CHATHAM — Ralph O’Mara-Garcia, 71, a Democrat, won a seat on the Village Board of Trustees as a write-in candidate by getting 127 votes, finishing second to incumbent Peter Minahan and ahead of incumbent Brandon Gaylord on Tuesday.
Minahan polled 157 votes and Gaylord received 55 votes. O’Mara-Garcia said Wednesday he was surprised to learn that he had won one of the two open board seats. “I was surprised and gratified that people wanted to support me,” O’Mara-Garcia said. “I contacted a bunch of friends and neighbors and let them know I was available as a write-in candidate, and it transformed itself into an election victory.”
O’Mara-Garcia started his campaign on Sunday — two days before the election — and 48 hours later, he was elected as a trustee, showing citizens’ power when they come together for a common cause or come together to support the candidate that best fits the village need.
O’Mara-Garcia was gracious for all the support that he has received in the village.
“I think I won because of the support,” he said in a telephone interview. “The people really liked me and wanted someone that is calm and didn’t have any radical ideas and was just willing to work in the village. I think the village is functioning fine, and it’s my job to continue that tradition of small government and to keep the ball rolling.”
O’Mara-Garcia said his victory expressed the reason it is essential for local governments to support their residents.
“One of the things you don’t want in a village or town, you don’t need the radicalization of government,” he said. “It’s really to support the citizen that lives and work here and to make the village comfortable for everyone.”
An architect for 50 years, O’Mara-Garcia lived for more than 40 years in Vermont and moved to Chatham in 2016 to be closer to his family.
Gaylord issued a strongly worded statement accusing Chatham Democrats of running a smear campaign against him and playing fast and loose with politics to win a seat.
“Yesterday, the Chatham Democrats were able to smear my character and ignore my years of service to the Chatham community in a successful attempt to win a trustee position,” Gaylord said. “Their candidate did not solicit signatures to be on the ballot and did not campaign for the position. He won thanks to the fear the Democrats were able to stoke with emails, text messages and phone calls they sent to their adherents, making ludicrous claims about my beliefs in education and health.
“While those issues are the last things that ought to matter to village politics, the Chatham Democrats were able to gaslight people into thinking that, as commissioner of snow removal, I would somehow impose my ‘libertarian views on education.’ Yesterday’s results are sad — not because their candidate won but because of how he won. Fear and besmirching of character won out yesterday — not honesty, not decency and not democracy.”
Minahan could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.