GOP incumbents returned in Monroe supervisor, council races

MONROE - You could feel the anticipation and excitement in the air at the Monroe Town Hall Tuesday night even though the clerks and workers were bone-tired after 14 hours of the usual - and not so unusual - election tweaks and turns. The polls closed at 9 p.m. and came the usual problems of the election workers having problems shutting down the machines. Workers scurried from one polling place to another. One by one, the poll watchers from each district came in with big blue bags with the sealed tally sheets. As the clerks starting calling in the results to the county Board of Election, the mood changed to one of surprise and concern. There were only two districts not in yet, Pine Tree and Lakeside. The Village of Kiryas Joel was being counted by the county. Based on early returns, the results were giving an edge to the challengers. “It would be a close contest” was the general agreement. The final tally came in and all bets were off as the incumbents were resoundly returned to office. Sandy Leonard held onto her supervisor post, raking in 3,614 votes. Democrat Alicia Accaro finished with 3,235 votes. Robert Purdy, the SaveMonroe president who ran on the Conservative ballot, trailed with 1,871 votes. For the two town board positions, Republican incumbents Donald Weeks and Peter Martin won re-election, outpolling Democrats Jose Rios and Audra Schwartz and SaveMonroe candidates, Theresa Budich and Katherine Parrella, who ran on the Conservative line. Mary Ellen Beams won an overwhelming victory for town clerk with 5,261 votes to Christina Kiesel’s 1,627. Come January, there will be a vacancy on the Monroe Town Board, when Lori Woods becomes an Orange County Family Court Judge. Leonard said there will be no rush to fill the vacancy, although she added “We will really deliberate on this one.” The SaveMonroe candidates issued a statement in a letter to the editor that appears in our opinion section.