New Paltz's famous mayor -- the first Green Party mayor in New York State, and the mayor who made national headlines in 2004 for marrying 25 gay couples in a public ceremony -- is back in office.
West served as mayor from 2003 to 2007, then lost a bid for re-election to village trustee Terry Dungan. After Dungan suffered a stroke in December, deputy mayor Jean Gallucci took over mayoral duties, and was West's biggest rival in yesterday's election.
Kudos to the doughty bloggers of New Paltz Gadfly, who posted the New Paltz election results last night after the votes were tallied:
Two-year trustee
- Osborn 337
- Glenn 377
Full-term trustee
- Cohen 37
- Crocetti 73
- Sherow 187
- Bunt 262
- Ruger 299
- Rhoads 331
- Basco 372
Mayor
- Cohen 31
- Healey 158
- Gallucci 314
- West 381
Write-in votes for various candidates.
West, whose previous administration was marked by controversy over his decision to preside over what proved to be non-binding same-sex marriages, said his next term in office will focus on operations of the village.
"I know exactly what I’m doing this time and we’re going to hit the ground running from day one," he said. "In fact, the work starts now. I’ve got a month for a transition and we will meet with all the department heads, start screening village attorney candidates, meet with the village engineer to see what projects are in the pipeline, meet with the treasurer about the finances and the outside debt service, go through the nuts and bolts, and get up to speed on all the things that really don’t get talked about much at the Village Board table."
The Times Herald-Record says the mud began to fly in the last few days of the campaign:
West himself was as much a campaign issue as the question of town-village consolidation. During the last few days of an otherwise civil campaign, Mayor Terry Dungan took out an ad accusing West of having lost money during his term of office; also, an anonymous postcard urging voters to vote against West arrived in mailboxes Monday.
