Who's running for what? In the Hudson Valley, shifted lines fuel slew of new races

New district lines and a congressman's resignation have transformed the Hudson Valley's political landscape in the span of three weeks, prompting a flurry of unexpected matchups this fall.

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, a Cold Spring Democrat who has represented Orange County and all or parts of three other counties for the last decade, was set to face Republican challenger Colin Schmitt until the redrawing of New York's congressional map last week set off a row of political dominoes.

Now Maloney is running in a district with unfamiliar territory for him – no more Orange County, but all of Rockland County instead – and two Republicans vying for the seat.

And after a year of campaigning, Schmitt, a second-term assemblyman from New Windsor, is no longer trying to take down a five-term incumbent and head of the House Democrats' campaign arm. He's competing for a redrawn 18th district with Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan, who announced his candidacy shortly after the new lines came out.

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The new map also opened a door for Assemblyman Mike Lawler, a Republican freshman who launched his campaign for the 17th District – the seat Maloney is seeking – on Monday. Rockland County Legislator Charles Falciglia, a fellow Republican who petitioned for the 17th District before the lines moved, confirmed Monday he still intends to run. He and Lawler will compete in an Aug. 23 primary if both stay in the race.

Maloney, it turns out, will face a primary as well. State Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, a Westchester County Democrat who had petitioned to run for a proposed congressional district that vanished with the new map, will announce on Tuesday that she will challenge Maloney in the 17th District, the New York Times reported Monday night. Her new campaign website confirmed that plan.

The region's political shifting began on May 3 when Gov. Kathy Hochul named Rep. Antonio Delgado as her new lieutenant governor and running mate. That took the second-term Democrat from Rhinebeck out of a competition with Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro for the 19th District seat.

Molinaro, a Republican, is now looking at two upcoming elections for Congress with different opponents in each.

The first is an Aug. 23 special election to serve the last four months of Delgado's congressional term. Molinaro and Ryan are set to face off in that race to briefly represent a 19th District that neither will live in any longer when the new lines take effect in January.

Molinaro then plans to run on Nov. 8 for the redrawn 19th District, which crosses 11 counties from the Massachusetts border to the Finger Lakes region. Dutchess County was carved out of the district, but Molinaro isn't legally required to live in the district to run or hold office.

Which Democrat he faces depends on an Aug. 23 primary. At least two have announced campaigns for the redrawn 19th District: Jamie Cheney, a Dutchess County cattle farmer who originally planned to run for state Senate; and Josh Riley, an Ithaca attorney who had been campaigning for a different House seat before the lines moved.

Rep. Mondaire Jones, who has represented Rockland County and part of Westchester since 2020, had faced competing with a fellow Democrat for re-election after Maloney decided last week to run in the new 17th District. Jones could have run in a primary against either Maloney or Rep. Jamaal Bowman for the redrawn 16th District, where both Jones and Bowman live.

But he rejected both options and chose a third after a judge finalized the new lines late Friday night: he said he plans to run for the redrawn 10th District in New York City.

Also causing churn in Hudson Valley politics was the reshaping last week of New York's 63 state Senate districts.

Poughkeepsie Mayor Rob Rolison, a Republican and retired police officer who has led the city since 2016, announced Monday that he will run for the redrawn 39th Senate District, which has no incumbent living in it. The district takes in parts of Dutchess and Putnam counties and three municipalities in Orange County.

Rolison said in an interview the new Senate map gave him an opportunity to bring his political experience and bipartisan approach to Albany.

“I just think the timing is right based on this,” he said. “This is a unique situation that we find ourselves in.”

Fellow Democrats say state Sen. James Skoufis will run for the redrawn 39th Senate District, although he hasn't announced his plans yet. His Cornwall home isn't in the district, but he can run there under state law and would have to move into the district by November 2023 if he wins and wants to run again.

Cornwall is now part of the 42nd District, Republican-leaning territory that Skoufis shared with freshman Sen. Mike Martucci, a Wawayanda Republican with $1.2 million in his campaign account. The reshaped district consists of all Orange County except three municipalities that Skoufis represents and are now in the redrawn 39th District: the city and town of Newburgh and the town of Montgomery.

No Democrats have announced yet they will challenge Martucci.

Staff writers Matt Spillane and Nancy Cutler contributed to this report. Chris McKenna covers government and politics for the Times Herald-Record and USA Today Network. Reach him at cmckenna@th-record.com.

This article originally appeared on Times Herald-Record: New political maps prompt flurry of new Hudson Valley, NY matchups