Tuesday’s Democratic primary in the Ulster County town of Woodstock pits a town councilman against the sitting town supervisor.
Bennet Ratcliff has chaired Woodstock’s Democratic Committee, having been active in town politics since moving to town in 2015.
"I was appointed to the Onteora school board and, and subsequently won two elections to serve on the school board from 2016 through 2021," said Ratcliff . "I then ran and won for town board seat and have served on the town board since January of 2022."
Bill McKenna, now in his 18th year on the Woodstock town board, seeks a fifth term as supervisor.
"We've accomplished three major building renovations, we have a new highway garage, a renovated court and police building, a renovated Community Center, and fourth underway, the main town offices," McKenna said. "So I've overseen, I didn't do the math, but I'm guessing that's about $12 million in capital projects over the last 18 years."
McKenna and Ratcliff shrugged off negative portrayals of the race on social media.
Ratcliff says he decided to run for supervisor in part to preserve the town's natural environment.
"Certainly protecting the environment is one place where I would like to do more than the current supervisor," said Ratcliff. "I believe we need to remove all of the contaminated fill that threatens the aquifer. And at the city dump and the supervisor is refusing to do that, I think there's a real simple pass to remove all of that material and, and make the drinking water safe and healthy once and for all. I also believe that our town government needs to be free of bias and favoritism."
McKenna pulled back from actively campaigning for a time, as Ratcliff called attention to "a hostile work environment" in town government offices following a complaint he says was filed by four police officers and a dispatcher alleging racism, sexual harassment and retaliation.
McKenna did not comment other than to say he is confident voters will mark their ballots for him.
"I got us through a pandemic," said McKenna. "We probably had the best vaccine nation record back when the vaccine first came out, I teamed up with a local pharmacist, Neil Smoller, and we created a vaccine clinic that the county actually then adopted. We had almost full vaccination before any other community in town. During that time, I also set up programs to make sure our seniors were looked after to make sure that we had a volunteer shopping group. I am not afraid to pick up a shovel and clean out a ditch of a flooded road if that's what it takes to get the job done."
Ratcliff is also facing scrutiny for his role in Latin American politics when he was an acting political strategist around 2009.
"I was asked by the president of Costa Rica and several others to help in negotiations to bring free and fair elections after a coup in Honduras, and I was part of a negotiating team that went to the Nobel laureate, Óscar Arias Sánchez of San Jose, Costa Rica," Ratcliff said. "And I was successful at convincing the military to come to the table to negotiate. I was proud of my role that helped bring free and fair elections."
McKenna says lack of affordable housing is the biggest challenge facing Woodstock.
"We are looking at rewriting our zoning law to make it easier to create affordable housing," McKenna said. 'And I hope to see that adopted before the end of the year. But then beyond that will need to amend other laws and policies to create incentives to see these actions carried through. So I'm really excited about that. We're also looking at the potential of taking a piece of town property and putting it out to bid to see if a local non for profit would come in and construct some housing."
Ratcliff says the environment is the key issue.
"A vote for me is a vote to protect drinking water and the environment here in Woodstock. And to have a government that is free from bias and more open and fair to all of the people," said Ratcliff.
Polling places are open 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
