Beacon Election Results: The Significance Of The Unopposed Party, And A Few Other Races

In Beacon, the entire City Council, made up of Democrats, was running unopposed, including the Mayor. Until one person announced just days prior that he would be a write-in mayoral candidate, which garnered some discussion about the fact that there was no choice of candidates. A single party hold by the Democratic party on this community has become the norm, that one sometimes wonders why there were yard signs at all.

In this local election, here are some election results from the Dutchess County Board Of Elections:

County Clerk:
Kenya Gadsen (Democrat) lost to Bradford Kendall (Republican), who was running for re-election. It was a close race.
Kenya also ran on the Working Families line, and Bradford on the Conservative line.
Kenya was at one time on Beacon’s Board Of Education, and then moved to be elected to Fishkill’s Town Board.

Dutchess County Executive
Susan J. Serino (Republican) won against Tommy Zurhellen (Democrat).
Susan also ran on the Conservative line, and Tommy on the Working Families line.
Susan was a New York Senator representing Dutchess County for 8 years, until she lost her last re-election to Michelle Henchey (Democrat) after her territory was redistricted.

Dutchess County Legislator - District 16
Yvette Valdes Smith (Democrat, Working Families) beat Ron Davis (Republican, Conservative) by a wide margin. There were 2 write-in votes (.07%).

Dutchess County Legislator - District 18
Nick Page (Democrat) won unopposed. There were 22 write-in votes (1%).
Nick’s family’s business, Hudson Todd, owns several of the buildings on Main Street on the west end of town by Bank Square.

City Of Beacon Mayor
Lee Kyriacou won almost unopposed. There were 449 write-votes. That was 16% of the vote. Generally, the percentage of write-ins for other elected positions in this election was 1%.
Lee ran in the Democratic line and is a landlord.
Days before the vote, Reuben Simmons announced his candidacy as a write-in. Well known in Beacon, Reuben stood a very slim, but not impossible, chance of winning through his work as a City of Beacon employee and his extensive volunteer work, placing him throughout the city with people at all times.

Beacon City Council
All 7 seats of the City Council were Democrats and ran unopposed.
Five seats remain the same, and 2 are new:
Ward 1: Molly Rhodes, returns for her 2nd term. There were 10 write-in votes (1%).
Molly ran in the Democratic line.
A newcomer, LaStar Gorton, wanted to run for Ward 1, and had everything she needed to run on the Independent line. But a series of strange events happened to her that kept her off the ballot.
Ward 2: Jeffrey Domanski is newly elected. There were 9 write-in votes (1%).
Jeffrey ran in the Democratic line.
Former Councilmember Justice McCray did not seek re-election. Justice is a founding member of Beacon4Black Lives.
Jeffrey is known in Beacon politics in part for his work for shepherding Beacon, along with other municipalities, into Beacon’s signing onto a fixed energy price using clean energy via the Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) program. That program auto-opted in Beacon residents, and guaranteed them a low fixed energy rate. When energy rates went up in Summer or during the beginning of the Ukraine war, the fixed energy price through the CCA remained low and the same. However, the energy contractor behind this arrangement broke their contract and walked away, thereby breaking the fixed rate. Some Beaconites were suspicious of the rate lock anyway, just by the nature of so many clean energy solar panel peddlers coming to Beaconite’s doorsteps and confusing them with different programs, and because of Central Hudson’s own confusing and sometimes misleading language. The CCA program was nothing like those programs, and did give citizens savings. Jeffrey is married to a member of the Beacon Board of Education, Kristan Flynn.
Ward 3: Wren Longo, returns for her 2nd term. There were 8 write-in votes (1%).
Wren ran in the Democratic line.
Wren is well versed in affordable housing.
Ward 4: Dan Aymar-Blair, returns for his 3rd term. There were 16 write-in votes (2%).
Dan ran in the Democratic and Working Families lines.
Dan originally ran on an anti-development theme and currently seeks strict regulation of emissions to impact the climate crisis.
Councilmembers At Large: Paloma Wake and Pam Wetherbee
Paolma ran in the Democratic and Working Families lines.
Paloma is passionate about affordable housing, the climate, and land-justice in Beacon, recognizing that we are living on Indigenous land.
Pam ran in the Democratic line.
Pam is a former City Councilmember, and is currently advocating for the residents who live near Rte. 52, where the Mayor is leading a move to re-zone that area once property opens up after Healey Brothers leave.