Stammel, Quackenbush Disagree

On Last-Minute Mailing’s Origin

By JIM KEVLIN • for AllOTSEGO.com

ONEONTA – Andrew Stammel, county board candidate for District 4, has lashed out against a last-minute mailing, received Saturday, reporting that, as a public defender in 2010, he had represented an accused Sidney sex offender.

“The campaign against me in District 4 has stooped to another low,” said Stammel.

The mailing was a copy of a news clipping.  Handwritten across the top was: “As your neighbor, I wanted to make sure you saw this. I don’t think people who defend sex offenders should get our vote!”

“It is, of course, sent anonymously with no return address.”

His opponent, county Rep. Janet Hurley Quackenbush, R-Town of Oneonta, expressed sympathy, but said blaming it on her campaign was “absurd.”

He explained: “At the time I was working for a firm in Stamford and had my name on the Delaware County Assigned Counsel list – this is a form of community service in which attorneys represent clients who cannot otherwise afford representation. Judges assign the cases – we cannot choose which are assigned to us. If assigned and we do not have a conflict, we are required to do our job.

“If my memory serves, I only appeared for that client’s arraignment and nothing else because I left the Stamford firm shortly thereafter.”

The candidate said, while he doesn’t know who sent out the mailing, “I believe it fits a pattern of negative and untrue personal attacks and innuendo from them throughout the campaign.”

The mailing would take “a high level of organization to obtain all of our residents’ addresses and would cost hundreds of dollars and much time and effort to coordinate this mailing.”

Quackenbush  expressed sympathy that Stammel had been targeted.  “I feel bad for him if there’s someone out that doing this.  He’s a nice guy.”

However, she called it “absurd” that Stammel was accusing her campaign of sending the mailing.  “Absolutely no one in my party would do that,” she said.