Hudson Valley Guide to the Primaries: Here Are Your State Senate and Assembly Candidates

Even though Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are at the center of our political universe, there's another election on Sept. 13, one directly relevant to the lives of New Yorkers.

This Tuesday is primary day for your State Assembly and State Senate representatives. The winner of each primary race will be on the ballot on Nov. 8 (along with Clinton and Trump and anyone who wasn't opposed on a particular party line).

Polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. in Orange, Putnam, Rockland and Westchester counties at your usual polling place. Dutchess County polls are open from noon to 9 p.m.

What's my district? — If you need to figure out which district you live in and who your current Assembly and Senate representatives are, you can plug your address into this helpful online tool put together by the Board of Elections. And if you need to find out where you go to vote, you can input your address online here.

Who's running? — Senate and Assembly districts in the Hudson Valley cover multiple communities, and sometimes more than one county. Plus, a single community is often represented by more than one senator or Assembly member. Scroll down for a list of candidates broken down by district number and by (approximate) community.

As you can see on our list, communities show up twice when they have multiple representatives. To be sure of who your candidates are, use this online tool to confirm which district you live in.

The list of candidates below was taken from Ballotpedia, which has compiled the candidates running in New York's State Assembly races and in its State Senate races.

Why are some of these candidates members of third parties? —Some candidates running in their district's Democratic or Republican primary are members of another party. For example, multiple Democratic primary candidates are members of the Working Families party. However, these candidates have still chosen to run in the Democratic or Republican primary for their district.

New York has a closed primary system. This means that when voters go to the polls, they'll ask for either a Republican, Democratic or Conservative Party list of candidates — depending on which party they're registered with. Then they'll choose from among the candidates running in that party's primary.

State Assembly candidates

NY Assembly District 94

District includes part of northern Westchester, including Yorktown Heights, and part of Putnam, including Mahopac, Brewster and Patterson.

Republican primary

• Kevin Byrne
• Suzanne F. McDonough

NY Assembly District 97

District in Rockland County covers the towns of Clarkstown and Orangetown and the southern part of Ramapo, including the villages of Nyack, Piermont, South Nyack, Spring Valley, Suffern and the unincorporated communities of Blauvelt, Hillcrest, Monsey, Nanuet, Orangeburg, Pearl River, Sparkill, Tappan and Viola.

Democratic primary:

• Thomas Gulla (Dem)
• Ellen Jaffee (Dem, WF)

NY Assembly District 98

District includes Orange and Rockland counties. In Orange: Towns of Greenville, Minisink, Warwick, Deerpark, including Port Jervis, Monroe and Tuxedo. In Rockland: Northwestern part of the Town of Ramapo.

Democratic primary:

• Krystal Serrano (Dem, WE)
• Aron Wieder (Dem, I, WF)

Republican primary:

• John Allegro (Rep)
• Karl Brabenec (Rep, C, Rfm, I)

Independence Party:

• Karl Brabenec (Rep, C, Rfm, I)
• Aron Wieder (Dem, I, WF)

State Senate candidates

State Senate District 36

District includes Mount Vernon and part of The Bronx.

Democratic primary

• Jamaal T. Bailey (Dem)
• Que English (Dem)
• Pamela A. Hamilton-Johnson(Dem)
• Edward A. Mulraine (Dem)
• Alvin Ponder (Dem)

State Senate District 40

District includes parts of Dutchess, Putnam and Westchester counties, including the towns of Beekman, Carmel, Cortlandt, Lewisboro, Mount Kisco, Mount Pleasant, New Castle, North Salem, Patterson, Pawling, Pound Ridge, Somers, Southeast, Yorktown; the city of Peekskill; the villages of Brewster, Briarcliff Manor, Buchanan, Croton-on-Hudson, Mount Kisco, Pawling, Pleasantville, Sleepy Hollow and the unincorporated communities of Brewster Hill, Carmel Hamlet, Chappaqua, Crompond, Crugers, Golden's Bridge, Hawthorne, Heritage Hills, Jefferson Valley-Yorktown, Lake Mohegan, Lincolndale, Mahopac, Montrose, Peach Lake, Putnam Lake, Scotts Corners, Shenorock, Shrub Oak, Thornwood, Valhalla, Verplanck and Yorktown Heights

Democratic primary

• Alison Boak
• Andrew Falk

Worth noting:

Assembly: In District 94, the winner will face Democrat Brian M. Higbie in the general election. In District 97, the winner will face Jaffee (on the Working Families line) and Joseph S. Chabot on the Republican, Conservative, Independence and Reform party lines. In District 98, everyone but Allegro will have a line on the ballot in November.

Senate: District 38 was held for a long time by a Westchester resident, Ruth Hassell-Thompson, who has retired. None of the candidates in the primary are from Westchester. In November, the winner of the Democratic primary will face Robert Diamond, who is unopposed in the New York State Senate District 36 Conservative primary, and Bailey, who is also running on the Working Families Party ticket. The winner of the District 40 Democratic primary will face incumbent Terrence Murphy in the general.

CORRECTION: This article was modified from its original version to add that Dutchess County polls are open on Tuesday, September 13 from noon to 9 p.m. Patch regrets the error.

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