Democratic primary contenders Sarahana Shrestha and Gabi Madden will meet (if that’s the word) in a virtual debate sponsored by the Daily Freeman on June 11, according to the daily. The Freeman will post the one-hour debate on its website an hour after.

This is not to upstage my favorite daily newspaper, but I had planned to handicap the combatants in a column around the middle of June, which is to say just before early voting starts for the June 25 primary.

Early voting, which has become increasingly popular, is obviously designed to capture local weekenders, a.k.a. liberal Democrats with city roots. Polls will open on Saturday, June 15, and run until Sunday, June 23. Politics aside, weekend voting is a grand idea.

The Freeman debate, and this column, would hopefully give those early voters one last look at the candidates — no other debates have been scheduled that I know of — before they cast their ballots.

By way of context, Shrestha unseated 13-term incumbent Kevin Cahill by a total of 538 votes (52 percent) in the 2022 Democrat primary In the Ulster-Dutchess 103rd Assembly District. She carried Kingston, Cahill's hometown, by 389 votes. And if that wasn’t humiliating enough, Shrestha carried New Paltz, Cahill’s alma mater, by 68 votes. To add insult to injury, the challenger beat the incumbent by 81 votes in the Red Hook-Rhinebeck section of the district.

But this campaign isn’t about Cahill, though his shadow looms over it. Cahill was the ultimate porker, pouring tens of millions into his district over the years. As the Beatles advised, money can’t buy you love, nor elections.

Enough of this history, however relevant.

Shrestha enjoys most of the advantages of incumbency (and early voters) and she knows how to use them. My guess is that she starts at around 45 percent and goes from there. Which way, we’ll find out on June 25. My spies tell me her foot soldiers have been knocking on doors for at least the last two months, some multiple times. Might they call this ground game “Footloose”?

Madden, a complete unknown except to family and friends until she announced her candidacy last winter, has no such cadres. As such, she launches from a lower rung. Or as former assemblyman Maurice Hinchey used to say, “Everybody starts at 35 [percent].” Call her the underdog.

This dog may hunt, as Bill Clinton liked to say, but she doesn’t much bark. To beat an incumbent, a challenger has to challenge, loud and often. Madden has had numerous opportunities, the state budget, released last month, for one. Crickets.

Shrestha’s level of constituent service could be fair game for an active challenger. Again. Zip.

To put it another way, Sen. Michelle Hinchey, D-Saugerties, announced some $30 million in that state budget for Ulster County. Shrestha? I’m holding my breath, but can’t last much longer.

Shrestha, ever on the attack, has been busy defining her opponent as a tool of corporate interests, a tactic, however unproven, that worked well in the Cahill race. Madden has yet to define herself, much less her opponent.

Madden calls herself a “progressive,” but hasn’t shown much evidence, other than that she worked on staff for two liberal state legislators, Cahill and state Sen. James Skoufis, D-Orange County.

An interesting sidebar on that. There seems to be a poll taken among district enrolled Democrats that asked people how they define themselves. According to reliable sources who have seen the poll (I have not, nor was I polled), 43 percent called themselves “progressives.” The poll, which some logically assume came from the Madden camp, followed with asking if they were “Social Democrats.” Support cratered. Shrestha is an outspoken member of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

With all due respect to Republican challenger Jack Hayes of Gardiner, the winner of the Democratic primary is the next assemblyperson. Democrats would be well-advised to tune in to the Freeman debate. Will it be a breakout for Madden in this, her first exposure to live fire, or a lockdown for Shrestha?

Welcome Back, Cotter

I’ll confess to being something of a homer when it comes to economic development, from which all things flow. But I still can’t get on board with county plans to convert the former IBM/TechCity property into an engine of progress.

Officials staged the usual photo-op at the Town of Ulster site last week where they basically told us what we already knew. Some 100,000 square feet of empty space will be occupied by several county departments, SUNY New Paltz, SUNY Ulster and Ulster BOCES from Port Ewen.

This is akin to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Where’s the flood of private sector tax-paying jobs in this plan? Taxpayers are already paying for the jobs going into what’s now called iPark 87. Addition by subtraction comes to mind.

Workforce housing with up to 880 units has liberal hearts aflutter, but seems something of a chicken and egg situation. Clearly, new jobs have to come before housing.

Joe Cotter, president of Natural Resources of Fishkill, the prime developer of the site, promises much more in the near future after prime anchor Zinc8 went belly-up for what he dismissed as “financial issues.” Maybe they’ll move the County Office Building in there.

That said, I’m pulling for this project, with an asterisk.