Martin, Mitras Win Waddington Races
BY JIM REAGEN
The Waddington Redevelopment Association suffered a major setback in Waddington's
Republican and Democratic primaries Tuesday as candidates for town council who favored the
group's agenda lost to candidates who favored the sale of Leishman's Point for residential
development.
Republican Roger Martin won an easy victory, rolling up 80 percent of the vote to fellow
GOP member Karen Thew who captured 20 percent of the vote. Martin earned 156 votes to
Thew's 39 votes.
About 31 percent of registered Republicans voted in the primary. In the Democratic
primary, Gibson A. Mitras won the nomination with 80 votes over Katherine Dupray's 49
votes. Mitras garnered 62 percent of the Democratic vote to Dupray's 38 percent. About 23
percent of registered Democrats voted in the primary.
"I think it says something about what the people of Waddington want," said
Martin. "It's not what the WRA was looking to put in at Leishman Point." Martin
said that Leishman Point's future was "the only thing that was ever talked
about" when he was out going door to door campaigning for the town council seat.
"I just went out and met the people and told them I was interested," he said.
The primary and this November's election will be a referendum on Waddington's future, he
said. "I think this whole election is a referendum on what the people want their
government to do," he said. "Clearly, they had a choice in candidates. I think
this is just the beginning. Clearly, they did not want what the WRA wanted."
Mitras was unavailable for comment Tuesday.
Martin said that he expects the November election between himself and Mitras will be a
positive upbeat campaign because they have few disagreements on the issues.
The candidates were running to fill the unexpired term of Councilman Bill Dalton who was
appointed to fill the town supervisor post after longtime supervisor Reggie Green stepped
down last year due to health reasons.
Originally published 09/10/2003
Ogdensburg Journal
Used with permission