Caucuses tonight and tomorrow night

by Dan McClelland

All three local political parties have caucuses scheduled for tonight and tomorrow night.

The Republican Party, which was originally slated to hold its village and town caucus to nominate candidates for the fall election this evening at the Aaron Maddox Hall on July 7, has village and town political caucuses tonight- Wednesday, July 14- beginning at 6p.m. at the community room of the Emergency Services Building on Santa Clara Ave.

The first caucus that evening will ask party members who live in the village to nominate people for the three two-year posts up for grabs in November: mayor and two trustee positions.

Following the village caucus will be the town Republican caucus where nominations will be sought for the three open town positions this fall: supervisor and two council posts. All three are four-year terms.

The village caucus will be chaired by Councilwoman Tracy Luton and the town one will be chaired by Lidia Kriwox, local Republican Party chair.

Also tonight the Town Democrat Party will host its caucus at 7p.m. at the Aaron Maddox Hall.

Party members will endeavor to nominate candidates for the three town posts coming vacant: supervisor and two council positions.

That caucus will be chaired by John Quinn, who currently serves as town councilman and deputy supervisor.

The party hasn’t scheduled a village caucus at this point.

The Tupper Lake Conservative Party which held village and town caucuses one week apart last month, will redo its village caucus, but not the town one, on Thursday, July 15 at 7p.m. at 53 Cedar Street. Nominations will be sought for mayor and two trustee posts.

There was apparently a procedural challenge to the Franklin County Board of Elections office in Malone to the first village caucus in the days following it.

At the first village caucus businessman Eric Shaheen defeated Mayor Paul Maroun by several votes and won the party's nomination. Also nominated that night were former Trustee David “Haji” Maroun and Deputy Mayor Leon LeBlanc for the two open trustee spots this fall.

At the Conservative Party's July 15 village caucus, all four of those candidates are expected to be nominated and a run-off for mayor is expected.

Mayor Maroun and Eric Shaheen will both be seeking the Republican Party's nod for mayor at tonight’s GOP village caucus.

Mr. LeBlanc and David Maroun are also expected to be nominated for the trustee positions.

Contractor Clint Hollingsworth, who won the Conservative Party's nomination for town supervisor last month, is expected to seek the GOP nomination tonight.

Rick Donah and Tim Larkin, who won the Conservative nomination last month, are expected to throw their names in the hat for the two town councilman posts which come vacant in November. Those positions are currently held by Mike Dechene and John Quinn.