Abbate, Stammel
Split On Teachout
County Committee Meets Feb. 10 To Endorse
COOPERSTOWN – A majority of the 19th District’s Democratic county chairs, including Otsego’s Richard Abbate, supported former gubernatorial candidate Zephyr Teachout to run for the seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Chris Gibson, R-19, at year’s end.
The chairs, with Abbate participating by speaker phone, met in Hudson on Saturday, and the chair said he would seek a unified front when he convenes the full county committee Tuesday, Feb. 10.
But, over the weekend, freshman count Rep. Andrew Stammel dented the possible unanimity, saying he’s intrigued by the candidacy of Will Yandic, a young farmer in Ulster County who is serving on the Livingston Town Board.
Stammel said he’s uncomfortable with supporting another candidate “who’s just moved to the district,” a reference to Sean Eldridge, spouse of Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, who moved to Shokan to run against Gibson in 2014.
The Poughkeepsie Journal reported that Teachout, a law professor at Fordham, had rented a home in Dover Plains just last year.
Yandick is obviously a compelling young leader, but if the dems put him up in the 19th the Republican candidate will glide to victory. You can’t even google the guy. I’m glad he’s got ambition but this is the big leagues, you can’t just jump from livingston town board to congress. But Stammel is right – Teachout is an outside and she always will be. She should learn from the disastrous defeat of Eldridge. Could get really messy on both sides this summer.