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The Election of 1969

John Conway - Sullivan County Historian
Posted 11/1/19

When town Supervisors also governed Sullivan County in their roles on the Board of Supervisors—as they did from the time the county was formed in 1809 until 1995—individual town elections were of …

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The Election of 1969

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When town Supervisors also governed Sullivan County in their roles on the Board of Supervisors—as they did from the time the county was formed in 1809 until 1995—individual town elections were of considerable interest to nearly every voter in the county.

Perhaps that was never more evident than in the election of 1969, which featured shrewd political maneuvering and down-to- the-wire races in ultimately determining the balance of power.

When the dust had settled—sometime after Election Day—the Republicans had regained control of the Board of Supervisors and the various patronage positions that control enabled them to fill.

The year's closest race came in the town of Bethel, which just a few months before the vote had hosted the world's most famous music and art fair. It was that very same Woodstock Festival that proved to be the main issue in the campaign between incumbent Democrat Jerry Amatucci and Republican former Supervisor George Neuhaus.

The Bethel race was not settled on Election Day, as vote tallies by the end of the day had Neuhaus on top by either six or eight votes, depending upon where one got their information, and everyone agreed that a recount and a lawsuit by one side or the other would be necessary before a winner could finally take his seat on the Board.

Despite the convictions of some that Amatucci was the rightful winner, Neuhaus managed to withstand the recount and legal challenge and reclaimed the seat he had surrendered in the previous election. His victory was a major win for Republicans.

But that wasn't the only intriguing race in Sullivan County that year. Former Board of Supervisors Chairman Steven Stetka of Cochecton, a Republican, had been knocked off the town G.O.P. committee and subsequently lost the Republican nomination for supervisor to Robert Nearing. Just when Stetka's political career appeared all but finished, he gained ballot access on the Independent line and eventually won the Democratic endorsement, as well, but most observers still felt he faced an uphill battle against Nearing, given that 452 of the 711 registered voters in Cochecton were Republicans.

It turned out that Stetka polled 103 votes on the Independent line and 274 votes on the Democratic line—even though there were just 155 registered Democrats in the town—for a total of 377 votes. Nearing tallied 324 on the Republican line. Amazingly, 701 of the total 711 enrolled voters in the town voted for Supervisor that year.

While Stetka's unexpected win was believed to be a boon to the Democrats, no one seemed quite sure where his ultimate loyalties might lie, and two other upsets Democrats were hoping for failed to materialize, giving Republicans control of the Board. There had been some inkling that Richard Reid might oust Republican John Eschenberg in Delaware, but that contest was not even close, as the incumbent won handily by 762 to 326. And in Callicoon, where many pundits, including the editor of the Liberty Register newspaper, were touting a potential upset, incumbent Republican Edward Mall hung on to his seat over the Democratic challenger Al Priebe, winning by 197 votes.

The Register called Mall's victory “a close call” since it “took place while other Republicans in the town of Callicoon were winning by margins that ran from over 300 to over 700 votes.”

In the County's largest towns, results were mixed. Republican Ralph Meyer held onto his seat as Thompson Supervisor, turning back a challenge by Leo Rappaport, while in Liberty, Democratic stalwart Francis “Stretch” Hanofee was elected to replace the retiring Democrat William Pearson, and in Fallsburg longtime Supervisor Mortimer Michaels, a Democrat, was returned to office.

The Register, which had once been a staunchly Republican paper but was in 1969 published by Abe Friedman and edited by Richard Rosenbaum, left no doubt that they considered the return of the Board of Supervisors to Republican control a major step backward for the county.

To illustrate their point, the Register pointed out in an editorial in its November 6, 1969 edition that “in 1966 and 1967, after the Democrats were upset, the Republicans came into power, [Edward] Bisland became Board Chairman, [Carl] Goldstein became County Attorney, and [Abe] Kleinman became Board Clerk. Then the clock moved backward. Pork barrel politics and narrow partisanship became the order of the day. Progress stopped dead and reaction set in. We can only hope we do not have a repeat performance of those two nightmarish years.”

Perhaps foremost among the hot-button issues being debated by the Supervisors at the time was the proposal to scrap the County Charter and to implement a new form of government, either with or without a County Executive. This debate would continue when the new Board was seated in 1970, and as it turned out, well beyond that.

While some of the Supervisors had made clear their position on the issue, two of the largest weighted voting blocks—those wielded by Neuhaus and Meyer—were wild cards, as no one seemed quite sure where they stood. In the end, those favoring the status quo triumphed and with minor tweaking, county government remained the same for another 25 years.

Despite the Register's contention that “no realistic appraisal of what happened at the polls on Tuesday can be made without coming to the conclusion that the political future of Sullivan County is not bright,” the county survived the 1969 election, just as it has every election before and since.

John Conway is the Sullivan County Historian. Email him at jconway52@hotmail.com.

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