Barring a last-minute campaign announcement, Ulster’s next county executive will be chosen by about 300 Democratic Party committee members at a convention scheduled for Saturday afternoon at Kingston’s City Hall.

The unusual process, brought about by former county exec Pat Ryan’s victory in an Aug. 23 special election for a seat in Congress, has members of both major parties calling for changes in the County Charter’s rules for dealing with vacancies in county government.

“Circumstances have put us in this position,” said County Legislator and Kingston Democratic Committee member Abe Uchitelle. “This is not the way many of us would prefer to go about things.”

Ryan’s victory in the race for New York’s 19th Congressional District set off a scramble by three Democratic candidates — County Comptroller March Gallagher, Deputy County Executive Marc Rider and former state senator Jen Metzger — for the county executive’s office. The winner will serve out the remainder of Ryan’s term, which ends on Dec. 31, 2023. But instead of making their case to rank-and-file Democrats ahead of a contested primary, the three Democrats are campaigning for the support of party insiders who represent the county’s 164 election districts. Republicans, who have struggled to compete in countywide contests in recent years, have yet to put forth a candidate or announce a convention. Political parties have until Monday, Sept. 19 to place candidates on the ballot for the Nov. 8 election. Independent candidates face a Sept. 23 deadline to submit the 1,500 signatures required to earn a spot on the ballot.

The insular nature of the campaign for the county’s top elected office was highlighted this week when Kingston and Town of Ulster Democrats hosted a forum for the three candidates. While attendance at the event — which was held in-person and on a Zoom call — was not limited to committee members, efforts to publicize the forum were largely limited to an intraparty email blast. When video of the Zoom meeting was posted to YouTube, access was limited to committee members.

On Thursday, Town of Ulster Democratic Committee Chair Laura Hartmann said the video was posted without the committee’s permission and she had it made private because she had not advised participants in advance that it would be made public.

“The intention of the video was to make it available to committee members who couldn’t be there,” said Hartmann. “It was for the committee’s use internally and without [permission from participants] I couldn’t make it public, legally.”

Along with the public forums, the intraparty scrum has seen intense lobbying efforts by candidates and their partisans to secure the support of prominent local Democrats and individual committee members. Rider had been next in line to assume the county executive’s post once Ryan left office. But in July, Ryan replaced him in the line of succession with fellow Deputy County Exec Johanna Contreras. At the time, Ryan said that he made the switch to avoid the appearance of mixing party politics with the business of county government. But on the same day he left office, he joined Ulster County Sheriff Juan Figueroa in endorsing Metzger.

On Thursday, meanwhile, Uchitelle endorsed Gallagher. In a statement announcing the endorsement in a statement on social media, Uchitelle said that he had initially pledged not to endorse anyone in the race but had decided that it would be unfair following what he termed the “endorsementpalooza” over the past week. Kingston committee member and Ninth Ward Alderwoman Michele Hirsch said she’s disheartened by the machinations around the nominating process.

“I’m not happy about it,” said Hirsch. “I’m not happy about people giving public endorsements for something that’s not up for a public vote, where our votes are supposed to be secret.”

That frustration is shared by a number of Democrats, including Ulster County Committee Chair Kelleigh McKenzie, who lamented in an open letter that rank-and-file Democrats would play no role in choosing the party’s nominee. She and others, including Kingston Republican Committee Chair and county Election Commissioner John Quigley, have called for changes to the succession rules when a charter revision commission convenes next year.

“I know we’re elected officials,” said Kingston Committee member and Common Council President Andrea Shaut. “But I don’t think the average voter knows what [committee members] do and how in situations like this we have this responsibility for choosing the nominee. It’s not the voice of the people.”

On Saturday, the committee members from across the county will gather in the Common Council Chambers at 4:30 p.m. for a secret ballot to determine the party’s nominee. The ballot will be held using ranked-choice voting, where participants will list all three candidates in order of preference. Individual committee members will also have their votes “weighted” based on how many people voted on the Democratic Party line in their district in the last gubernatorial election.

If Republicans do not come up with a candidate, and no independent candidate secures a spot on the ballot, the committee’s choice will, by default, become the next county executive following the Nov. 8 election.

“It’s a daunting responsibility,” said Hartmann. “And obviously we have no control over what the Republicans do, but if they don’t put forth a candidate it makes that responsibility all the more daunting.”