Jarrid Blades, an Ellenville native and recent Ulster County assistant district attorney, has put his hat into the ring for the Democratic nomination to run for district attorney this year.

Unknown at this point is whether the current DA, Democrat Dave Clegg, will run again; reports have surfaced that he will not. Mike Kavanaugh, who lost to Clegg by just 78 votes in 2019, officially entered the race on Jan. 7, thus ensuring a strong competition. Some confusion still exists as Kavanaugh, now 51, has said he would run as an “Independent” and not as a Republican.

Democratic Elections Commissioner Ashley Torres said, “All signs in the various political circles in Ulster County points to [Kavanaugh] running as the Republican/Conservative’s selected candidate.”

Jarrid Blades, now a Town of Shawangunk resident, left Ellenville in 2009 for Hobart College. He played center on the offensive line for Hobart's football team and scored a double major in political science and American history. After that it was law school at Syracuse University where he got his law degree. From there he went straight into the legal trenches as an assistant district attorney in Monroe County (City of Rochester).

“I visit Ellenville often, and I will never stop loving the place," Blades said. "I have family there, too. I came back to Ulster County because I was recruited by Sheriff [Juan] Figueroa, this was before the election of Dave Clegg.”

Blades noted that much of his work in Ulster County has been to combat the plague of heroin and fentanyl. That plague continues. Analysis released by State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli on November 1 noted a 68 percent increase in overdose deaths from 2019 to 2021 in the state, with 5,841 in 2021 alone. In October 2022 Ulster County leadership noted that opioid deaths in the county were up 171 percent over 2019’s total.

Looking ahead to the campaign, Blades said, “I will be looking to meet with anyone and everyone. I want to share my vision and goals with them, and I want to hear what they want from the DA’s Office.” He comes back to this thought several times. “I want input from those in every corner of the county, which as we know is a big area and quite diverse.”

Back in those trenches, Blades noted that the issue with opioids is complicated. “First, I have to say I could not be a bigger supporter of the drug court. We need to help those with addiction and assist them to gain healthy lives.”

As for the vendors of dangerous drugs, it's a different story. “In the office of the DA, you have to specifically target drug suppliers," Blades said. "They’re profiting from this poisoning of the community. But there is no cookie-cutter version of a drug supplier. Finding them and making cases stick requires a lot of work.”

He also sees how difficult an issue this has become with fentanyl in the picture. Whereas heroin is produced from opium grown in fields of poppies and then smuggled to markets in the U.S. and elsewhere, fentanyl is made in laboratories and is incredibly powerful, so small amounts translate into enormous profits from street sales to addicts. Fentanyl is smuggled in from China through American ports, or from Mexico courtesy of the cartels, which control ports and smuggling routes into the U.S.

“We are 90 miles north of New York City, a major source area, but not the only one by any reckoning. With URGENT [Ulster Regional Gang Enforcement Narcotics Team] we have intercepted many deliveries of deadly narcotics, including one batch from Lynn, Massachusetts. It can come from anywhere. We have found bricks of fentanyl, all prepackaged for sale in our county.”

Blades finished up with his “three major points.”

“One, keeping the community safe, going to be very tough on violent crime. Two, keep a compassionate approach. Bring a mental health court to Ulster County. Let’s discuss mental health and its impact on crime in a reasonable manner and be smart about crime. And three, I want to oversee a transparent office that equally serves everyone in all four corners of the county.”