By PATRICIA DOXSEY
Freeman staff
pdoxsey@freemanonline.com; twitter.com/pattiatfreeman

KINGSTON, N.Y. — Ulster County Democrats have endorsed their former chairman, Julian Schreibman, to run for the seat in New York’s new 19th Congressional District.

Schreibman defeated Dutchess County Legislator Joel Tyner in an 8,857-2,132 weighted vote at the Ulster County Democratic Convention, held Monday at the Hillside Manor restaurant in Kingston.

Ultimately, the Democratic candidate will be chosen by party voters in a primary featuring candidates who collect the roughly 3,500 signatures needed to get on the ballot. The action on Monday means Ulster County Democrats will carry Schreibman’s petitions.

In accepting the party’s endorsement, Schreibman said it won’t be easy to take on powerful interests that he said are backing Republicans like U.S. Rep. Chris Gibson, but he vowed to bring “the energy and attitude of a prosecutor” to the fight.

Gibson, R-Kinderhook, is the representative in New York’s current 20th Congressional District, which stretches from Northern Dutchess to the Adirondacks and does not include Ulster County. But redrawn congressional district lines that will take effect with this November’s election put all of Ulster and Columbia counties in the new 19th District, along with all of Dutchess and Greene counties and some or all of seven other counties.

Schreibman lauded Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-Hurley, a 10-term congressman who is retiring at year’s end and whose district, the soon-to-be-eliminated 22nd, includes all of Ulster County.

“Maurice was a passionate fighter for the working people of this region,” Schreibman said. “It is unacceptable for us to go from Maurice to a Tea Party Republican,” a reference to Gibson.

Hinchey’s district, which stretches from the Mid-Hudson Valley to Ithaca, is being chopped into four pieces, with much of its eastern end winding up in the new 19th.

NY Congressional Districts, As of 3-13-12

Tyner said he was surprised he was able to garner as much support as he did among Ulster County Democrats given that he doesn’t live in the county, and he said he remains committed to running for Congress. Continued...

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“We’re moving ahead,” said Tyner, a Clinton resident and five-term Dutchess County legislator. “I think people are tired of machine politics; I think they’re sick of the same old same old machine politics.”

Donald Avallone of Saugerties, who nominated Schreibman, called Schreibman a “quick study” who will not shirk from doing what’s right.

“He is more than capable of cutting through the rhetoric of the room-temperature-IQ, hate-spewing Tea Partiers currently serving in the House, including the 19th century throwback he will oppose this November, Chris Gibson,” Avallone said.

Bill McKnight, who nominated Tyner, said Democrats need to be concerned about more than just the Republicans in Washington.

“We need to send Joel to Washington because we’re not just upset with the Republicans in Washington, but too many Democrats are beholden to the corporate interested and billionaires that aren’t speaking out against the rush to war with Iran, speaking out against Wall Street speculation … speaking out against the  bipartisan attack on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid,” he said.

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