, voted to back Degnan, 66-2, with five abstentions. That included proxy votes.
Ball and Degnan have been slugging it out over endorsements since last month, when Degnan announced his candidacy to represent the 99th Assembly District. The 99th District covers the towns of Patterson, Southeast and Carmel in Putnam County; North Salem, Somers and Yorktown in Westchester; and Pawling in Dutchess County.
“I want to bring pride of ownership back to the 99th District - not for the Republican Party, not for the Democratic Party, but for the people of the 99th,” Degnan said.
He also has been endorsed by the Putnam GOP committee and Ball by the Westchester Republicans. They split the support of the Pawling Republicans in Dutchess County. Expecting the Putnam Democrats to endorse Degnan, Ball, R-Patterson, released a statement yesterday afternoon.
“Degnan’s endorsement by Democratic Party insiders is the reward for his liberal record of pay increases, costly government expansions, unnecessary tax increases and social services for illegal aliens.
“John Degnan is not loyal to the Republican Party and is a puppet of local insiders hoping to silence my voice on tax reform, illegal immigration and shaking up Albany,” Ball said.
In the past, Ball has criticized Degnan, who was elected to four terms as Brewster trustee and one as mayor, for increasing his mayoral salary. As mayor, Degnan adopted a budget that almost doubled his salary from $8,563 a year to $15,600 - a level, he said then, commensurate with the job’s long hours. Ball also has argued that Degnan was soft on illegal immigration for supporting a proposed day-laborer work station in the village - an idea that never came to fruition.
County endorsements are mostly ceremonial, although receiving one shows a campaign has support and enables committee members to gather signatures on a candidate’s ballot petitions.
Ball, a first-term assemblyman, has pointed to his Westchester GOP support as more meaningful than the other Republican committee endorsements because the Westchester portion of the district contains the most voters. The Westchester section of the 99th contains 47,237 registered voters, according to the state Board of Elections’ figures, compared with 39,030 in Putnam.
The Democrats last night also endorsed former Kent Councilman Joseph D’Ambrosio, Legislator Sam Oliverio, D-Putnam Valley, and Gary Kiernan, a Republican, to run for the three open seats on the county Legislature. Committee members also selected several candidates for town offices.
Source: LoHud
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