Election Guide: Philipstown/Putnam

TOWN BOARD
The five-member Town Board, which includes the supervisor, will have three seats on the ballot on Nov. 4.
John Van Tassel is running unopposed for his third term as supervisor on the Democratic and independent Philipstown Focus lines.
The other two seats are held by Jason Angell and Megan Cotter, both Democrats, who were elected in 2021 but did not seek second terms. They will be succeeded by Nat Prentice and Ned Rauch, who won a four-way Democratic primary in June. Prentice will appear on the Democratic line, and Rauch on the Democratic and Philipstown Focus lines.
The Philipstown Democratic Committee endorsed Rauch and Ben Cheah before the primary and subsequently endorsed Prentice. Cheah would have appeared on the Philipstown Focus line on the November ballot but withdrew. To read responses to questions posed by The Current to Prentice and Rauch before the primary, see highlandscurrent.org/town-board-2025.
Because of a new state law that pushes most town and village elections to even-numbered years, Prentice and Rauch will serve three years, rather than four, with their seats on the ballot in 2028. At the same time, the supervisor position, usually a two-year term, will be on the ballot again next year. New York's highest court on Oct. 16 unanimously turned away a challenge to the law, which is designed to put town and village elections on the same ballot as national ones.
TOWN JUSTICE
The ballot will also include a town justice seat with one candidate, Fred Clarke, whom the Philipstown Democratic Committee nominated. A lawyer in private practice, he has lived in Cold Spring for 25 years and previously worked with the Putnam County Legal Aid Society and in marketing and communications.
The seat is open because of the resignation in June of Camille Linson, who was elected to a third, 4-year term last year but moved out of the area. Luke Hilpert was appointed to succeed her until the election and has announced a write-in campaign to keep the position. The other town justice is Angela Thompson-Tinsley, a Democrat elected in 2023.
COLD SPRING BOARD
Mayor Kathleen Foley is running unopposed for her third, 2-year term. There are also two open trustee seats on the Village Board, which will be filled by John "Tony" Bardes and Anthony Hall, who are running unopposed. They will succeed Eliza Starbuck, who resigned earlier this year, and Aaron Freimark, did not run for a second term. Hall was appointed in July to complete Starbuck's term.
COLD SPRING JUSTICE
The judge's seat at the Cold Spring Justice Court is up for grabs - the ballot will not list any candidates, meaning the position will be awarded based on write-in votes.
The unusual circumstance arose after Justice Thomas Costello, who has served for 24 years, decided not to seek re-election to a seventh, 4-year term. However, he did so only after an April deadline for candidates to file paperwork with the Putnam County Board of Elections to appear on the ballot. That meant no one else could file.
Under state law, only village residents are eligible to serve, unless the Village Board adopts a local law that expands the residency requirements.
The Cold Spring Justice Court has two judges. The second, the associate judge, is appointed by the Village Board. Until June, Linson held the position, but she was replaced by Hilpert, who is campaigning as a write-in candidate for Costello's seat. This week, he received the endorsement of the Cold Spring mayor, Kathleen Foley.
PUTNAM LEGISLATURE
The Putnam County Legislature has nine members, including Nancy Montgomery, its sole Democrat, who represents Philipstown and part of Putnam Valley. She was elected in 2024 to her third, 3-year term; her seat will be on the ballot again in 2027. Each member is limited by county law to four terms.
Three seats will be on this year's ballot for voters elsewhere in the county.
In District 5, which includes the hamlet of Carmel and part of Lake Carmel, Brett Yarris will have the Democratic ...