Bridie Farrell is seen here in Saranac Lake in January 2022. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone

LAKE PLACID — The anticipated special election to replace North Country Assemblyman Billy Jones is off to an explosive start, even before it begins.

Jones announced his plans to resign from his seat two weeks ago. The race won’t start until he officially steps down, which he plans to do at the end of August. Already, there is a slew of local politicians vying to run for his seat, political infighting and accusations of rigging.

Jones is the region’s only Democratic state representative. Democrats want to hold this seat in their party’s control. Republicans see Jones vacating the seat as an opportunity to secure the seat back into Republican hands. Jones’ 115th Assembly District includes all of Franklin and Clinton counties, and part of Essex County.

The election hasn’t started yet, but the political maneuvering has.

Clinton County Republican officials are accusing North Country Rep. Elise Stefanik of trying to run their nomination from the top down and bullying them into supporting the candidate she wants.

Stefanik is accusing Clinton County Republican Chair Jerika Manning of disqualifying certain candidates and attempting to nominate herself to run.

Both parties deny the other’s claims.

Stefanik has announced a favorite candidate publicly — Malone Mayor and Franklin County Legislator Andrea Dumas — and is pulling for her. Clinton County Republicans say she’s been aggressive in her campaigning for Dumas.

Republicans Ted Blazer, Steve Chilton and Nate Locke have also been discussed as potential candidates.

Democrat Bridie Farrell of Lake Placid announced her intentions to run on Tuesday. Democratic Plattsburgh town supervisor Michael Cashman previously announced his intentions to run, too. This sets up a decision for the Democratic chairs.

Clinton County power

Special elections are not run like normal elections. They do not have primaries.

Instead, the parties select their nominees based on votes from the party chairs in the three counties within the district — essentially a primary of three voters. But, for the Democrats and Republicans, Clinton County holds all the power in this process.

The chairs have their votes weighted based on how many party members their county contributes to the district. In both major parties, Clinton County carries more than 50% of the vote by itself, meaning, theoretically, the Clinton County chairs hold all the cards on who the candidates are.

With the Clinton County party chairs holding all the power in the decision of who runs to represent them on the ballot, a fight to control that power has sprung up.

On Tuesday, Stefanik called for Manning to resign immediately, calling her “incompetent,” “selfish,” “divisive” and “inexperienced,” as well as accusing Manning of “threatening to tank the 115th Assembly District for Republicans.”

“I am not going to let her torpedo Republican candidates in the North Country,” Stefanik said. “The New York GOP, the Conservative Party of New York State, Senator Dan Stec, Will Barclay, local Republican officials and voters are behind Andrea Dumas for Assembly.”

Stefanik accused Manning of saying she would never consider certain candidates, like Dumas.

State Sen. Dan Stec shared and co-signed this sentiment.

“The current chair’s persistent rejection of outstanding candidate Andrea Dumas is the last straw,” Stec said.

Stefanik Senior Advisor Alex DeGrasse alleged Manning refused to consider certain candidates like Dumas, Locke and Blazer.

“Jerika secretly put herself up for Assembly and even went so far as to encourage someone to run as a placeholder so she could seek the Assembly seat next year,” DeGrasse said in an email.

On Wednesday, an anonymous text went out to Republicans in the area which accused Manning of trying to “secretly and illegally rig the special election to put herself up as a candidate for the state Assembly,” as well as trying to “illegally put up a placeholder candidate.” It called for Manning’s immediate resignation.

Assemblyman Chris Tague, who is a member of the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee leadership, said RACC staff told him that she came to the realization that she could put herself up, vote for herself and be the candidate.

This is “perfectly legal” and has been done before, he said, but added that it would be a shady move.

Manning said these allegations are not true.

“I have never sought to run for the 115th Assembly seat,” Manning said Wednesday.

She is currently running for Clinton County clerk and said that the lawn signs she’s been buying say “Manning for clerk” not “Manning for Assembly.” Manning said she’s been asked by assemblymembers if she would consider running in the past, but said she always told them that she “wanted to stay focused” on her county.

Manning said she’s been in contact with the Franklin and Essex county chairs.

“It was never ‘I’m picking,'” she said. “It was, ‘Hey, you find out who you want to consider from your county, I’ll find out who I want to consider from my county.'”

