The Ulster County Regional Chamber of Commerce has invited candidates for state legislature and Congress, respectively, for Sept. 25 and Oct. 15 for meet-and-greet breakfasts at the Best Western in Kingston.

According to Chamber President Ward Todd, all four congressional candidates will be in attendance: incumbents Marc Molinaro and Pat Ryan and challengers Josh Riley and Alison Esposito.

State Senate candidates Michelle Hinchey and her challenger Pat Sheehan will be joined by challenger Jack Hayes. Incumbent Sarahana Shrestha declined to attend — twice — even after Todd said he offered her another date. She offered no reason.

A speaking date before the Chamber of Commerce is must-do for most candidates, it being one of the largest audiences at over 200 people they will face during a campaign.

Apparently, Shrestha, who employed similar tactics in the ’22 general election, feels she has no reason to appear before these kinds of public forums. Occasional rallies in front of fellow travelers will do just fine.

There are, of course, myriad ways for candidates to engage the public with a specific message, with no questions asked in return. It’s about owning the message.

Hinchey is in the news almost every day with state grants for just about any organization that asks. Ryan and Molinaro are not shy at blowing their own horns. Such is one of the considerable advantages of incumbency. Hayes and Sheehan, running in heavily Democratic districts on shoestring budgets, have to suffice with the occasional road signs.

Shrestha doesn’t pull in anywhere near the grant money that Hinchey does, but she spreads the scraps around.

For instance, in her recently mailed “A People’s Report” flyer she announces a series of grants for fire companies with photos of the assemblymember. Not to play editor here, but I thought Shrestha’s missive had it backwards: this was a report to the people, not a “people’s report.” People had little to do with it, other than to pose for photos with the host.

Her biggest ticket item, $300,000 for an elevator for the Kingston YMCA, was announced back in June. Shrestha also secured $165,000 for the new Woodstock Library and $125,000 for the Rosendale community center.

Former Assemblymember Kevin Cahill was good for multiple times that modest amount on an almost monthly basis.

Shrestha’s four-page newsletter, with seven photos of herself included, breaks a long-standing record by former Republican state Sen. Bill Larkin. Try as he might, Larkin could squeeze only six sell-promotion photos into his flyer.

While some may question this, Shrestha is not without a sense of humor.

The lead statement under the photo of Shrestha posing with a couple of (unidentified) Port Ewen volunteer firefighters, reads thus:

“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help,’” as she quotes Ronald Reagan.

Oh, the irony, a hard-left politician quoting a right-of-center president.

Talking About City Streets

One of the things I like best about our Me and Mario bi-weekly radio show on WGHQ is that we learn things from our guests. As do our listeners and viewers. This is in addition to the deep-dive research my co-host does for every show.

Last week, we hosted Kingston Mayor Steve Noble. Unlike some guests, Noble doesn’t come with an agenda, nor is he selling books or movies he might be in. He patiently waits for questions and then he answers them.

I knew, for instance, that the state pays for most of the city’s annual street paving program. What the mayor told us is that the annual grant, called CHIPS, now exceeds $1 million dollars, which can pay for a lot of blacktop.

I asked whether the aldermen had a role in which streets get paved. Central Hudson, it seems, has more input. “We pave after Central Hudson finishes its work on replacing natural gas piping beneath our streets,” he said. He didn’t mention aldermen.

One thing the mayor told us I found hard to believe was the state requires that a municipality repave all its streets within a 10-year period. If that happens in Kingston, I must be driving around the wrong town. It might be because Kingston has more street mileage than Poughkeepsie and Newburgh combined.

Dana Bash Gets My Vote

Discerning watchers of TV news have probably noticed this, but how many times does an interviewer ask a direct question of a politician only to have the subject wind up talking about something else?

Fox’s Bret Baier addressed this subject on his program last week. A viewer had asked him whether he found it frustrating when a subject avoided an answer to a direct question.

Baier agreed, but said he usually tried for an answer by rephrasing the question. “If we don’t get an answer, we move on.”

In questioning Kamala Harris and Tim Walz last week on CNN, veteran news pro Dana Bash hardly laid a glove on either. A couple of times, she tried, to no avail.

So please, don’t dump on Dana. She tried her best against a slippery duo.

Me and Peter

Readers tell me they appreciate my occasional reminisces of the “good old days.” Some weren’t all that good. History doesn’t repeat, said Mark Twain, but often it rhymes. Here’s an example.

Watching candidates for national office bob and weave their way around direct, important questions reminds me of an exchange years ago with former Ulster County Republican Chairman Pete Savago. Pete died a few years ago and isn’t here to defend himself, but it’s a tale worth repeating.

At that time, around the early ’90s Republicans had a stranglehold on just about everything except city government and a few outposts in the county.

Gruff old Savago, a former legislature chairman, ruled with an iron hand. No velvet glove, just the iron fist.

It was that time of the year when party caucuses were conducted (in secret) to nominate leaders for the coming term.

We got word that Republicans were meeting in the old Quality Inn in the Town of Ulster to nominate a chairman of the legislature.

Word spread among media. We parked outside the room where the Republican legislators (and Savago) were meeting. Angry shouts and other noise could be heard through the door, but nothing definitive.

Eventually, Savago emerged to announce that the Republican caucus had nominated legislator Ward Todd, R-Shandaken, for chairman of the legislature.

I asked Savago what the vote had been. With 33 members of the legislature in those days, there had to have been at least 20 Republicans in the room.

Savago repeated exactly what he had said: “The Republican caucus has nominated Ward Todd for chairman of the legislature.”

I repeated my question. He answered it in exactly the same way.

“Let me rephrase the question, Pete,” I said, wise-assedly, “What was the vote?”

At that point, we were both aggravating each other.

He turned on his heels, walked back into the room and slammed the door.

And you thought Dana Bash had it tough?