Confident in Candidates
We are fortunate in Philipstown that we have a very good Town Board. The members work hard to keep the wheels of local government moving smoothly while at the same time trying to keep expenses as low as possible to give us services at a price we can afford. Two of the hardest-working members of the Town Board are John Van Tassel and Supervisor Richard Shea.
We are very sad to see Betty Budney retire after many, many years of dedicated service, but we are confident that Mike Leonard will be a worthy successor. He has proven himself on the Planning Board, as well as other boards. As the old saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Please vote for these three outstanding candidates. You will be glad you did.
Claudio and Jean Marzollo
Cold Spring
Who has earned my vote? Lee Erickson
I believe local elections should be about the people running, the candidates themselves, and not about whatever their party may happen to be.
I think that someone who writes their own campaign materials, runs on their own ideas, goes door to door themselves and puts time, blood, sweat and tears into a campaign is the type of person who has earned my vote. Candidates that run in name only, and who allow proxies or party officials to do their dirty work should make you pause. Who are we voting for, the individual? Or are we voting for someone else’s ideas, the people behind the curtain?
I was reminded of this recently when I passed Route 9 and 301 early on a Saturday morning and saw Town Council candidate Lee Erickson out there busting his butt putting up one of his own campaign signs. The curious thing, on the other corner I observed a woman putting out six or seven signs for other candidates, and she was definitely not a candidate. I later observed this same occurrence at the corner of Peekskill Road and 9D. It was like the tale of two corners.
It makes me wonder, who are we voting for? I’ve voted for Democrats, Independents and Republicans throughout my life and the common denominator has always been who is the hardest worker? Who do I believe is running for the right reasons? Who has earned my vote? In a small community such as Philipstown I would expect politics to be grassroots. I would expect candidates to do the hard work themselves.
Lee Erickson seems to me to be a hard working real person, who understands issues facing regular people of Philipstown. This is why I will be voting for candidate Lee Erickson on Nov. 5.
Donna Fiacco
Cold Spring
