Will challenge Rep. Pat Ryan in November

A state judge ruled on Friday (May 1) that a new Republican and Conservative candidate for the U.S. House district that includes Beacon can appear on the November ballot to challenge Rep. Pat Ryan, the Democratic incumbent.

In a lawsuit filed on April 16, the Ulster County clerk, Taylor Bruck, and Amee Peterson, deputy chair of the Kingston Democratic Committee, asked Judge Bruce Hidley to invalidate nominating petitions filed by Sharanjit "Sunny" Thind, who lives with his family on Long Island.

After submitting the petitions, Thind filed to refuse the nominations, and the Republican and Conservative parties named Jackie Auringer to replace him. Because the deadline to file petitions had passed, Auringer must rely on Thind's submissions to get on the ballot.

Bruck and Peterson had earlier appealed to the state Board of Elections to reject Thind's petitions, claiming the candidate provided an inaccurate home address and had not numbered the signatures as required, making them harder to review.

On April 28, the Board of Elections ruled that the accuracy of the address provided by Thind was not within its jurisdiction to review. At the same time, it validated both nominating petitions. Candidates for District 18 had to submit at least 1,250 signatures of registered district voters for the Democratic or Republican line and 509 for the Conservative line. Thind submitted 3,005 signatures on his Republican petition and 1,140 on his Conservative petition, and a review did not invalidate enough of them to drop below the minimum.

That left only the challenge to Thind's address on the petitions, which Bruck and Peterson said was fraudulent. After hearing testimony, Hidley ruled on May 1 that Bruck and Peterson had failed to establish that the Lagrangeville address, although owned by a friend, was not a second home. The judge also noted that, regardless, House members are only required to live in the state they represent, not the district.