Election challenge for sheriff?
VanBlarcum says he’ll run for 4th term; Saugerties chief might jump into race
KINGSTON, N.Y. » Ulster County Sheriff Paul VanBlarcum will seek a fourth term in 2018, he said Friday, and he could face a challenge from Saugerties Police Chief Joseph Sinagra.
VanBlarcum, 61, a registered Democrat, said he plans to begin his campaign for re-election in the early spring and, unless he faces a challenge, has no plans to amass a campaign war chest.
Sinagra, 52, told the Freeman he intends to run for sheriff at some point and is “weighing” whether to declare his candidacy for the 2018 race.
“If and when I choose to run, I won’t make a decision until after the first of the year,” Sinagra said Friday.
The Saugerties chief is not enrolled in a political party.
“Paul VanBlarcum does a good job as our sheriff. I have no ill feelings toward him, and I think he’s very electable,” Sinagra said.
And, the Saugerties police chief said, “I’m still fairly young yet, and I have plenty of time to run for sheriff.”
But when told Friday that VanBlarcum planned to seek reelection, Sinagra would not rule
out running next year.
The sheriff appeared ready for a challenge if one presents itself. “Whatever he decides is okay by me,” VanBlarcum said of Sinagra in an email Friday.
VanBlarcum, who said he “likes to think” of himself as a conservative, doesn’t consider himself a controversial figure in Ulster County despite two very public debates sparked by Facebook posts of his in late 2015 and last weekend.
“I don’t think I’m controversial. I respect everybody’s opinion,” he said Friday.
On Dec. 3, 2015, in a post on the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page, VanBlarcum wrote: “In light of recent events that have occurred in the United States and around the world, I want to encourage citizens of Ulster County who are licensed
to carry a firearm to PLEASE DO SO.”
VanBlarcum, who’s been sheriff since 2007, said at the time that his call to arms was to ensure “that if something happens, there is an armed citizen around.”
His post came less than 24 hours after 14 people died in a mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., less than two weeks after a gunman killed three people at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colo., and about three weeks after shootings by terrorists in Paris left 130 people dead.
In instances like mass shootings, he said in 2015, if people aren’t armed, they are “useless.”
Later that day, the sheriff’s Facebook post had more than 8,700 “likes,” had been shared by more than 12,000 people and had drawn more than 1,000 comments, most supporting his position. The post also drew attention from some national news outlets, along with criticism
from within the county.
A petition on the website change.org urging the sheriff to “change your mind or change your job” quickly garnered 1,500 signatures.
Ulster County District Attorney Holley Carnright also weighed in at the time, discouraging citizens from “misreading the sheriff’s comments” and further discouraging “any action where untrained or unskilled citizens create an opportunity for unintended tragedy which could pose risk not only to innocent citizens, but to our own law-enforcement personnel.”
This week, the sheriff again found himself in the crosshairs of a liberalleaning opposition when he urged people to boycott National Football League games, whether on TV or in person, because of players’ protests during the playing of the national anthem.
Posted on Facebook last Saturday afternoon, his call attracted dozens of comments
with a wide range of opinions regarding NFL players kneeling during the national anthem to raise awareness of racial injustice. The protest was started last year by then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
“It’s the opinion of me. It’s important for the voters to know where their sheriff stands on these sort of things,” VanBlarcum said when asked by the Freeman if the agency’s Facebook page was an appropriate place to post personal opinions.
Sinagra declined to comment on the controversy.
The sheriff said a goal in a fourth term would be to encourage state lawmakers to allow the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office to issue and amend pistol permits. He said the legislation, which must be approved for individual municipalities, has passed the Republican-controlled state Senate consistently but has failed to win approval in the Democraticled
Assembly. Currently, he said, pistol permit applicants must wait too long for area judges to approve their requests.
“We can do it if the Assembly would get off their asses and pass the bill,” VanBlarcum said.
And if VanBlarcum wins re-election, he said, he might consider seeking a fifth term in 2022. “Ask me in 2021,” he said. “We’ll see how I feel.”
In the meantime, VanBlarcum said he is grooming a few “in house” successors in the Sheriff’s Office who are interested in the position, “and we’ll start on that in the next year or so.”
Sinagra, likewise, said he’s grooming a potential successor in the Saugerties Police Department.
“People in the county will determine who the next sheriff is . ... You don’t necessarily have to come from within the organization to better the organization,” he said.
VanBlarcum joined the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office in 1976 and was elected sheriff in 2006, 2010 and 2014.
He graduated from Saugerties High School in 1974 and attended Empire State College. VanBlarcum graduated from the National Sheriff’s Academy in 2007 and from the FBI National Academy in 2009.
Sinagra became Saugerties police chief in 2012.
Before becoming deputy chief in Saugerties in 2011, Sinagra held the same title in the town of Ulster. He joined the town of Ulster Police Department as a patrol officer in 1989 and then served as an Ulster K-9 officer before becoming a sergeant in 1997 and a lieutenant in 2007. The following year, Sinagra was appointed deputy chief after attending the FBI’s National Academy in Quantico, Va.
Before joining the Ulster police, Sinagra was an undercover officer for the Orange County Narcotics Task Force. He also has worked as a paramedic.