Race for NY-18 heating up; claims of carpetbagging and hacking swirl

Reported by MidHudson News ©

HUDSON VALLEY – The race between Rep. Pat Ryan (NY-18), a Democrat, and his Republican challenger, Alison Esposito, is heating up as each attempts to attract the voters of the Hudson Valley Congressional District ahead of the November election.

On Monday, the Ryan campaign released an ad claiming Esposito, a retired New York City cop, has lived in an Upper East Side neighborhood in New York City for the last two decades and has no ties to the community she claims as her hometown and where she lives.  Esposito was the lieutenant governor candidate alongside Lee Zeldin, who unsuccessfully sought to unseat Governor Kathy Hochul.

Ryan points out that Esposito resides in Goshen and her campaign is based there but she was unable to give the name of Goshen’s mayor following an April event.  Molly O’Donnell is the mayor and is the daughter of well-known Orange County Legislator Jimmy O’Donnell.

“Considering Alison lived on the Upper East Side for the last 20 years and only registered to vote in the Hudson Valley a week before launching her Congressional campaign, this shouldn’t be much of a surprise,” said Sam Silverman, a spokesman for Congressman Ryan. “Of course, Alison is illegally paying for a parking spot in NYC while not paying her staff, so where she actually lives now is anyone’s guess.”

Esposito listed a Manhattan address when she registered to vote in 2000 and has voted in her New York City polling place in every election since registering there.  It was not until October 2023 that Esposito registered to vote using a Goshen address.  The residence at the listed location has been owned by Esposito since 2005.  Property records indicate the Goshen residence was owned by Esposito and rented to tenants.

On Sunday, an X post (formerly Twitter) appearing to be from the Esposito campaign was laced with poor grammar and described as “bizarre” by Politico reporter Jeff Coltin was quickly deleted, but not before news agencies, including Mid Hudson News, received several screenshots of the post. An Esposito campaign spokesperson told Coltin they didn’t know where the post came from and the campaign denied publishing it.  A screenshot of the now-deleted post is below.