Independent candidate to run for Assembly
Wes Laraway has secured enough signatures to appear on the April 24 ballot in the 102nd Assembly District.
An independent candidate has collected enough signatures to appear on the ballot in the upcoming special election for the 102nd Assembly District seat vacated by Republican Peter Lopez.
Wes Laraway on Tuesday filed an independent nominating petition with the state Board of Elections to appear on the April 24 ballot. A registered Republican, he will run on a party line called The Best Choice.
Last week, certificates of nomination were filed with the state on behalf of Greene County Legislator Aidan O’Connor Jr., a Democrat, and town of Schoharie Supervisor Christopher Tague, a Republican. O’Connor will hold the Democratic, Working Families and Women’s Equality lines, while Tague will be on the Republican, Conservative, Independence and Reform lines.
The 102nd Assembly District includes all of Greene and Schoharie counties; the town of Saugerties in Ulster County; the towns of Stockport and Stuyvesant in Columbia County; and parts of Otsego, Delaware and Albany counties.
Lopez, first elected to the Assembly in 2006, stepped down last fall after he was appointed Region 2 administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Laraway was born in Cobleskill and teaches history in the Middleburgh Central School District. He has a bachelor’s degree in history and master’s degree in reading education from SUNY Oneonta.
According to his website, Laraway has spent the last 30 years teaching, raising a family, running a farm and operating an animal-rescue facility.
O’Connor is a fourth-generation resident of Greene County and minority leader of the county Legislature, according to a press release announcing his candidacy. Tague was born and raised in Schoharie and was elected town supervisor in 2015, according to information he provided.
The winner of the special election will serve out the remainder of Lopez’s twoyear term, which ends Dec. 31. They would have to run again in the coming November general election to keep the seat.