Figuring the usual sloganeering, I’d thought about skipping Tuesday’s Ulster County Regional Chamber of Commerce candidate breakfast, as did a couple of candidates, but then my editor suggested the Wire would be interested in the Senate and Assembly races.

But it wasn’t the candidates who impressed the crowd of about 150 early bird business types at Best Western in Kingston, but a Northwell Health doctor who offered the keynote address.

Dr. Robyn Scordo, chief of the breast cancer treatment department at Northwell Health, which recently absorbed local healthcare network Nuvance, spoke to her journey from patient to physician.

“I’m a survivor,” she said of her diagnosis 25 years ago. “I know it because I lived it.”

Dressed in the bright pink color of breast cancer awareness, the physician spoke to the grim statistics of a disease that one in eight women (and some men) will suffer in their lifetimes. Owing to research and early treatment, most will survive. Too many will die.

A rapt audience hung on every word. Not so much with the politicians who followed during the hour-long program.

Then, the Candidates

State Sen. Michelle Hinchey, seeking her fourth term on the Democratic line, is by now a polished pro from the podium. She rattled off a series of accomplishments during her 90-second introduction. For those who missed breakfast, her slick flyers have been hitting local mailboxes for over a month. She creates endless “free media” events around the Ulster/Greene 41st District.

Hinchey, 37 on election day, spoke to her six years in the Senate Democratic majority as only a start on the myriad problems facing New York. “Six years?” a woman at my table whispered. “How long is it going to take?”

Challenger Patrick Sheehan, the product of a broken Republican Party, has few of the resources that Hinchey’s million-dollar campaign war chest can bring to the fore, but as he said, he gives voters a choice. Sheehan, of the Town of Ulster, offered voters similar choices when he ran for Assembly two years ago in suffering a 2-1 defeat from Sarahana Shrestha.

Sheehan’s message, frequently repeated, was that the state budget has increased by over $100 billion during Hinchey’s term, to just under $240 billion this fiscal year. He did not mention that much of that increase was from the massive infusion of federal funding during the Biden years.

Democrat Senate candidate Michele Frazier of Delhi had the floor to herself, as Republican Chris Tague called in sick just prior to the breakfast. “We still don’t know what ails him,” Frazier said with a smile after the event.

Tague is an assemblyman from Schoharie County.

Frazier, 47, is no stranger to the campaign trail. She challenged Peter Oberacker in the 51st Senate District two years ago, in a solid Republican district.

Oberacker is running for Congress this year, so the 51st will present that rare open seat. Frazier seems better prepared this time to hop on it.

“We’ve raised over $500,000 and they (state Senate pollsters) are calling this district a toss-up for the first time in 43 years.”

Frazier, who seems to consider Hinchey something of a role model, spoke to the usual liberal bromides, but raised a few eyebrows with her repeated suggestion that the state create a “zoning czar” to assist localities in revising strict zoning laws to create more affordable housing.

Obviously, she thinks outside the box, but the notion of another state bureaucracy didn’t seem to sit that well in a business audience already complaining about excessive state spending and regulations.

Unlike Tague, Frazier has campaigned in the sprawling 51st, which includes seven towns in Ulster County and the Village of Ellenville. If Tague shows up in what historically has been a “safe” Republican district, past could be prologue. If not, I give Frazier – forget the zoning czar idea – a puncher’s chance.

Santos Lopez, a candidate for Assembly against no-show incumbent Shrestha, while never mentioning her name, spoke to his experience as an immigrant from the Philippines and his service in the U.S. Army.

Santos said he would apply some of his Army experience to deal with issues like affordable housing.

“The Army can put up housing for several thousand troops overnight,” he told a quizzical audience. That said, a tent city couldn’t be much worse than the deplorable welfare motels where counties now house the homeless.

Altogether, no candidates were carried out on the shoulders of a cheering crowd, but they did receive a memorable message from a cancer survivor.