A wonderful ceremony at Red Hook Town Hall with the swearing in of Kristofer Munn, Christine Kane, Bill O’Neill and Sue McCann. Thanks to Jodi Jacobs for taking photos, Robert McKeon for MC’ing the event, Jeffrey Martin for administering the oaths and the VFW Color Guard for their service.

For more photos, click here.

During the December 18 organizational meeting of the Dutchess County Legislature, the 11-member Democratic Caucus selected Hyde Park legislator Hannah Black to serve as minority leader and Kristofer Munn, who represents Red Hook and Tivoli, to serve as assistant minority leader for the 2018-2019 legislative session.

“I am proud to work with this talented group of new and more seasoned Democratic legislators. Their enthusiasm and dedication to bettering the lives of their constituents, and desire to provide a more transparent government is apparent. It is an honor to be chosen to serve. I look forward to the 2018-2019 Democratic Caucus having an effective voice and pertinent role in our local government,” said Black.

“I am looking forward to working with my fellow legislators to bring forward new ideas to improve our county government and help the people of Dutchess County,” said Munn.

Democrats expanded their caucus from seven members to 11 in the recent election and have six first-time legislators. There are 25 county legislators overall.

Black, 34, has served in the legislature since 2016. She served on the Hyde Park Town Board from 2008 to 2009.

Munn, 46, will be starting his first term in the legislature. He served five years on the Red Hook Planning Board and 3 years on the Red Hook Zoning Board.

The results have finally been certified by the Dutchess County Board of Elections and show a 428 vote win (just over 12%) for Kristofer Munn in his race for County Legislature. That is a 33 vote increase after winning the absentee ballot count.

I’m happy to report that all the Democratic candidates won yesterday in a clean sweep of the Red Hook and Tivoli ballots.

Despite the dark money paying for big signs and online videos for our opponents, our people-powered campaign of door knockers and small donors won the day.

Winners include Christi Acker for State Supreme Court Judge who is the first Democrat ever to win this seat in an odd numbered year.

Also winning is Robin Lois who is ahead by 400 votes going into absentee ballots. Barring an extremely unlikely series of events, that margin will probably increase and give her a victory after much legal wrangling.

For town board, Bill O’Neill and Christine Kane were victorious winning by nearly 800 and 600 votes respectively and will take their spots on the town board alongside Sarah Imboden, Harry Colgan and Supervisor Robert McKeon.

And finally, I won the race for county legislature by nearly 400 votes before the absentee ballots are counted.

Thank you to our opponents for a clean, hard-fought race.

Thank you to everybody who contributed time, money and energy during the campaign. It was a fantastic experience for me and I’m a better person for having gone through it. I look forward to seeing you all around town as usual and continuing to work hard for the people of Red Hook and Tivoli in the coming years.

Joel Griffith, the Mayor of Tivoli, has endorsed Kris Munn for Dutchess County Legislature.

I am endorsing Kris Munn’s candidacy for the Dutchess County Legislature because he has shown a tremendous commitment to representing the Village of Tivoli. Kris has listened to Tivoli’s representatives and residents to learn our community’s concerns. He has done his homework and understands the issues we face in the Village and throughout Dutchess County. I have no doubt Kris will prove a fully engaged and hard-working legislator. He has my support and I encourage Tivoli voters to chose Kris Munn on November 7th. – Tivoli Mayor Joel Griffith

Griffith has served as Mayor of Tivoli since 2015 and is not registered in any political party.

On Tuesday, September 12, independent voters across Red Hook and Tivoli came out to write-in Dutchess County Legislature candidate Kristofer Munn. Election night returns suggested victory and when the votes were finally tallied on September 20, Munn defeated his opponent, 53-33.

September’s Independence OTB (Opportunity-to-Ballot) primary was created when petitions were filed with signatures of independent voters who wanted the opportunity to select their own candidate to represent them instead of having the county politicos pick one for them.

“I’m honored and grateful to have been chosen by the independent voters of Red Hook and Tivoli to represent them on the ballot in November,” said Munn. “I’m proud to be their pick and look forward to becoming county legislator and continuing to serve my community.”

Kristofer Munn is a longtime community volunteer who has advocated for saving local farms, open space preservation and tax reform, served on the Red Hook town planning and zoning boards and published the Red Hook Observer, the free community newspaper.

Munn also clinched the Green Party line via write-in. He will appear on the Independence, Democratic, Working Families, Green and Women’s Equality Party lines on November 7, 2017.

Trailblazers PAC, the non-partisan pro-transparency organization founded by former State Senate candidate Leslie Danks Burke, today announced its endorsement of five candidates seeking local office across New York State including Kristofer Munn for Dutchess County District 20 (Red Hook) Legislator.

Trailblazers PAC considers candidates running at the county level or below in New York or Pennsylvania who stand for honest government by fully disclosing all their campaign finances (far beyond the state regulations), and who make themselves accountable to their own voters by raising a portion of campaign funds from at least 1% of the voting households within their own districts. The Trailblazers PAC endorsement recognizes exceptional candidates who demonstrably commit to continued transparency once in office.

In addition to direct contributions to endorsed candidates, Trailblazers PAC provides candidate and supporter training programs that have had over 500 attendees at a dozen workshops across New York and Pennsylvania in the past eight months.

“I’m honored to receive the Trailblazers PAC endorsement. My work as our community newspaper before my candidacy has proven invaluable in teaching me about our community and proving my desire for honest, open and transparent government at all levels,” said Munn.

More than a dozen volunteers helped Kristofer Munn acquire the hundreds of signatures necessary to secure ballot lines in November’s election.

“Many hands make light work so I’m thankful to have the support of so many volunteers in Red Hook and Tivoli who were willing to knock on doors for me,” said Kristofer Munn who is running for Dutchess County Legislator.

Munn has received the endorsement of the NY Working Families and Women’s Equality parties and secured signatures to clinch those lines along with the Democratic line.

The upcoming election for county legislator will be held on November 7, 2017.