BY: Keith S. Shikowitz Editor in Chief/Investigative Reporter
In an election year that would not be taking place on the local level, if not for the change in the NYS election laws making 90% of local elections have to take place on even years, George Hoehmann and the rest of the Clarkstown town council as well as all town supervisors and council people across NYS would not have to run again until at least next year, depending on the length of their terms and the last time they were elected, George Hoehmann kicked off his re-election campaign at the Nyack Seaport on February 11, 2026 with the Tappan Zee Bridge outside the window.
The night opened with Colin Schmidt announcing all of the people who contributed to Hoehmann’s campaign to this point. He also announced all of the elected officials who were present. The list was long, so he asked for applause to be held until the end, or we’d have been there very late. He called up a few of the officials to come to the podium who were not already there.
“We’re a short program of speakers starting with the woman who has overseen the weddings of more people in the state of New York than anyone else Guinness Book of World Records holder, Lauren Marie Wohl. If you aren’t sure about getting married, just say yes. Lauren will get the job done this weekend, and she’s going to be saying a few words for our Congressman. ” Schmidt said.
“Supervisor Hoehmann, on behalf of Congressman Lawler, obviously he wishes he could be here. He is here in spirit and support whatever the slate needs. He is there for us. You know, George is not just a great supervisor to him. George is a dear friend to him. George was just down in DC, for the prayer breakfast the other day with Congressman Lawler, and they had a wonderful time. So, Mike sends his regards. He says, whatever you need, he’s got your back.”
He introduced a person he called a great friend, the chairman of the Rockland County Conservative Party, Sam Naemit. He added that Sam also has a great marina if you’re looking to go out for something.
“Good evening. As the chairman of Rockland County Conservative Party, I just want to take a moment to say to you in support of Clarkstown Supervisor that George has shown himself to be a strong leader who understands the government should be responsible, affordable, and accountable to the people it serves. He is a man of common sense, and real, real commitment to the town of Clarkstown. That’s exactly why we’re proud to stand with you. Thank you, George, for your continued service and thank you all for coming out this evening supporting. Enjoy the rest of the evening. ”
“Now we welcome up our fantastic and hardest-working state senator in the state of New York to introduce our wonderful supervisor, Senator Bill Weber. ”
“So, thank you, and I just want to thank all of my colleagues up here, but before I do that, I just want to recognize a few others as well. I want to thank all the, guys from my business group that are here. We’ve been long time friends. I’m part of a business group for, I don’t know, well over 15, 16 years, and, and we’ve all become friends and it’s really to help keep me centered, you know, when you’re in government, sometimes it can be very easy to kind of, overlook some of the realities of business, and I have these guys, so the back table, so maybe you guys could just wave. Also, my friends from, my cigar smoking friends, I see a number of them here as well. I also want to recognize the Clarkstown, PBA that’s here. There’s a big contingent. I want to thank their president Ray Lachette and all the guys. ”
“You know, I didn’t mention it, but we have the best police department. I know we’re coming up to the end of the contract, so we actually have without a doubt the finest police department, not just in the county but in the state. We’ll talk about things that will take place and it’s amazing the amount of things that the police prevent and the amount of crimes that don’t happen and the amount of times that they very quickly solve crimes and issues. I’m just thinking early on in my tenure, my first term, there was an armed robbery that took place and literally our police were able to use our ring around the town to be able to track with the plate readers and we’re able to catch these guys within about 9 minutes. That doesn’t happen anywhere else and it’s all of us in the town who are so proud of our police. Also, a very good friend, and, I’ve been a supporter of, of, this group, but very happy to have David Kel, the President of the JCC. ”
He thanked a number of more people who were in attendance. He then looked out at the entirety of the over 100 people and said, “I’m all that stands between you guys and the food, so I’ll be very, very quick. ” After the laughter dies down, he continued. “I want to, just thank you all for your support. We’re only having 4 fundraisers this year. We did something new with founding sponsors, so we’re off to a good start. This, as you heard the Senator say, this was not expected. It wasn’t unexpected. We knew that it was a potential that be running this year. New York State with one party rule in Albany, not to get too political, but it’s a reality, a lot of rule changes came in when the Republican Party lost control of the state Senate, and one of the last changes that they did was essentially to eliminate local elections under the guise of, trying to drive voter turnout in the odd years and to get them into even years. ”
The problem as the local candidates and elected government officials see it is that it is in the even years is when the governor runs and the president and this is all you’re hearing about midterm elections. What’s going to happen with midterm elections? Well, thanks to Governor Hochul and the Democratic majority in both houses, they passed a law change, and again it’s, it’s such a joke because when you think about it, it’s in order to drive up voter turnout, they’re moving local elections, but they didn’t move all local elections. They only moved supervisors, town council, town clerk, they didn’t touch the judges. They didn’t touch the sheriff. They didn’t touch district attorneys, and many of those, many of those positions are filled across the state by Democratic Party members. So all of us have to run again.
“We’ve brought in over $50 million in grants during my tenure. We’ve rebuilt downtown West Nyack. We’ve done dozens of flooding and remediation projects, rehabbed every one of our 4 community centers and all 3 of our, all three of our pools, and we’ve got more that we’re looking to do. We are doing a number of things with downtown revitalization in Nanuet, and we have a whole host of things with code enforcement initiatives. When I took over as supervisor, we had 1 part-time code enforcement officer. This year we’re going to have 7 and we’re adding 2 more. We had a record number of fines that we collected, and people will tell you what happens in other towns doesn’t happen in Clarkstown. ” Hoehmann explained.
“Then more importantly, I’ll just finish with this. I’m so delighted that we’ve done so well with the programs that we’re offering. Despite the fact that we’ve really tried to consolidate some departments, we’ve actually expanded services, and I could go through the list, but just take a look at the additional programs we’re offering in our parks and recreation department. Take a look at everything from the food recycling program, food waste recycling program that we’re able to get started, the additional services that we’re offering across all of our departments. When people ask for things in Clarkstown, we respond, we hear them, and the staff does their very best to really address people’s needs. Staff can repeatedly, department by department, go above and beyond and it makes Clarkstown a special place. It makes Clarkstown really unique in terms of the services that we’re offering. So, I’m grateful to all the staff, to all the people here tonight, but more importantly, I’m grateful to the people of the town of Clarkstown that showed their confidence in re-electing me last November again to my 6th term. I promise that I will do my level best to continue to represent everybody within the town of Clarkstown to the best of my ability, and I look forward to a spirited campaign. I’m not sure who our opponent is going to be at this point. ”
“I’ve never not had an opponent, you know, most supervisors, in fact, last year I was the only supervisor, you know, who didn’t, you know, who had, you know, who had an opponent. The other 4 didn’t. I know every year I end up with a, with an opponent, not sure who it’s going to be, but I’m proud to run on my record, and I’m proud to run with Councilman Axelrod, Councilman Valentino, Councilman Graziano, Councilman Franchino, and with Laura Marie Wohl on this ticket, and I want to thank, everybody for coming out and I’ll just finish with this. I am looking forward to running for reelection again. Thank you all. ” He concluded.