Wappinger town supervisor and Dutchess County Democratic Party chairman Joe Ruggiero, already running a vigorous and well-funded campaign for the job of longtime Republican Dutchess County Executive Bill Steinhaus, received a significant financial and ego boost on Sunday, Sept. 30 when U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer dropped by to add gravitas and national cachet to a $250-a-plate fundraising party being held for him at Three Spruces, the Town of Washington (colloquially referred as Millbrook, as is everything else within a 20-mile radius of that fabled village) home of Didi and David Barrett.
Didi Barrett is a candidate for Washington Town Council, and her husband David happens be a former college roommate and a close personal friend of Mr. Schumer, which didn’t hurt.
It was an evening of strong partisan speeches and mutual admiration among the many attendees, a number of whom were candidates themselves. The Democratic slate for the Town of Washington was on hand — Ed Shaughnessy for town supervisor, the aforementioned Mrs. Barrett and Kate Farrell for town council — as well as perennial District 25 legislative powerhouse Margaret Fettes.
Also in the house was veteran Dutchess County legislator and Poughkeepsie mayoral candidate Fred Knapp, who beat incumbent Nancy Cozean in the recent primary, forcing her from the race.
With only two comparatively harmless regional media representatives on hand – myself and a gentleman named Stephen Kaye who is planning a spirited independent local newspaper to take on the Millbrook Roundtable – guests felt comfortable enough to ignore us and soak up the starshine as the fine food, libation and progressive ideas flowed. Percolating within the gracious, tastefully simple, almost temple-like confines of the Barrett home, the convivial gathering seemed to be the first visible manifestation of what this journalist has long suspected to be a growing axis of liberal, New York City-based political power to counter the long-held conservative GOP bastion of Dutchess County.
Had this group been around in the 1930s or ’40s, FDR might even have won on his home turf once or twice.
We’ll have more on this party and this phenomenon next week, as part of the Dutchess Beat’s continuing political coverage leading up to Nov. 6.