Sonja Okun is a self-described reluctant politician.
"If you told me five years ago that I'd be on the EMS finance work group for the county government, I would have looked at you like you had three heads," she told me recently.
And yet, after cruising to victory in Tuesday's Democratic primary for county supervisor from Hudson's Third Ward, Okun is virtually guaranteed a second term. Okun came to local politics from the nonprofit sector. She says serving in county government appealed to her because it's an opportunity to transfer her values into actual policy. Even though, as a Democrat on Columbia County's majority Republican board of supervisors, she knows that opportunity is limited.
"I essentially have no real power in this role, to be honest," she acknowedged. "Like, there's no real voting power. And so I see this role as really one in terms of, like, what are ways that I can get involved in things? Issues and work that I feel are important for us as a county, and in Hudson."
The key, Okun says, is to try and make a difference in a very specific way. The best way to do that, she's found, is by serving on a committee - a group of supervisors who focus on a particular issue facing the county.
In her first term, Okun joined the committee that's focused on funding for EMS - emergency medical services. They're not generally controversial. People tend to agree that counties should have them. What is potentially controversial is that the city of Hudson hasn't historically provided as much funding for EMS as other supervisors think it should. There's a push to have the city pay more, and as the city's representative in those conversations, Oaken has a lot of responsibility.
"It is important for me that I really understand everything that's happening," Okun said. "How the formulas are being derived for proposed tax plans, talking to the leader of Green Port Rescue Squad, which is the squad that serves Hudson. Really digging into all the information, so I could feel comfortable both deciding what I agreed with, and then in order to be able to represent that to leadership in Hudson, and certainly to constituents."
In conversations with Democrats who won their primaries this week, this was a recurring theme: the idea that in local politics, there's no substitute for actually talking to people.
Case in point: the surprisingly contentious primary for the state assembly seat in New York's 106th district, which covers much of the Hudson Valley, including Hudson. Incumbent Didi Barrett is seeking an eighth term, and for just the second time since she first ran in 2012, she faced a Democratic challenger, former Columbia County Democratic Committee Chairman Sam Hodge.
Hodge pitched himself to voters as a leader for the next generation of the Democratic Party. Someone willing to fight corporate lobbyists in Albany, and to take a firm stand against Republicans on issues like immigration. In a series of mailers and interviews, he contended that Barrett had failed to do those things.
Barrett told me she was thrown by the attacks. "His campaign was very personal and negative and repetitive, and it, you know, never really talked about him. It just tried to paint me in a bad light."
Barrett ended up winning the primary decisively. She got over 70% of the vote, and she says a big part of that is that she wasn't focused on Hodge. She was busy going to diners.
"Personally, I'm a huge fan of our diners in the Hudson Valley," Barrett said. "And so we have made it a policy, basically, of every few weeks, inviting local people to come in, and, you know, we run a tab on, you know, coffee, tea, whatever they want. And just talk about what's on their mind."
Barrett says she finds out about all kinds of things at these diner stops. Things she might not hear about otherwise, like a fire station that's running low on equipment, or a local road that's full of potholes. "And it ends up being, you know, a 250,000 or $125,000 grant that we can get to them," said Barrett. This, Barrett says, is how she's been able to stay in office as a Democrat in what she describes as a purple district.
Janet Tweed, the Democratic nominee for the 102nd Assembly District, describes the constituency she's hoping to represent the same way. "The district has a pretty diverse set of people living here, and also a not a clear majority of Democrats or Republicans," said Tweed. "And so it is about listening to everyone to be a representative for the entire district."
This will be Tweed's second attempt to win the seat in the 102nd. She lost to Republican Chris Tague in 2024. The district stretches from the Hudson Valley all the way to the Western Catskills, which means, Tweed has learned, she has to have delicate conversations. I asked her for an example of a conversation she has to have that a Democrat in a more left-leaning district wouldn't have to think about. "One area that is different - and this is more rural versus urban, more than Democrat versus Republican, is how we view guns. Being respectful of guns without being fearful is something that is different in a rural setting like mine versus an urban setting, where the needs and uses are frequently different."
Tweed's plan for the campaign is to lean on the skills she's picked up at her day job. "I go back to my job as a physical therapist," she said. "I have to meet people where they are, I have to listen to what their priorities and needs are, and then we have to get down to the brass tacks of what's reasonable, and what people are willing to do to reach to reach those goals. And that plays out wonderfully well in being a public servant, like we representatives are supposed to be."