She said she will interview and consider candidates with the other two chairs.

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‘The ugly side of politics’

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Manning said she was shocked by Stefanik’s statement.

“Republicans don’t need to be dividing themselves right now,” she said.

Manning said she has no plans to resign.

“I don’t think it’s good optics to step down after being threatened and bullied when I know, and my committee knows, that I ran this process properly,” Manning said.

Clinton County Republican Committee Vice-Chair Jeff Luck went to bat for Manning. In a post on the county GOP’s Facebook page, he accused Stefanik and Stec of running a “bullying campaign” and interfering with the county chairs’ candidate selection process. He said the “severe pressure” from Stefanik and Stec to accept their endorsement of Dumas as the final decision was not compatible with a constitutional republic and may violate state statute and Republican bylaws.

“Multiple phone calls from Elise became more unprofessional, disrespectful, condescending, threatening, manipulative, vindictive, delusional and, frankly, untruthful,” Luck wrote. “The last phone call we had from Mr. Stec was much the same. … They informed us that they were the only two people capable of making the right choice and we were simply falling in line.”

DeGrasse said these accusations are lies.

“Stefanik made an endorsement, not a demand that (Dumas) be the candidate; it’s her right,” DeGrasse said.

Luck said there were threats.

“Stefanik clearly stated that she would ensure Jerika lost her Clerk race as well as her position as Committee Chair,” he wrote.

And he aired some dirty laundry.

“(Her) own chief aide stated to us that they “don’t give a ____ about Clinton County,” he wrote. Luck told the Enterprise this was a comment from spring 2024.

A group of former Clinton County GOP chairs — Clark Currier, Don McBrayer, Don Lee and Greg Campbell — wrote an open letter in which they call on Manning to resign. The former chairs allege she had not consulted with county executive committee members and State Assembly leaders. Manning said she’s been in contact with her executive committee throughout the leadup to the potential special election.

The Clinton County Republican Executive Committee — made up of 15 town chairs, as well as officers — gave Manning a 100% vote of confidence in a meeting Wednesday night.

On Wednesday evening, Stefanik said that the Clinton County town chairs will decide on a candidate rather than the county chair.

Manning said this is not true. She said, after their executive committee meeting, the town chairs will be more involved in the process; but they do not get a vote, as the law only allows for county chairs to vote.

Luck said this was “spin.”

“(Stefanik) accepted the fact that we are getting what we fought for,” he said. “She’s just spinning it to make it look like she pressured the town chairs to step up and force our committee chair to use their input as their final choice.”

Essex County Republican Chair Wayne Taylor spoke well of Manning in this process. After recently taking on the chair role from John Gereau, who resigned to become the Enterprise’s publisher last month, he said he’s the “new kid on the block.”

“I want to hear from the candidates how they will win the election,” Taylor said. “I’ve heard it happen way too many times where the people running for office expect the committees to formulate a plan of action. … But they’re the leaders. I want to hear their take.”

Democrats

Clinton County Democratic interim Chair Jeff Moore said he and the Franklin and Essex county chairs will interview the two potential Democratic candidates next week and choose between them. Although Moore has the deciding vote, he is hoping for consensus among the chairs. He said both Farrell and Cashman are “serious” candidates. He wants someone who is energized, especially because the special election comes with such a short campaign.

Moore said the Democratic candidate selection process has been “peaceful.”

In 2022, Farrell, a Lake Placid resident, speedskating athlete and advocate for victims of sexual abuse, launched a bid for Congress on the Democratic line, but an off-schedule redistricting changed the NY-21 boundary and she dropped out, saying she did not see a way for a Democrat to win the district.

She said she wants to build on Jones’ success in the region.

Farrell successfully pushed for legislation passed in several states closing loopholes for victims of crime and abuse, including New York’s Child Victims Act and Adult Survivors Act.

Cashman has been Plattsburgh’s town supervisor since 2016.

After Jones officially submits his resignation, Gov. Kathy Hochul has 10 days to proclaim a special election. This election must occur between 40 and 50 days of her proclamation. The timeline sets the potential that the special election could be included on the Nov. 4 General Election ballot, instead of being a separate election.

Jones’ term was set to last through the end of 2026.