Orangetown Democrats

05/30/2026

The importance of the midterm elections, particular in NY-17, can't be stressed enough. The recent appearance by President Trump at RCC to support incumbent Mike Lawler is evidence of that.

Frank LoBuono of Hudson River Radio invited a panel of distinguished Democratic Committee Leaders including ODC's own Gina Ironside to discuss the issues surrounding the upcoming elections.

Use the link below to listen to a podcast of the discussion.

https://hudsonriverradio.com/being-frank.html

05/30/2026

Link to WNYC Brian Lehrer Show Democratic Primary Forum: Four Candidates in NY-17

Rockland County legislator Beth Davidson, Tarrytown Village trustee Effie Phillips-Staley, lawyer, former television reporter and democracy advocate Mike Sacks and Cait Conley, army veteran, former director for counterterrorism on the National Security Council and senior executive at cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency, discuss key issues as they campaign in the June primary election to be the Democratic nominee for Congress for New York's 17th congressional district.

Cait Conley
Beth Davidson for Congress
Mike Sacks for Congress
Effie Phillips Staley for Congress NY17

https://wnyc.org/browse/shows/episode/simplecast/ed8ea26e-2838-4e0a-b7f6-b9089844b105

05/26/2026

Honored those who gave everything - thank you to Robert Dell, longtime Orangetown Democratic Committee member, for his moving remarks at yesterday’s Memorial Day ceremony in Tappan NY.

05/21/2026

Mike Lawler Is Bringing Trump to Ramapo. Every Voter in NY-17 Should Know Why.

ORANGETOWN, N.Y. – On Friday, May 22, President Trump is scheduled to deliver remarks at Rockland Community College in the Town of Ramapo. Liza Barrie, Chair of the Orangetown Democratic Committee, issued the following statement:

“NY-17 is one of the most contested congressional races in the country, and Mike Lawler is bringing Trump here to help hold it.

Lawler has built his margins on Ramapo’s bloc voting. Trump’s visit is part of protecting that. Lawler needs these voters to win in November.

In 2024, Lawler carried Rockland County with 58.3% of the vote. Mondaire Jones got 40.1%. Trump carried Rockland County too. That gap did not come from Republicans turning out in unusual numbers. It came, in significant part, from registered Democrats in the Town of Ramapo voting Republican.

Ramapo is the largest of Rockland’s five towns. In the 2024 general election, 24,120 registered Democrats cast ballots there.

In 32 Ramapo election districts, 7,139 Democrats voted in the congressional race. But the Democrat Mondaire Jones got just 176 of their votes—a 2.5% support rate. Nearly 7,000 registered Democrats did not vote for the Democratic candidate.

In some of those predominantly Democratic registered election districts, Trump pulled hundreds of votes; Harris got zero.

This pattern of tightly managed voting, known as bloc voting, works because community leaders direct it, and their followers vote. In 2024, the leaders delivered for Trump and Lawler.

These voters are registered Democrats. In Rockland, they are known as DINOs, Democrats In Name Only. They helped re-elect Mike Lawler.

The bloc turns out in Democratic primaries. Here is the crux: Even if the DINOs’ preferred Democrat is nominated in the primary next month, it is reasonable to expect they will be dumped by the bloc in November. Come fall, these DINOs will vote for Republican Lawler, just like they voted for Trump and Lawler last time.

The Democratic nominee running against Lawler needs a plan for Rockland. Counting on bloc voters in November is not a plan.”

05/19/2026

TRUMP IS COMING TO ROCKLAND COUNTY — FOR MIKE LAWLER.
President Trump will be in Rockland County this Friday for an official White House event with Rep. Mike Lawler.
This is a campaign rally for a congressman who spent two years telling voters he's "independent."
When the President flies in to stand next to Mike Lawler, that's an endorsement. A reminder of who Lawler works for.
To attend, register at this link:

Sign up for a ticket TODAY!

05/14/2026

This Sunday is ODC’s annual clean-up!

