Three run for Marchione’s seat
HALFMOON, N.Y. » The recent announcement that Sen. Kathy Marchione, R-Halfmoon, will not run for a fourth term has drawn three candidates into the race to for the 43rd Senate District seat.
Two of the candidates are local town council members from Sara- toga County. The third candidate is a member of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration.
Running from Saratoga County are Town of Halfmoon Councilwoman Daphne Jordan, a Republican, and Town of Waterford Councilman Frank McClement, also a Republican. Joining them is Aaron Gladd, deputy director of policy in the governor’s administration. Gladd is running as a Democrat.
The 43rd Senate District includes parts of Saratoga and Washington counties, most of Rensselaer County, and all of Columbia County.
Jordan was a member of the town Planning Board when she was appointed to a council seat in 2014 after incumbent councilman Craig Hayner resigned his seat to run for Saratoga County Clerk. She was elected to com-
plete Hayner’s term and won a four-year term of her in 2016.
Jordan holds an undergraduate degree from Lehigh University and a law degree from Penn State Dickenson School of Law. A successful businesswoman in town for 24 years, she was elected to the Clifton Park- Halfmoon Library Board of Trustees where she served as secretary.
Jordan joined Sen. Marchione’s, staff as legislative director shortly after Marchione won her Senate seat in 2012. She lives in town with her husband and two sons.
Jordan’s candidacy was announced May 22 by the Halfmoon Republican Committee after a meeting where she received unanimous endorsement.
Committee Chairman Tom Lundquist said Jordan received the endorsement based on her proven record of achievement as councilwoman which includes advancing fiscal responsibility and helping small businesses.
“Councilwoman Jordan is part of our trusted Halfmoon town team that has delivered,” Lundquist said in a statement.
Halfmoon Supervisor Kevin Tollisen noted that as a member of the “Town of Halfmoon Republican Team” she had helped grow the town’s general fund balance, attract new businesses, and expand recreational opportunities.
“I am wholly confident that Councilwoman Jordan will be an excellent state Senator and carry forward the countless good works, public policy successes, and high quality constituent service of Sen. Marchione,” Tollisen said in a statement.
As part of her platform Jordan said she will work to make the property tax cap permanent, support economic development to create more good-paying jobs, help grow the economy, and cut red tape, and oppose Albany’s unfunded mandates that drive up local property taxes.
“I will carry forward Sen. Marchione’s proud tradition of serving and helping others, standing strong for what is right, and working for an agenda based on affordability, opportunity and security so all New Yorkers can succeed and realize their dreams,” she said in a statement.
McClement first came to the Town of Waterford Town Board as an appoin- tee in 2013. He was elected to complete the final year of the seat’s term in 2014 and in 2015 won his first four year term to the board.
A graduate of WaterfordHalfmoon High School, McClement later enlisted in the U.S. Army and served as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division. His military service includes deployments to Egypt, Israel, and Kazakhstan.
Upon returning stateside he worked for Lexis-Nexis while going to Bryant and Stratton College on the GI Bill where he obtained his degree. In 2010 he joined Saratoga County’s Veterans Service Agency and in 2014 he was made the agency’s director, a post he holds today.
Since announcing his candidacy McClement has received strong support from a number of Saratoga County officials. He has endorsements from Town of Waterford Republican Committee, Saratoga County Sheriff Mike Zurlo, and a number of town supervisors from Saratoga County.
In a statement on his candidacy McClement said he is passionate about his work with veterans.
“It has been my privilege to work with our veteran community to help provide them with quality housing, health care, and employment opportunities while unfortunately being all too often frustrated by dealing with a federal and state government bureaucracy that doesn’t seem to listen or to care,” he said. “These are the same problems that too many of the residents in the 43rd district also face. I will fight for them as I have for veterans.”
McClement said he sees his candidacy as an opportunity to take his experience navigating state and federal bureaucracies from his work and marry it to his experience from his service on the Waterford Town Board.
“Serving as a local elected official is often difficult but always very gratifying,” he said in a statement. “We do our best to protect our community, serve our youth and seniors, while keeping taxes low and fair. Our local governments need relief from the financial pressures put on them by New York State and we must deal effectively with school safety, opioid addiction, spiraling state debt and a seemingly endless list of new regulations, taxes and fees that have so damaged the upstate economy.”
McClement resides in Waterford with his wife Christina and their children.
The third candidate to announce in the last few days is Rensselaer County resident Aaron Gladd.
A native of Saranac Lake, Gladd worked his way out of rural poverty in the Adirondacks to earn an undergraduate degree from the University at Albany and a graduate degree from the Nelson Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy. He is also an alumnus of the Executive Education program at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
In 2011while serving as legislative director for the deputy majority leader in the state Senate Gladd enlisted in the U. S. Army where, as 1st Lieutenant Gladd, he was a ground combat platoon leader with the 1st Cavalry Division in the Middle East, including a combat turn in East Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
As deputy director of policy in the Office of the Governor, Gladd helped spearhead policies on issues like the fight for statewide broadband, women’s rights, paid family leave, combating the opioid epidemic and the $100 billion infrastructure program. He resigned his position Monday to campaign full-time.
He has received endorsements from the Saratoga, Washington, and Columbia County Democratic Committees and is seeking the same from the Rensselaer County Democratic Committee.
In a statement on his candidacy he said, “At a time when our working and middle class families are struggling to get ahead, New Yorkers need a fighter who has the passion to serve and the character to get it done, I was proud to serve my country in Afghanistan and as a state senator I will serve my community and fight to restore hope, compassion, and opportunity to Upstate New York.”
Gladd lives in Brunswick with his wife Samantha and their two small children.
According to the state Board of Elections the 43rd Senate District has a total of 211,023 voters, 62,339 registered Democrats, 67,676 Republicans and 657,592 with no party affiliation listed.