ALBANY—The first of what was predicted as “challenges” after the Democratic Congressional victory in the North Country has materialized: a former Republican official announced he will run in a primary against Assemblywoman Janet Duprey.
Dave Kimmel, who was the party chair in the Town of Plattsburgh, will publicly announce his bid against Duprey tonight. His stated reason is to make Albany accountable to the people and “fight and give businesses what they need to be successful.”
But the payback element looms. Duprey backed Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, a moderate Republican who was attacked and eventually nudged out by more conservative elements of the party that rallied around Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party’s nominee. I first met Kimmel on Election Day, where he was making phone calls and coordinating volunteers in Hoffman’s Plattsburgh field office.
“It’s a small part of it, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a part of it,” Kimmel told me by phone this weekend when I asked how much of his run was motivated by Duprey’s support of Scozzafava. “We shouldn’t need to baby sit our elected officials.”
“She said she would represent Republican values, but when she went and backed Dede Scozzafava it means you have to second-guess a lot of the things she was doing,” Kimmel said. He also is opposed to same-sex marriage, which both Scozzafava and Duprey support.
Kimmel told me he will seek the Republican and Conservative Party nominations; if he loses the Republican line, he will push on with just the Conservative backing (should he secure it.)
“I’m in this to win, and I have to be on the ballot to do that,” Kimmel said.