Palisades Parkway Exit 6 cleanup with Keep Rockland Beautiful

9:30am to 12pm this Sunday May 17

Check-in Location: Orangetown Town Hall, 26 Orangeburg Road, Orangeburg, NY 10962

For More Info:
Daniel Johnson
(516) 672-3819

05/12/2026

New York Times, today: Rep. Lawler’s consulting firm was paid more than $720,000 by entities connected to him — including right here in Orangetown.
“When donors make contributions, the expectation is that it goes to run an effective campaign — not to line the pockets of the candidate.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/11/nyregion/mike-lawler-money-campaign-finance.html?unlocked_article_code=1.hlA.7u5d.yHjmoejyqiWo&smid=nytcore-ios-share

04/29/2026

ODC Executive Committee: Lawler’s Bid to Disenfranchise Democratic Voters Fails in Court

Press Statement - For Immediate Release: April 29, 2026

Orangetown, NY — The Executive Committee of the Orangetown Democratic Committee welcomes Wednesday’s ruling by Acting Supreme Court Justice David Fried upholding Effie Phillips-Staley’s place on the Democratic primary ballot in New York’s 17th Congressional District.

Mike Lawler tried to remove a duly qualified candidate from the ballot. He failed. The court found — clearly — that his legal team produced no evidence that her petition was “permeated with fraud,” the standard that exists precisely to prevent well-funded incumbents from weaponizing the courts to eliminate their challengers.

This wasn’t a close call. Phillips-Staley submitted more than 2,000 valid petition signatures. Over 100 volunteers collected signatures for her. Lawler’s team couldn’t prove she or her campaign did anything wrong, because they didn’t. What they could do, and did, was force the Phillips-Staley campaign to expend valuable time and small-donor money while Lawler dragged it out into a three-day court hearing. Lawler also filed suit on Phillips-Staley’s Working Families Party petitions, but dropped that challenge. The WFP line will go to whomever wins the Democratic primary. These are just two examples of how Lawler uses big money to try to squash fair elections.

This pattern should be familiar to anyone paying attention. Donald Trump has spent years testing how far you can get by crying fraud when the votes don’t go your way. Lawler is running the same play at the congressional level, invoking the language of election integrity while working to narrow the field before a single primary vote is cast. The judge saw through it.

Voters in NY-17 now get to make their own choice. That’s how it’s supposed to work. Lawler should concentrate on serving the public, instead of throwing around his dark special-interest money to thwart our democratic process.

Liza Barrie
Orangetown Democratic Committee Chair
(845) 664-8333

04/29/2026

***** ODC PRESS RELEASE *****

ODC Executive Committee Condemns the Armed Attack at White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Calls for Calm and an End to Political Violence

Orangetown, NY — The Executive Committee of the Orangetown Democratic Committee condemns in the strongest terms the armed attack on Saturday night at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in Washington, D.C. We are grateful that the President, the First Lady, the Vice President, and all those at the event are safe, and we wish a full recovery to the law enforcement officer who was struck while protecting them.

Political violence is an attack on democracy itself. It intimidates, silences, and divides. We cannot and will not allow that to happen, no matter who is targeted, and no matter their politics.

Last September, our committee condemned the killing of Charlie Kirk. We speak today with that same clarity. There is no excuse for violence in politics, ever. Leaders in every party, at every level, have a responsibility to reject the rhetoric of hate, lower the temperature, and ensure that our disagreements are resolved through democratic debate, not bullets.

This weekend, Bruce Springsteen — a longtime critic of the President — opened his concert in Austin with a prayer of thanks that no one had been injured, and told his audience that while “we can disagree” and “be critical of those in power,” there is “no place in any way, shape, or form for political violence of any kind in our beloved United States.” Disagreement is the lifeblood of a free country. Violence is its poison.

The path forward is not complicated. Either we allow political violence to take root in America, or we recommit, together, to a democracy where differences are settled with ballots, not bullets.

We must act now — to reject hatred, to defend democracy, and to make clear that violence has no place in Orangetown, in Rockland County, or anywhere in the United States.

Liza Barrie
Orangetown Democratic Committee Chair
(845) 664-8333

04/13/2026

Spring Petitioning Counts

Orangetown Dems had a very successful petitioning effort this year!

Petitions were filed for all 195 seats in Orangetown. Our thanks go out to the 102 ODC members & members-elect who did the important work of talking to neighbors and collecting signatures.

Our term will begin in September 2026 and run for 2 years.

Below are the signature counts collected by ODC that we know of (some were given directly to candidates and thus are not reported here):

Petitions for Committee: 1257
Joe Rand (State Senate) - 864
Pat Carroll (State Assembly District 96) - 275
Ivonne Santos (County Judge) - 643
Beth Davidson (US Congress) - 512
Cait Conley (US Congress) - 438
Effie Phillips Staley (US Congress) - 96
Peter Chatzky (US Congress) - 20
Mike Sacks (US Congress) - 7