At its July meeting, the Hudson City Democratic Committee (HCDC) officially endorsed Peter Donahoe for Columbia County Clerk and Roberta Davis, R.N., for County Coroner.
Mr. Donahoe is an Information Technology specialist and photographer. Roberta Davis is a Registered Nurse and the wife of the late Dr. Baruch Davis, a former Coroner's Physician in Columbia County.
Committee members agreed that Mr. Donahoe, with his background in information technology is perfectly suited to bring the County Clerk's office into the 21st Century. Ms. Davis, who is a registered nurse, went on every call with her husband in his role as the Coroner's Physician under Coroner Angelo Nero. Her experience in the field, writing reports and assisting in the investigation of deaths, makes her an ideal candidate for County Coroner.
"The County Clerk's office is in complete disarray," said Victor Mendolia, chair of the HCDC, in further explaining the Donahoe endorsement. "Columbia County ranks at the bottom in the state in online accessibility to records and data. The Clerk's office should be at the forefront of technology, and it simply is not. Holly Tanner is a personable official and a nice person, but one need only look at the Clerk's website to see that she simply has not brought the county into the 21st century. The records of this county are being stored on paper in boxes in very expensive buildings. They are poorly archived, and many have been damaged and lost forever. The costs of storing data in this way are astronomical. This is no way to run a modern government."
"The technological deficiency on the county level is a major detriment to the economic development of Columbia County," Chairman Mendolia continued. "Businesses and investors must be able to access government data in an instant. The fact that the clerk still has virtually no records online severely holds back the economic development of Columbia County."
Regarding Roberta Davis' candidacy for Coroner, Chairman Mendolia said, "We could not ask for a more qualified candidate for Coroner. With her experience as a registered nurse, her years assisting her Coroner's Physician husband, and her years on the bench as Austerlitz Town Justice, Roberta Davis is uniquely qualified to take the newly created, third County Coroner's position."
The Hudson City Democratic Committee enthusiastically endorses these two highly qualified candidates.
