ORANGE COUNTY REPUBLICAN CONVENTION-5/24/2006

Republican Committeemen from all across Orange County gathered at the Meadowbrook Lodge in New Windsor for the annual convention on Tuesday, May 24th.

Woodbury had a pretty decent showing of it's members.

Present were yours truly, Gerri Gianzero, Sheila Beadle, Desiree Potvin, Holly Gubernick, Carmen Gubernick, Jeanette Caruso, Pete Stabile, Chairman Ralph Caruso and Don Siebold arrived later.

Town Councilwoman Lorraine McNeill also joined us at our table as our guest.

The purpose of the convention was to designate candidates to run for:

US Congress

NYS Senate

NYS Assembly

Orange County Judge

Orange County Sheriff

Orange County Coroners

Delegates to the Judicial Convention

Woodbury 's representative in Congress, Sue Kelly, and representatives in the State Legislature, State Senator William Larkin and Assemblywoman Nancy Calhoun were endorsed without opposition.

The two incumbent Orange County Coroners Tom Murray and Shaun Parker were endorsed without opposition.

The two big contests of the night were for Orange County Judge and Orange County Sheriff.

In the County Judge race there were four candidates seeking our support to be designated as the endorsed Republican candidate. They were Wallkill Town Justice Robert Freehill, Warwick Town Justice Peter Bartlet, Port Jervis City Judge Robert Onofry, and former Newburgh City Judge Jeanne Patsalos.

Two rounds of voting occurred on this race. The final round was as follows:

FREHILL 1377
ONOFRY 607
PATSALOS 346
BARLET 73

Therefore, Judge Robert Freehill was designated as the endorsed County Judge candidate.

The votes are "high" because each committeeman casts a weighted vote reflecting the showing of the 2002 GOP Governor candidate in their district. Our District, District 4 in Woodbury has a total of 8 weighted votes. The vote is then split between myself and the other committeeman for this district, Don Siebold. Therefore, both Don and I each cast 4 weighted votes at the convention.

In the Sheriff race only one round of voting was needed and it was not even close. Incumbent Sheriff Carl Dubois walloped challenger Tom Carton.

DUBOIS 2036
CARTON 291

The next step in the process is the circulating of designating petitions which will place these candidates on the ballot formally.