MONTICELLO, NY — With local elections on the horizon toward the end of the year, a select few Sullivan County races will have their candidates chosen through the primaries. 

New York holds its primary elections on Tuesday, June 27. Sample ballots and other voting information are available at sullivanny.us/Departments/Elections. 

Most voters in the county have only one race to decide: Thomas Cawley vs. Brian P. Conaty as the Republican candidate for district attorney. 

Cawley worked in the district attorney’s office from 1993 to 2000, and has worked in the office of the county attorney ever since, except for a brief stint in private practice. He is currently the deputy county attorney. 

“Residents [of Sullivan County] will be able to fully rely on me to keep them safe and stand up to the progressive radicals in Albany, and their allies here in Sullivan County, who want to undermine respect for police and the law and side with criminals instead,” Cawley said in a statement announcing his Republican endorsement. He has also declared his support for the county’s lawful gun owners, and has been endorsed by county attorney Mike McGuire. 

Conaty is the current acting district attorney. He began his career at the DA’s office in 2017, and stepped into the job when former DA Meagan Galligan was elected to the NYS Supreme Court. Conaty boasts the support of multiple police and law enforcement agencies, including the Liberty and Fallsburg patrolman’s associations and the New York State Troopers Police Benevolent Association. 

Conaty has emphasized his support for the second amendment and the need for changes to bail reform. 

The primary challenge is unusual in that Conaty is the Democratic candidate for district attorney. The Republican party endorsed Cawley, but it gave Conaty a Wilson Pakula exemption for him to run in the primaries against Cawley.

Conaty’s district attorney’s office and the county attorney’s office—led by McGuire and Cawley—have in recent weeks exchanged barbs over the death of a child from a fentanyl overdose in Liberty. Conaty alleged that the county attorney’s office did not act to prevent the death; McGuire maintained that the office had received no credible case on which to act, and accused Conaty of politicizing the death. See riverreporter.com/stories/county-attorney-challenges-accusations,98475 for more information. 

The legislative field

Two races for county legislature are also contested. This election will use the maps that resulted from a 2022 round of redistricting. 

Joe Perrello and John Lacey are both running for the Republican line for the seventh electoral district, which covers parts of eastern Fallsburg and northern Mamakating. 

Perrello won election to the Sullivan County Legislature in 2019 on the Republican line; he previously held two terms as Fallsburg Town Councilman, and works by day as a mechanic and as the owner of businesses including Brothers’ Auto Body. Perrello has voted on occasion with the three Democratic members on controversial issues. 

Lacey served as the Ward 3 councilperson on the Mamakating Town Board, and lost reelection in 2021. He serves as the county commissioner of the Sullivan County American Legion, and as the president of the Mamakating Seniors’ Club. 

The other contested legislators’ race is in electoral district nine, covering southwest Mamakating and southeast Thompson. Incumbent Republican legislator Alan Sorensen has chosen not to run for reelection, and Terry Bernardo and Christopher Rosa are running for the Republican ballot line.  

Bernardo ran in the Republican primary for the 51st senate district and lost to Sen. Peter Oberacker. She moved to Sullivan County a few years ago after having served as the chairwoman of the Ulster County Legislature. 

Christopher Rosa serves as the K-9 officer with the Town of Fallsburg Police Department.

Several ballots will also include choices for representatives to the county and state Republican committees. 

Voters in the Town of Fallsburg electoral district 1 will chose two out of four candidates for the county Republican committee: Jennifer Parisi, John Parisi, Abraham Berkovic and Ari Grunhut. Voters in electoral district 5 in the town will have four other candidates to choose between: Robert E. Kirby Jr., Richard R. Gessner Sr., Anthony Perrello and Lori Lindridge. 

Voters in the Town of Neversink will chose two out of four candidates for the state committee for the 101st Assembly district: Richard I. Coombe, Hope Costa, Eric J. Chaboty and Tammi L. Chaboty. Voters in the town’s first electoral district will choose two candidates for county committee from Charles Breiner, Paul Slavik, Eric J. Chaboty and Tammi L. Chaboty; voters in the third district will choose two from Gene Froehlich, Andrew McCabe, Raymond J. Stanishia Jr. and Raymond A. Stanishia. 

Voters in the Town of Thompson’s fifth electoral district will choose two candidates for county committee from Lori A. Benjamin, Jay S. Rubin, Joanne Jasper and Alfred Heins Jr.