November 2025 | October 2025 | September 2025 | July-August 2025 |
President's Letter - November 2025
We had a very busy September and October with candidate forums in Rotterdam, Glenville, Schenectady and Niskayuna. All in all, I’d say they were very successful. Sandra McGarraugh had suggested soliciting questions from voters by email at least two years ago and she was right! We received quite a few questions. Audience attendance at the forums ranged from 25 to 100 people.
We also had a more effective use of social media this year. Anita Sanchez promoted the forums on Facebook and Cindy Engel publicized the forums in the bulletin which is now distributed through MailChimp. We posted links to the videotaped forums on Facebook and on our website. We have asked that the videotapes be shown on public access TV. We had some difficulty in communicating with candidates and managed to reach some of them through their Facebook pages.
A big thank you to the coordinators, Ellen Daviero, Julia Holcomb, Elaine Troy, Heide Westergard, Liz Yanoff and Connie Young, who did the heavy lifting of organizing the many details involved in running candidate forums. Joan Fucillo and Judy Rightmyer had their trial by fire as first-time moderators! And a big thank you to the many volunteers who helped, many of them helping with more than one forum: Ayesha Afghan, Ruth Bonn, Maxine Brisport, Carol Furman, Crystal Hamelink, Janet Hollocher, Vicki Hoshko, Janet Hutchison, Monica Mackey, Chuck Pangburn, Inge-Lise Pangburn, Bill Nechamen, Nancy Tudor, Margaret Verhayden, Dick Westergard and Margaret Wexler! I filled in as needed. I hope I didn’t forget anyone!
And a shout-out to Joan Fucillo and Ellen Daviero for doing a phenomenal job of voter registration this year! See Joan’s VS report for all the details. Cheryl Nechamen, President
President's Letter - October 2025
While presidential elections get all the attention, local elections make a bigger difference in your daily life. Think of all the services you rely on in your town or city- police, fire, water, sewer, not to mention pothole-free roads! Towns/cities make the rules regarding zoning and development. This is where your tax dollars are spent and elected officials make those decisions.
At the county level, the legislature oversees everything from public health to children and family services to the county jail to veterans’ services.
Local and county elected officials are the future state and federal elected officials. They’re the pipeline for our country’s future. It’s worth your time and attention.
Candidate Forums:
Schenectady: October 9th, 6-7:45 PM, McChesney Room, Karen Johnson Library, Schenectady
Niskayuna: October 16th, 7-9 PM, Niskayuna Town Hall, 1 Niskayuna Circle, Niskayuna
Each of the candidate forums will be recorded and available on YouTube. The link will be on our Facebook page (League of Women Voters- Schenectady County) and on our website https://my.lwv.org/new-york/schenectady-county.
Cheryl Nechamen, President
President's Letter - September 2025
It’s the year for local elections- a busy time for our League! We’ll be running candidate forums in Glenville, Niskayuna, Rotterdam and Schenectady to allow voters a chance to ask questions of candidates running for office.
Candidate Forums:
- Rotterdam: September 25th, 6-8:30 pm, Rotterdam Town Hall, 1100 Sunrise Blvd., Rotterdam
- Glenville: September 29th, 7-9 pm, Glenville Municipal Center, 18 Glenridge Rd., Glenville
- Schenectady: October 9th, 6-7:45 pm, McChesney Room, Karen Johnson Library, Schenectady
- Niskayuna: October 16th, 7-9 pm, Niskayuna Town Hall, 1 Niskayuna Circle, Niskayuna
Rotterdam has 19 candidates running for Town Supervisor, Town Council, County Legislature District 4, Town Justice, Town Clerk, Receiver of Taxes and Highway Superintendent. All but the Highway Superintendent race has multiple candidates, which we are thrilled to see. A bedrock position of the League is that voters should have a choice of candidates when they vote.
Glenville has 9 candidates running for Town Supervisor, Town Council, County Legislature District 3 and Highway Superintendent. The Town Council and County Legislature races have multiple candidates.
In Schenectady, 11 candidates will be invited to the candidate forum. Two of those races are county-wide: Sheriff and District Attorney. In addition, there are candidates for City Council, City Court Judge and County Legislature Districts 1 and 2. Sadly, only 2 of those races have multiple candidates- City Council and County Legislature District 2.
Last but not least, Niskayuna has 12 candidates running for Town Supervisor, Town Council, County Legislature District 3, Town Justice and Tax Receiver. All but the race for Tax Receiver has multiple candidates.
Everyone is invited to the candidate forums, although League members will probably be most interested in candidates running in their town. We can always use more volunteers to help run the forums- a good way to see your League in action. Contact me at LWVSchenectady [at] gmail.com if you’d like to help.
We will also be collecting questions by email if you can’t attend a forum. Send emails with questions to LWVSchenectady [at] gmail.com . Please indicate which forum and which race your question pertains to.
Cheryl Nechamen
President
President's Letter - July-August 2025
One of the key features of an authoritarian government is the suppression of dissent. Initially, the Trump administration focused on using financial threats to suppress free speech.
The new approach is to threaten to revoke the citizenship of naturalized citizens, people who had immigrated to the U.S. and successfully earned U.S. citizenship. Normally, denaturalization is reserved for people that have committed serious crimes, but technically, anyone that made a “material misrepresentation” during their citizenship application can have their citizenship revoked. When the government that is trying to deport a person also defines what is a “material misrepresentation”, the possibilities for abuse are endless.
While it is difficult and time-consuming to denaturalize someone, the goal is not to strip a person’s citizenship. The goal is to chill free speech. Why protest against illegal or unethical policies and put a target on your back? It’s safer to stay quiet.
Which is why our League will continue to lead protests. We need to defend the people who cannot afford to protest and protect the rights of us all.
Cheryl Nechamen
President
