A small Hudson Valley town by the name of Wappingers Falls is located roughly 70 miles north of New York City. Most people expect New York City to be a major player in politics while most people have never even heard of Wappingers Falls, New York. What is even more surprising is this little town consistently has highly contested political races. While many people focused in on an unprecendented supervisor race during the 2015 election season. A novice to politics, Janelle Mendez ran for the Ward 2 Council Seat. During her first run, she was barely a concern for the Republican Party. As a new name in the game, she managed to finish the race with 273 votes to Republican William Ciccarelli’s 434. Despite her loss, it seems as if the then 25 year old spent the last two years involved in the community and working on her political career.
Her website showcases her core values, her positions and her involvement on her condo board as well as on the Wappinger Democratic Committee. Seeing her evolve has been nothing short of exciting. She is the most dynamic candidate in the local political arena. Janelle Mendez has a background in both finance and in the military, her unique experience and life story make watching her feel like a movie is unfolding before your eyes. You just can't get enough. Her 2017 race for town council has not only gained enormous amounts of attention but the up and coming 27 year old has demonstrated ethical leadership under pressure. That pressure, surprisingly came from the Democratic Committee.
The Wappinger Democratic Committee during a June 2017 meeting voted to run Republican Richard Thurston as a Democrat. Janelle Mendez was 1 of 3 people who abstained from voting. Janelle has publicly stated on her political Facebook page Janelle Marina Mendez that she believed this was deceiving democratic voters but did not want to disrespect the party leadership. She went to carry on her race separately from the Democratic Committee and Republican supervisor candidate Richard Thurston. While on her campaign trail she faced intense heat and pressure from both sides. While she lost support on the Democratic side she also faced a tough primary against Republican Angela Bettina who effectively hijacked the Democratic Nomination forcing Janelle Mendez to run on Working Families Party line. Now Janelle Mendez is in a 3 way race against William Ciccarelli and Angela Bettina. With the elections a little over a week away, it seemed as if the dust around this Ward 2 race had began to settle.
That was until yesterday Janelle received a shocking email from the Wappinger Town Chair asking her to resign for disloyalty to the party. Janelle Mendez went on to publicly respond to the email. It was clear she was surprised and offended. She eloquently responded against the accusations and even went as far as proving her loyalty to democratic voters through a series of posts to her Facebook page. The leaked emails show a series of collusion with Republicans Vinny and Angela Bettina, Democrat Joe Ruggiero and Republican & Democratic Nominee Richard Thurston. Which makes the corruption in both the sides hard to ignore.
It takes a lot of courage to run for elected office. It takes bravery to stand alone against the establishment politics that often forgets about the constituents. I am interested to watch Janelle Mendez accelerate in the political arena. We are already seeing great things from her this early on in her career and she hasn't even been elected. A woman of consciousness and integrity. A woman of bravery. She is truly a pioneer in Hudson Valley politics. Janelle is definitely underrated and under spoken about. Her race is the definition of a political revolution. One where people are represented over the party. One where integrity and politics meet.
Janelle Marina Mendez has my unwavering support in the Nov. 7th election. If you don’t know her yet, you should. I think she will become a key player in New York State politics very soon.