Get ready for an intense 21st Congressional District general election campaign filled with verbal jousting and allegations of impropriety.

As Matt Castelli, who won the Democratic primary on Tuesday, challenges U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, the vitriol may be the most heated for a local congressional race in more than a decade, political experts say.

“They (Stefanik campaign) will get vicious. They will play dirty. They will throw everything they have at us,” Castelli said in his victory speech on Tuesday night. “And to that I say, ‘Bring it on!'”

The Stefanik campaign responded that it was Democrats who started the volley with their constant criticism of Stefanik’s association with former President Donald Trump.

“There is no one that the left and local Democrats have viciously attacked and smeared more than Elise Stefanik. She gets it day in and day out, not only from ‘far left’ Democrat Matt Castelli from Poughkeepsie, but also from Hollywood liberals and sick online trolls nationwide,” Alex DeGrasse, a Stefanik senior adviser, said Wednesday in a statement.

Castelli, a former CIA counterterrorism official, grew up in the Hudson Valley.

He moved to Saratoga County in the summer of 2021 for employment, and recently moved to Glens Falls.

Warren County Democratic Chairwoman Lynne Boecher said the race will be as intense as the 2006 local congressional race in which Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand upset incumbent Republican John Sweeney.

National Journal, a nonpartisan political magazine, characterized the 2006 race at the time as “one of, if not the, nastiest races in the country.”

Boecher said that Democrats are up to the challenge.

“I do know that Democrats are prepared to respond in kind. We’re not timid,” she said.

Warren County Republican Chairman George Ferone said that Democrats have already been nasty in their criticism of Stefanik.

“If you pay attention to the news, you can see where the local and national Democrats have continually and viciously attacked Elise Stefanik and her family. And this has gone on for years,” he said.

Character has already become an issue in the race.

The Stefanik campaign, in a news release on Tuesday night “welcoming” Castelli to the general election race, criticized him over a recent report of alleged inappropriate behavior.

The Daily Mail, a British tabloid newspaper and website, reported on Aug. 19, citing unnamed “multiple former National Security Council colleagues,” that Castelli allegedly had been known to drink alcohol while on the job and had multiple sexual relationships with female co-workers when he was director of the National Security Council counterterrorism division from 2016 to 2018.

“Matt Castelli has been embroiled in controversy after several former colleagues from the National Security Council, including a current Biden administration official, confirmed that Castelli would drink heavily and engage in inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace while on the clock and often collected overtime pay while doing so,” DeGrasse, the Stefanik senior adviser, said in the news release.

Castelli, in a telephone interview on Wednesday, denied the allegations in the Daily Mail report.

“It’s garbage and lies,” he said.

Boecher said the Daily Mail report is “junk journalism” and does not match her impression of Castelli.

“This is not the character of the man who is running, at all,” she said.

Ferone, the Warren County Republican chairman, said the allegations, if true, are serious.

“I have to say that these are very concerning reports, and they seem to be coming from Biden administration officials, as cited in the report,” he said.

“This is not the first time Democrat candidates of late have had disturbing workplace behaviors. I would hope that Mr. Castelli is not taking a page out of Andrew Cuomo’s book,” Ferone continued, referring to the former governor’s resignation from office in 2021 in the midst of allegations of sexual harassment.

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Character issue in past races

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It is not the first time that character has been an issue in a local congressional race.

In the 2006 campaign, The Concordiensis, the student newspaper of Union College, broke the story in April that Sweeney, the Republican incumbent, attended a fraternity party at Union College and appeared to be intoxicated.

Just days before the election, Sweeney and his then-wife acknowledged on Nov. 1, 2006, that state police came to their home the previous December, but they disputed published reports that described the incident as domestic violence.

Sweeney lost the election.

In the 2012 race between Republican Matt Doheny and incumbent U.S. Rep. Bill Owens, D-Plattsburgh, the website gawker.com and the New York Post in March published reports and video in which Doheny appeared to be embracing a female campaign aide at a restaurant in Washington, where Doheny’s fiancee, and now wife, was not present.

Doheny later told The Post-Star editorial board he had exercised “poor judgment” at times, but that no one could question his work ethic and business acumen.

Doheny lost the election.

Stefanik enters the general election campaign with a huge campaign cash advantage.

Castelli had $431,418 in his campaign fund, as of Aug. 3, the most recent report to the Federal Election Commission, while Stefanik had $3.35 million.

Castelli said he hopes to narrow that gap by emphasizing the national significance of the race.

Stefanik has the No. 3 leadership post in the House Republican Conference.

Castelli said that what he lacks in campaign cash he will make up with grit and hard work.

“I am going to keep calling her out,” he said, referring to Stefanik.

Democrats hope to broaden voters’ impression of Castelli by emphasizing his business acumen and problem-solving skills, not just his experience with the CIA, Boecher said.

Many are not aware that he received an MBA from Northwestern University, she said.

Stefanik said in a recent telephone interview that she is optimistic about her re-election bid, specifically, as well as the midterm elections in general.

“I anticipate there is going to be a huge turnout in this election, and I anticipate is it going to be a Republican turnout,” she said.

DeGrasse, Stefanik’s senior adviser, said Wednesday morning that Stefanik was heading to Lake George to join Mayor Robert Blais at the ribbon-cutting for the new village sewer plant, for which she helped arrange $500,000 in Northern Regional Border Commission funding for construction.

DeGrasse said Stefanik’s campaign will contrast the congresswoman’s results with Castelli’s policy platform.

“She wins on her exceptional constituent services, on keeping her promises, and her crystal-clear positions and message to voters,” said Ferone, the Warren County Republican chairman.