Turck challenges Carpinelli for Lewis County sheriff

“As sheriff, I will provide a different style of leadership for the people of Lewis County,” she told about 25 people gathered at the Lewis County VFW Post 6912. “I want to unite agencies and governmental offices to work together with the common goal to better serve and protect the people.”

The retired 20-year veteran of the state police said she has spent more than half of her career in Lewis County — “the place that meant so much to me growing up,” she said — so as she started to consider what the next phase of her life would entail, the choice became clear.

“This place is a great place to work. The community is great to law enforcement and I thought, ‘these people deserve a choice, I’m retired and this is the time. I’m the candidate and I’ll do the best I can to tell them about the service I will provide for them,’” she said in an interview after the announcement. “That’s my responsibility to this county. It’s a big responsibility for a huge agency. Communication is everything and I want to get communication opened up again... I want to start unifying everyone and being accountable. Those things just turn into good service.”

The current district attorney, clerk and treasurer in the county have all announced previously that they will seek reelection and thus far, no new candidates have announced their intentions for any of those four-year term positions, but the sheriff’s office is not the only one with a primary race based on candidate announcements.

Nine of the 10 county legislators are seeking reelection and so far, at least four will have competition with a number of other potential candidate rumblings under way.

In District 2, which covers parts of the towns of New Bremen and Croghan, incumbent Lisa Virkler is seeking her second term while Thomas M. Kalamas will try for his first, both Republicans vying for their party’s line on the ballot.

Likewise, Patrick F. Mahar and current legislator Jessica L. Moser will compete in the Republican primary in June for the District 3 legislator position representing the town of Denmark. Because Mrs. Moser was appointed to the position in August after former Legislator Ronald J. Burns’ retirement, this will be her first election campaign.

New candidates in District 4 covering sections of the towns of New Bremen and Lowville and District 6 in the towns of Watson and Lowville reportedly plan to compete for the Republican nomination with incumbents Ian W. Gilbert and Andrea J. Moroughan, respectively. The new candidates could not be reached for confirmation.

Mr. Gilbert is seeking his third term and Mrs. Moroughan, her sixth.

District 1 Legislator Phil Hathaway is retiring after this term; however, newcomer Herbert Frost III of Diana declared his candidacy earlier this year for the open seat which covers Diana and Croghan.

There are also many positions up for election in all villages and towns around the county.

Despite all of the announcements of intentions to run by people currently in office and those seeking the positions, only people who return candidate petitions between April 3 and April 6 with the required number of signatures will end up being candidates on primary or general election ballots with major party designations.

People interested in running independently from a political party will be able to gather signatures for candidacy later in the election season.

For information about what offices are up for grabs this year and how to become a candidate, go to www.lewiscounty.org/departments/board-of-elections.