2 newcomers vying for District 15 seat
Voters in the Ulster County Legislature’s District 15 will choose their next county legislator from two newcomers to politics.
Republican Cassie Spoor and Democrat Julius Collins will face off in a race for the seat being vacated by Democrat TJ Briggs, who is giving up the seat run for a seat on the Wawarsing Town Board.
Spoor, 51, will run on the Republican, Conservative and Independence party lines.
An Ellenville resident for 17 years, Spoor said that bringing affordable health care to the resident of Ulster County will be a priority if elected. She said she would push for the county to enact a provision of the Affordable Care Act that allows for a cooperative to negotiate insurance and would propose that the county register every resident into the cooperative and negotiate on their behalf for lower health care costs.
She said she also wants to encourage economic development that will create good-paying jobs to keep the county’s young people in the county. She also said the county needs to attract corporations that “respect the air and water.”
Spoor also called for repealing the SAFE Act, which she said, “does not make anyone safer.” She called for mandated gun education and the county needs to develop a plan to remove all the illegal guns from the county’s streets.
Spoor holds two associate’s degrees and a bachelor’s degree. She and her husband, James, live on Clifford Street and have two children.
Collins, 69, will run on the Democratic and Working Families lines.
A resident of Ellenville for 24 years, Collins is the pastor of the Shiloh Baptist Church in Ellenville and retired from the U.S. Army.
He said the county needs to attract economic development that will provide stable jobs to attract people to the county. Collins said that, by capitalizing on the county’s natural beauty, Ulster County can attract new residents and create sustainable, tourism-related jobs.
He said he would work to bring resources to the village of Ellenville, saying that the right economic opportunities in the village would benefit the town of Wawarsing and the county as a whole.
Collins also said that, as a legislator, he would be “an agent of change,” would listen to all parties involved in every issue and be a “powerful advocate” on the county Legislature.
Collins attended Central Texas College in Killeen, Monmouth College at Fort Monmouth in New Jersey, John Jay College of Criminal Justice at West Point, the college of New Rochelle School of New Resources at the New York Theological Seminary and the Community Bible Institute in Poughkeepsie.
He and his wife, Vernice, live on South Main Street, in Ellenville and have three adult children.
The Ulster County Legislature’s District 15 comprises the village of Ellenville and a portion of the town of Wawarsing.