DUTCHESS COUNTY — Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro has been making a name for himself in politics ever since he first took a seat as a village trustee on the Tivoli Village Board in 1994 at the tender age of 18. By the next year, he was being heralded as the youngest mayor to ever serve in the history of the United States of America.
Molinaro served as mayor for that tiny northern Dutchess County village five times before being elected to the county Legislature; he then served as legislator for four terms. Molinaro, a Republican, then continued his political ambitions in the state capital of Albany, as he was elected to represent the 103rd District in the New York State Assembly in 2006; he served in the Assembly until he was elected to lead the county in 2011 as its seventh county executive. He was the youngest county executive in Dutchess County history — only 36 at the time. In 2019, he was easily re-elected to serve a third four-year term. In 2018, Molinaro ran unsuccessfully as the Republican candidate challenging Governor Andrew Cuomo for that seat. It was one of his few losses.
Last week, on Wednesday, Oct. 7, the New York State County Executives Association (NYSCEA), an affiliate of the New York State Association of Counties (NYSAC), announced that Molinaro has yet again been elected to serve in a newly elected capacity. This time, it’s to represent his fellow county executives, as the president of the NYSCEA. It’s no small task, as it “represents the 19 counties that have county executives as their chief elected official. These counties, including the City of New York, represent 16.7 million New Yorkers,”
according to the organization.
As usual, Molinaro was gracious upon his victory.
“These are challenging times for everyone. As county executives, our first responsibility is to serve the public, keep our citizens safe and help our communities thrive,” he stated in a press release. “But in this environment, we cannot do this by ourselves. We all need to work together, and we need a strong partnership with the federal, state and local governments on behalf of all New Yorkers. I look forward to working with county leaders from across the state and building the necessary partnerships we all need to battle this pandemic and save our economy.”
Photo by Graham Corrigan
