Jefferson County will see plenty of local primaries in June

WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) - Primary Day should be busy in Jefferson County even though this is an off-year election, meaning no federal or state races. They’re all local.

“This is where we’re going to vote on our town supervisors, our village mayors, our board of trustees, highway superintendents. A lot of these races, especially on the Republican side, are competitive primaries,” said Republican Board of Elections Commissioner Jude Seymour.

The deadline to file petitions was Monday.

One race that’ll be decided on Primary Day on June 27 is for Jefferson County District 10 legislator. For the first time since taking office in 2013, Jeremiah Maxon has competition from fellow Republican Christopher Boulio.

“This is a chance for the people of District 10 to say, “Hey, we like him let’s keep him, or hey, we want a new face in there,” said Seymour.

There’s also a lot of ballot buzz in the town of Henderson.

“Henderson town council is pretty heated right now. We’re getting a lot of chatter from there,” said Democratic Board of Elections Commissioner Michelle LaFave.

The chatter is over the planned expansion of Hovey’s Island, near Association Island. The project looks to be moving forward after a February vote by the current town board to lift a moratorium on town development. The list of candidates includes names of people opposed to the project.

In Clayton, the village mayor, Norma Zimmer, is on the ballot for a different seat. She’s running for Clayton’s town council.

“We had to call and make sure there wasn’t a typo because everyone expected her to run for mayor,” said LaFave.

The board of elections says Deputy Mayor Nancy Hyde will run for mayor of Clayton.

There’s also a crowded field in the city of Watertown. Twelve candidates have submitted petitions for the two city council seats up for grabs.

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