Supervisor candidates separated by 2 votes Absentees will decide race
Anyone needing proof that every vote counts needs to look no further than the election for supervisor in the town of Hurley.
Republican John Perry led Democrat Tracy Kellogg by just two votes, 1,104-1,102, at the end of Tuesday’s counting, meaning a winner won’t be declared until absentee ballots are counted.
The Ulster County Board of Elections mailed absentee ballots to 143 Hurley residents, and 99 had been returned as of Tuesday. Absentee ballots postmarked by Nov. 6 and received by Nov. 14 will be included in the final tally.
The two candidates were gracious on Wednesday as they waited to learn which of them will succeed Republican Gary Bellows, who is stepping down after
12 nonconsecutive terms as Hurley’s leader.
“This morning I sent John Perry a message saying congratulations to the both of us,” Kellogg said. “This is exactly why we teach our children that every vote matters.”
Of the tone of the race, Kellogg said: “It wasn’t a nasty campaign, and I’m proud of both of us.”
Perry said he’s pleased with the results so far.
“My goal was to get at least 1,100 votes, and I did,” he said.
“All last week, people were asking me what I thought, and I said my chances were 50-50, so you can’t get much closer than that,” Perry said. “Tracy’s been out there, she’s well known, and this is my first time, so I feel it went pretty
good ... and I wish Tracy as much luck as she’s wished me.”
Kellogg, 55, moved to Hurley 16 years ago from Woodstock, where she served as town supervisor and a Town Board member in the 1990s.
She lost Hurley supervisor elections to Bellows in 2013 and 2015, and she was unsuccessful in bids to become a Hurley town justice in 2008 and 2011.
Perry, 40, is a 15-year Hurley resident and owns Signature Fitness in Kingston. He served as Hurley assessor in 2009.
Perry said the fact that he didn’t win outright in a town with a heavily Republican government could be the result of President Donald Trump’s low approval ratings.
There was a “trickledown of people voicing their opinion about what’s going on federally,” he said. “I think that brought a lot
of people out.”
Perry said he wrote in the name of Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican, in the 2016 presidential election.
In other Hurley elections on Tuesday:
• Four-year terms on the Town Board were won by Republican incumbent Barbara Zell, with 1,119 votes, and Democratic first-time candidate Michael Boms, with 1,060. Out of the running were Republican incumbent Janet Briggs, with 1,047 votes, and Democratic first-time candidate Jasmine Jordaan, with 1,028.
• Former town Supervisor Michael Shultis was elected to a four-year term as highway superintendent, collecting 1,199 votes to Republican Lee Winne’s 991.
• Town Clerk Judy Mayhon received 1,807 in her uncontested bid for a sixth two-year term.