HUDSON VALLEY — On Tuesday, Aug. 23, voters will decide between Democratic Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan and Republican Dutchess County Executive Marcus Molinaro in a Special Election for the 19th Congressional District (CD).
Political shifting
The political colleagues turned rivals are battling to see who will fill the remaining four months of former U.S. Rep. Antonio Delgado’s second two-year term. Delgado resigned from Congress after Governor Kathy Hochul appointed him lieutenant governor on May 3 to replace his disgraced predecessor, Brian Benjamin.
The Special Election will be the last time District 19 will be defined as it is now. Come 2023, District 19 will no longer include Dutchess County; District 18 will instead include Dutchess County. Ryan plans to run for CD 18 in the new configuration; Molinaro announced he’ll remain in CD 19.
One name, two ballots
Ryan will therefore be on both the ballot for the CD 19 Special Election, open to all voters, and on the ballot for the 2022 Democratic Primary for CD 18, which is only open to registered Democrats.
Motivation to run
The determined politician spoke with The Millerton News on Wednesday, Aug. 10, about why he wants to serve in Congress.
“We’re at a place in our country where our entire democratic system is under threat,” said the West Point graduate and former Army intelligence officer. “The fundamental freedoms I risked my life for serving in [Iraq] and many have given their life for [are being] ripped away.”
Ryan said he could not sit idly by and watch individual liberties be assailed. He added the issues facing Congress are too important to let politics preside over policy.
“Number one, the right to a safe abortion, to reproductive health care, to see the Supreme Court take that away,” he said, “and to see the Supreme Court allow more weapons and guns on our streets… to see the Jan. 6 hearings and what happened there. To have people see our entire democracy under threat — that’s why I am running. I want to make sure we preserve our democracy and strengthen it.”
The Ulster County native, born and raised in Kingston and now living in Gardiner with his wife and two children, said he thinks most voters agree with him.
“When government tries to take away fundamental rights… when certain lines are crossed, Americans won’t stand for it,” said Ryan, who has served three of the four years in his first term as county executive.
While Ryan addressed larger, existential issues, including his belief “democracy is at stake,” as “we’ve seen the literal storming of our Capitol and a coup” attempted on Jan. 6, he also addressed the need to provide “tangible” help to people. He said he’s assisted people while county executive and can do so as congressman.
Ryan said he wants to prioritize “on a major reinvestment in mental health and recovery, which we’ve done a lot of in Ulster County; we should address the housing crisis and build more housing for seniors and veterans; we should make major investments in infrastructure.”
Funding local projects
He paused to focus specifically on the enormous investment the federal government has made in infrastructure.
“We have the biggest infrastructure bill passed since the Eisenhower Administration in the Biden Administration,” said Ryan, referencing the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s $1.2 trillion of funding. “In local government, we understand how important municipal water and sewer are, and that they can hold back so many of our communities…”
He said Ulster County used American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds to develop local wastewater systems; promote economic development and affordable housing; and repair roads and sidewalks — the very issues Harlem Valley communities are grappling with right now.
“Actions speak louder than words, and in Ulster County we’ve taken federal rescue funds and set up a $5 million program to give direct funding for water and sewer projects to all towns… where we know resources are needed,” said Ryan. “[With] that $5 million, we ended up unlocking 10- to 20-times that in federal and state matching funds.”
Automatic advantage
He said that experience will aid him in Congress.
“Being the Ulster County executive, I understand local county government and the tangible benefits,” he said. “What I have to do to tie the thread between local and national is to rebuild the trust that government can deliver, that government can have integrity and build on that momentum.”
Like Molinaro, Ryan said mental health is a key issue.
“One of the biggest areas across the district that is woefully in need of investing in is mental health,” he said. “We must prioritize more funding.”
Ryan gave a nod to Dutchess County’s mental healthcare model but stopped short of calling it trendsetting.
He said the “federal government needs significantly more investment in mental health,” adding the burden “shouldn’t be on local government.”
He put part of the blame on low reimbursement rates from the federal government.
