Urbana Primary upsets incumbents
BY MARY PERHAM THE LEADER

HAMMONDSPORT - There may be a large turnover in power at the Urbana Town Hall in January, and the group of incumbents defeated in Tuesday's primary claim the town Republican Committee is responsible.

Longtime Supervisor Richard Gardiner and councilmen Thomas Chadwick and John Webster all lost reelection bids Tuesday.

Urbana planning board member Gordon Lanphere defeated Gardiner, 221-116, according to unofficial results.

Newcomers Barbara Yahn and Paul Martuscello soundly defeated Chadwick and Webster, for seats on the town council.

The incumbent Republicans claim the town's Republican Committee campaigned solely on the behalf of their challengers.

Gardiner said officials running for re-election were not aware the town Republican committee was campaigning until a few weeks prior to the vote.

"This year we had no input, no contact with any committee member," Gardiner said. Republican committees typically circulate petitions for all party members interested in running for office. Gardiner said in his 14 years in office, the committee has not offered to help him campaign.

Petitions filed in the Steuben County Board of Elections showed Urbana Republican Committee members carried petitions only for candidates opposing the incumbents.

The committee members are its chairman, Scott Sprague, Katherine Meade, Richard Drain Jr., and county Legislator David Stachnik.

Sprague did not return The Leader's calls Wedesday.

But according to Mary Farmer, the unofficial leading candidate for town clerk, the committee has been active.

Lanphere said he won the primary because residents feltthe town was being run "under the radar." He said residents feel the board has lost touch, citing the recent defeats of a water district and a park on Keuka Lake.

"People felt they were not informed about major projects until the deal was done," he said.

The defeated incumbents can remain in the race, either by mounting a writein campaign for the Nov. 6 ballot, or securing the Democratic Party's authorization.