It appears from incomplete returns from the Board of Elections that more Democrats will cast ballots in next Tuesday’s 103rd Assembly District Democratic primary than voted in a similar primary two years ago. It projects to about another 400 votes or so, maybe crucial in a tight race.

What does this information, heretofore unknown to the public, portend?

Are these “new voters” or are they “old voters” (traditional Democrats) who stayed home last time?

Are they Sarahana Shrestha voters doubling down on their standard bearer or are they challenger Gabi Madden’s youthful hometown followers?

By way of background, around 15,000 Democrats voted in the race between Shrestha and Kevin Cahill in ’22, which she won by 538 votes. An influx of 600 voters (I called the BOE in midweek) maybe more, could weigh heavily on the scales.

While I appreciate that readers’ eyes roll at election stats, it matters because the game isn’t about how many people are eligible to vote, but whether your people come to the polls.

I didn’t expect any definitive answers to those questions when I entered the steamy confines of the Old Dutch Church on Monday night. As Kingston Wire editor Dan Barton noted in his editorial on the event in this week’s first edition, the two factions were divided into separate camps. Like a wedding, one side sat on one side of the packed church, the other across the aisle. Each was heavily armed with stickers on clothing, t-shirts emblazoned with their favorites’ names and placards. Moderators kept a tight lid on audience responses.

I sat near the front to get a better view of the candidates. Barton, facing the crowd from the moderators’ platform, thought it grayer.

I have long used an unscientific “applause meter” to judge crowd support. By that measure, Madden’s side was clearly in the majority, maybe 4 to 3, or were they just louder?

One of the issues that got short shrift was campaign financing. I know people’s eyes glaze when I get into the sausage, but they matter. An added element in this year’s campaigns for state office is a matching grant law which gives money raised in-district to candidates on a six-to-one basis up to a $50 donation.

According to campaign spending reports online with the state Board of Elections, Shrestha has received $161,231 from the public fund, while Madden has received $121,337. Madden’s total war chest to date approaches $190,000, Shrestha’s just over $180,000. In a competitive campaign that is not a draw, given the considerable advantages of incumbency.

But that doesn't factor in the “dark money” from independent Political Action Committees (PACs). Coming into this campaign, For the Many, one of Shrestha’s key supporters, for instance, shows $311,000 on-hand but, according to most recent reports, has not yet reported to whom it is going.

Judging the Candidates

Both candidates made their points but probably didn’t change many minds. It occurred to me as I walked down the thick red carpet in “Kingston’s Cathedral” that if it had been a ditch, few would have crossed it. Such are our politics nowadays.

Madden, for what seems like the first time, was clearly the aggressor. Shrestha seemed to take her pointed criticism in stride.

Shrestha frequently referred to notes on her desk while Madden was straight from the shoulder.

I’m not sure of the distinction between a socialist like Shrestha and a progressive like Madden, but I think you could throw a blanket over both of them.

The choice is how they’ll operate as Assembly members. Madden offers a constituent-oriented, ground-up philosophy gleaned, no doubt, from her half-dozen years as a senior staffer for an assemblyman and a state senator.

Shrestha strikes me as a top-down control type as witnessed by her voting against a Good Cause Eviction law passed late in this year’s session “as a protest,” she said, because, in part, it made it so municipalities will have to opt in, not opt out. For the people? Not.

The candidates seemed to find common ground on the Central Hudson to public power issue. Both insisted on Central Hudson getting its act together, though Madden was more specific. At one point, Madden said it would take at least 10 years to convert the investor-owned utility to public power. Shrestha, who doesn’t deny a lengthy timeline for her proposal, got off one of her best lines with that.

“All I can say is if it takes 10 years there will be a million happy people in the Hudson Valley in 10 years,” she proclaimed, to crowd delight.

From a strategic standpoint, why Madden supports this unpopular proposal escapes me, public power being the very face of the socialist movement.

The candidates got a little personal in their closing remarks. Little did the audience know after sweating for an hour through candidates’ back and forth that there would be another half hour of questions from the huge crowd of over 300. To sighs of relief, there weren’t many.

“You have to be a little crazy to go into politics,” Shrestha said, speaking, perhaps, of her meteoric rise from an immigrant who gained U.S. citizenship in 2019 to a seat in the state legislature in 2023.

God bless America.

“The job is demoralizing,” she said. “But I have no fear of failure. I have to try.”

Madden spoke to “the clear contrast between candidates,” adding, “This community is my lifeline.”

And finally. While I don’t carry this date in my head, the Democratic primary in the 103rd District is the 148th anniversary of what used to be called Custer’s Last Stand.

I remembered this after meeting Madden’s fiancé, Ryan Burns, outside the Old Dutch a few minutes before the debate began.

We chatted for a bit about what had been their wedding plans, until the future bride decided to run for office last January.

“What’s the new date?” I asked him.

“June 25th,” he said with a smile.

“What?” I said.

“Nobody gets that joke,” he replied, and we both laughed.

June 25 was a pivotal point in American history, less so to us moderns, but important nonetheless.

Our Mario and Me WGHQ-92 call-in show will discuss these and other issues in detail Friday from 7 to 9 a.m. on Friday. To stream the show live, or listen to it later, click here: https://vimeo.com/user173056939