No saving Monroe

Save Monroe fails to take major party ballot lines

By Chris McKenna
Times Herald-Record
cmckenna@th-record.com

Monroe – Two Republican councilmen and a Democratic supervisor candidate won primaries in Monroe yesterday, defeating three Save Monroe candidates who challenged them for their major-party ballot lines in the Nov. 8 election.
Councilmen Don Weeks and Peter Martin beat Theresa Budich and Kathy Parrella of Save Monroe in a Republican primary, while Alicia Vaccaro – chosen by the Democrats to run for supervisor – trounced Save Monroe leader Bob Purdy in a contest for the Democratic slot.
Weeks and Martin won despite unusually low turnout in Kiryas Joel, a bloc-voting village with enough electoral muscle to have thrown well over 2,000 votes behind the incumbents.
Indeed, turnout was low throughout town: Roughly 1,460, or 20 percent, of the town's 7,400 Republicans took part in that primary, while almost 1,020, or 20 percent, of Monroe's 5,100 registered Democrats voted.
Since all six primary candidates had minor-party ballot lines to fall back on, what was at stake yesterday was the stature and party-line votes that come with running on a major-party line in November.
The Save Monroe candidates will be on the Nov. 8 ballot on the Conservative Party line.