Filing their petitions

Rensselaer democrats running for office turn in petitions

TROY, N.Y. » For the first time in a while, the Rensselaer County Democrat Committee has several candidates for the upcoming elections, who all turned in their petitions Thursday morning at the county building.

“We’re really excited about our slate of Democratic candidates this year,” said Michael Monescalchi, Chairman-Rensselaer County Democratic Committee. “We are filing twice the number of signatures for our countywide candidates that’s required, so it’s a terrific day for us and it’s always exciting to have our candidates qualify officially on the November ballot.”

The democratic candidates all turned in their petitions to the county’s Board of Elections office. Those candidates include: Andrea Smyth, Jennifer Sober, Peter Grimm, Ed Manny, Cynthia Doran, Mark Fleming, Bobby Burns, Erin- Sullivan-Teta, Susan Kalafut, Kathryn Shaffer, John Herbert, Todd D’ Alleva, Jacqueline McDonough, Bridget Ball-Shaw, Francis Razzano, Tracey Rex, Michael Hickey, Dennis Smith, Richard Van Vorst, Gary Pavlic, Margaret Kownack, Cindy Barclay, Colleen Murtagh Paratore, Anasha Cummings, David Bissember, Timothy Kennedy Jr., Richard Mooney, Daniel Dwyer, Nancy Hardt, Michael Mizener, James Van Vorst Jr., David Gardner, John DeFranceso, James Casey Jr., Brad Endres, Margaret Van Dyke, Ronald Sinico, Laurie Gendron, Michael Derevlany, Mary Francis Sabo, Thomas McGrath Jr., Mark Premo Sr., Hollie Kennedy, Zachary Kilmer, Keith Hammond, Nancy Perry, Allison Curry-Squires, Stephen Van Hoose, Karol O’Sullivan and Virginia Erickson.

Smyth is excited to run for the county executive seat on the democratic side and she said she was thrilled to be handing in her petitions Thursday afternoon.

“It feels really great, I had a lot of really positive interactions at the doors, I myself, got around 200 signatures and I had fun and liked meeting people,” said Smyth. “We’re really excited to have the opportunity with the incumbent [Rensselaer County Executive Kathleen Jimino] not running for reelection to give voters a very clear choice in the election this year.”

Murtagh Paratore, who is a children’s book author, said that she is really excited to be running for District 3 of the Troy City Council and that she is ready to continue her campaigning until election season.

“This feels fabulous, I love this city and community service has always been very important to me,” said Murtagh Paratore. “My goal is going to be door to door K.I.S.S., door to door Keep It Simple Sunshine, and I’m going to try to get every door in my district.”

Pavlic, who has been a part of the county legislature for the past five years, now decided that he wants to switch things up and run for President of the Troy City Council.

“We do some crazy things for love. This is all for love. I love the city and my heart is in the city,” said Pavlic. “If elected, I’m going to be a watchdog for the voters of Troy, but we’re also going to

Rensselaer County Legislator Peter Grimm turns in his election petitions Thursday afternoon to run for the Legislature again.

PHOTOS BY NICHOLAS BUONANNO— NBUONANNO@TROYRECORD.COM Andrea Smyth turns over her petitions to run as the Democrat candidate for the open Rensselaer County Executive seat this election.

Many of the Democratic candidates in the upcoming Rensselaer County elections gathered Thursday outside of the county building to turn in their petitions.