Booan Elected Mayor In Hard-Fought Race

Dunn Wins; Mebust Just Squeaks By

3-19-10

By JIM KEVLIN : COOPERSTOWN

In the largest turnout in memory and by a clear majority, Cooperstown voters Tuesday, March 16, elected Village Trustee Joseph J. Booan, Jr., a top BOCES administrator, as mayor.
The tally was 431 votes for Republican Booan to 329 for Democrat Jeff Katz, the deputy mayor.  But words of conciliation were heard from both men after a hard-fought campaign.
“I’m disappointed,” said Katz, who remains on the Village Board as trustee. “But I congratulate Joe and wish him the best of luck.”
“Several times in the campaign,” said Booan, “we shook hands and said that, regardless of the outcome, we would try to work together.”
Republican Alton G. “Chip” Dunn, III, a newcomer to elective officer, was the top vote-getter for village trustee, with 406.

second term, leading Republican Doug Walker by just six votes, 370 to 364.  Sally Eldred, Democratic newcomer, trailed with 327.
For village justice, Democrat Leslie Friedman, a lawyer and acting justice for the past year, tallied 446 to 277 for Republican Mike Molloy, who had been an Edmeston town justice for 17 years.
By Election Day’s end, 760 votes had been cast – out of a possible 1,294.  “It far exceeds anything I’ve seen,” said Village Clerk Teri Barown, an elections monitor.  “And I’ve been here five years.”
This was the first contest for the Cooperstown mayoralty since 2002, when Stu Taugher and Waller, both trustees at the time, vied for the position. 
The mayor has a two-year term, the trustees’ is three years, with two running every year.  The village justice’s term is four years.
Judging from alignments of the past year, Booan will have a dependable majority in implementing the benchmarking, best practices and budget restraint he has advocated for his past year as trustee.
Trustees Willis Monie, Jr., and Neil Weiller – Booan allies – remain in office, and now Dunn joins him, replacing Trustee Eric Hage, who decided not to run again.  Additionally, Booan will have the opportunity to appoint his successor as trustee, subject to a Village Board vote.
The campaign that ended March 16 in effect began a year ago, when Republican Mayor Carol B. Waller announced she was appointing Democrat Katz as her deputy mayor and would back him to succeed her.
Waller’s husband, Bill, was village Republican chairman, and the GOP trustees were dismayed when, days before the January nominating caucus, he hadn’t lined up any candidates for the vacancy.
Fearful he meant to thrown the caucus’ support to Katz, Booan – reluctant to run, since he’d just received additional responsibilities at BOCES – announced just two days before the caucus that he would seek the mayoralty.
He, Hage and other allies rallied Republicans, and 80 jammed the caucus room at 22 Main on Wednesday, Jan. 20, where Booan was nominated.
Katz, with energetic help from Rich Abbate, the newly appointed village Democratic chairman, started strong, peppering lawns with Katz signs and generating a flood of letters to the editor.
But the tide began to turn in Booan’s favor when state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, the county’s “Mr. Republican” and usually dependable ally of Mayor Waller, endorsed Booan Thursday, March 4, in a rally on the steps of 22 Main.
The Wallers continued to try to marshal support for Katz – the night before Election Day, they put together a phone bank on the second floor of Mohican Flowers, the mayor’s shop, to try to get out the vote.
Abbate spent Election Day at the polls, tracking who voted, and a final attempt to get out the vote late in the day fell short.