Most elected officials in Allegany County aren’t sweating their reelection this year.
Of the 158 races on the ballot in the county this year, only 11 are contested, according to The Olean Times Herald. The long list of unopposed candidates includes the incumbent county clerk and county attorney general, who are both expected to cruise to reelection.
But the handful of contested races on the ballot are worth following. They’re closely matched, highly controversial, or both, and a few will shape the future of some of the county’s small towns. WBFO’s Grant Ashley sat down with Andrew Harris of the Wellsville Sun to discuss the political landscape and future of Allegany County. You can listen to their conversation by hitting the ‘Listen’ button or read a transcript of it below.
WBFO: So I want to start by talking about the lack of contested races in Allegany County. There’s 158 elections, and only 11 of them are contested. Do you have a sense of why there are so few contested elections this year?
Harris: Well, I think it’s somewhat a function of being an off-cycle year. It’s hard to get excited about politics when there’s not a presidential or a gubernatorial election attached to it. In general, though, I think Allegany County public service positions are — it’s very hard to find people to do the work for a couple of reasons. I think the main reason is “small town syndrome,” where it’s very difficult in this day and age to put yourself out on the chopping block with social media and seeing everybody at the grocery store as well.
WBFO: Yeah, and there are several county level positions that are going uncontested, including the district attorney’s race. Is that right?
Harris: The district attorney is uncontested. I don’t remember the last time it was a contested race. In this case, I think the reason is really simple: Ian Jones is an extremely strong candidate. I can’t imagine anybody who would want to run against him, because it’s almost a universal understanding that he would be great at the job. He’s been an assistant district attorney and done a very strong job at that. And so, there’s no way you’re going to beat Ian Jones. He’s as good as it gets.
WBFO: Next let’s go to the biggest contested race, which is in Wellsville. That’s for the superintendent of highways. Could you tell me a little bit about what’s going on in that particular election?
Harris: Sure. Brian Smith is the incumbent. He has been on the job as an elected official for about a year. He has been appointed for about two years. But he’s also a 30-year veteran of the crew, so he’s worked in the town for a long time. He’s a Republican, and he’s got a Democratic challenger, which is kind of rare in Allegany County these days. And the challenger, Brad Loucks, is also running on the Highway Party line. He doesn’t come from government, he comes from private construction industry. He has a family legacy in Town of Wellsville politics, and it’s expected to be a fairly close race.
WBFO: OK, interesting. Even though the one of the candidates is a Democrat in a very heavily Republican area.
Harris: So yeah, Loucks has great name recognition. He’s a well-known guy. And I don’t think that, when it comes down to that job — plowing the roads and digging the ditches — that people are so interested in party affiliation.
WBFO: That makes sense. So I guess next we’ll go to the town of Alma, which is a very small town along the Pennsylvania border. There’s been a lot of turmoil in their local government, and they now have a contested council member election. Could you tell me a little bit about what’s going on there?
Harris: A political science student could write a thesis or a doctoral paper on this situation. They have had dysfunction for years — and resignations. Very few people seem to stay in the job long, and after they resign, a lot of them want reforms. It’s caused lots of bad blood, and it's almost a dangerous situation in some ways. You have such hard feelings in such a small community. The current town supervisor and one of the candidates for council nearly live on the same little road in a town of 600 people. It’s tense. They’re having a lot of trouble keeping their government going.
WBFO: There are five candidates in this race for two seats. What’s up for grabs here?
Harris: So there’s actually four town council seats open. Two of them have the five candidates running. Some of those candidates are former town officials. Some of them are incumbents that are on the board right now. Some of them are newcomers. Then there’s two other seats, and there’s nobody running for those seats because the people in them resigned, and nobody, I guess, is interested in taking their place. So that race is a write-in candidate only race, and only two candidates have stepped forward to ask for write-in votes. One, a former official, and one a newcomer.
WBFO: OK, interesting. That one’s really up for grabs because you could write in anyone.
Harris: Yeah, that could be a whole different board, a whole different situation. The supervisor will remain the same. But yeah, if the right slate of council members get elected, that town supervisor is going to have his work cut out for him.
WBFO: Do you think that this election will solve the dysfunction at all?
Harris: No, I don’t, personally. I don't think that it will. I wish it would. But this has been going on now for at least the better part of a decade. And I think that it shows that with our population losses in Allegany County, particularly among young people, we don’t have the talent to maintain over two dozen different small governments. Some of these towns only have 600 or 1,000 people in them. So you know, I don’t think you're going get to a point where you’re going to have the population to support the governments.
WBFO: And then the last race on our agenda, there is a proposition in the Town of Allen to make the highway superintendent an appointed position. It’s currently an elected position. Could you tell me a little bit more about that proposition?
Harris: I mean, that’s an interesting choice for the voters. The Town of Allen, again, is another very, very small town. Getting elected to that position can be difficult and also very high scrutiny, so I can understand why moving that to an appointed position would potentially improve the, I guess, candidates for the job. Nobody wants to run for office in a town of 500 people, 1,000 people.
WBFO: All right. Thank you so much, Andrew. If people want to read your work and learn more about these races, where can they find that?
Harris: The Wellsville Sun, that’s wellsvillesun.com. It has all the local news you could want.
Early voting is open at the Allegany County Board of Elections office in Belmont and at the Wellsville Village Office until Nov. 5. Election Day is Nov. 7. Visit the Allegany County Board of Elections website for more information about voting in Allegany County.
Contested races in Allegany County:
- Allen, proposition: Shall the office of Superintendent of Highways for the Town of Allen be changed from elected to appointed?
- Allen, superintendent of highways (vote for one):
- Raymond Dennis (Republican)
- Allan Hennard (AH for Highway)
- Alma, council members for four-year terms (vote for two):
- Bill Cox (Democrat)
- Paula Clayson (Republican)
- Jerry Currier (Republican)
- Michelle Dunbar (Dunbar for Council)
- Joshua Pye (Pye for Council)
- Alma, council members for two-year terms (vote for two): No candidates running, write-ins only
- Almond, town supervisor (vote for one):
- Daniel Hegarty (Republican)
- Jo-Anne Freeland (Conservative)
- Amity, council member (vote for two):
- Dana Ross (Democrat)
- William Burton (Republican)
- Mark Hand (Republican)
- Belfast, supervisor (vote for one):
- David Cox (Democrat)
- Andrew Chamberlain (Republican)
- Belfast, council member (vote for two):
- Dixie Middaugh (Democrat)
- Rick Smith (Republican)
- David Jennings (Republican)
- Bolivar, council member (vote for two):
- Alyn MacDonell (Republican)
- No other candidates running. The other seat will be decided by a write-in
- Friendship, council member to fill a vacancy (vote for one): No candidates running, write-ins only
- Genesee, council member (vote for two):
- Alyn Holcomb Jr. (Republican)
- No other candidates running. The other seat will be decided by a write-in
- Hume, council member (vote for two):
- Andrew Peet (Republican)
- Warren Smith (Republican)
- Steve Thomas (Hume Neighbors)
- Wellsville, superintendent of highways (vote for one):
- Brad Loucks (Democrat, Highway Party)
- Brian Smith (Republican)
- West Almond, justice: No candidates running, write-ins only
