Maher captures 101st Assembly seat, to vacate town office

Posted 11/16/22

Town of Montgomery Supervisor Brian Maher is headed to Albany.

Maher, a former aide to Republican State Senator William Larkin, defeated Democrat Matthew Mackey last Tuesday to capture the 101st …

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Maher captures 101st Assembly seat, to vacate town office

Posted

Town of Montgomery Supervisor Brian Maher is headed to Albany.

Maher, a former aide to Republican State Senator William Larkin, defeated Democrat Matthew Mackey last Tuesday to capture the 101st Assembly District. Maher polled 60.19 percent of the vote.

“It’s been quite a long nine months,” said Maher who officially launched his campaign in February on Super Bowl Sunday. “It’s been a long night.”

Speaking before a large crowd at the New York School of Music in Walden, Maher touched on his days as Chief of Staff to the late Senator and said he plans to bring the Larkin team back to Albany.

Maher said one of his priorities as town supervisor and as mayor of Walden had been to create more opportunities for youth, pledged to do more of the same at the state level, and would work hard to solve the issue of youth flight in New York State.

Maher also praised Mackey for running “a tremendous race.”

“Hopefully this race can be an example of civility in the political process for other races and other candidates to follow,” he said.

Mackey, a social justice advocate from Kerhonkson. wrote on his Facebook page that he will take some time to reflect and recuperate, but is in good spirits.
“While the results may not be what we wanted, I am very proud of the hard fought campaign that we have done for our Assembly District,” Mackey wrote. “I want to thank my husband Carlos for being the most wonderful campaign support throughout the last 9 months, all the wonderful volunteers and supporters who believe in our message of change for our district, who phonebanked, textbanked, knocked on doors, and who donated. There are so many people that have worked so hard for our campaign, and I truly appreciate each and every one of you.

“I also want to thank Brian, my opponent for keeping our race civil, unlike most races that we have recently seen. I wish him the best on the next phase of his career.“

Maher was back in the town supervisor’s office the next morning, where he outlined his plans for the upcoming transition. He plans to serve as town supervisor until December 31. Deputy Supervisor Ron Feller will be appointed supervisor on January 1, 2023, thus creating a vacancy on the town council. An election for a full two-year term as supervisor will be held in November of 2023.

“Thank you this morning to all of the folks here in the Town of Montgomery, for working with me, to help make the Town of Montgomery a better place over the last three years,” Maher said. “In March of 2020 in our first year, we got hit with the pandemic. For me, it was a true honor to be able to serve my community in a time of need, where we truly needed to band together.”

Maher, who became mayor of Walden at the age of 23, is proud of his background.

“I’m a Waldenite,” he reflected. “I’m born and raised in the Village of Walden. And to be able to say that I’m here after all of the crap we got from being in Walden in the 80s, I love it. That’s what our town is about.”