Altamont’s newest justice has always considered herself a public servant

— From Bridget Holohan Scally

Bridget Holohan Scally will be Altamont’s next village justice after receiving 43 write-in votes in the village’s March 21 election.

ALTAMONT — One full week before Election Day, Bridget Holohan Scally didn’t know if she’d he be able to be a candidate for Altamont village justice. 

Rebecca Morse-Hout, who served as village justice for over three decades, declined to seek re-election this year and no candidate filed a petition to replace her on the bench.

Scally said she “learned pretty late in the game” that Hout was retiring, and that no other resident had expressed interest in the position. But by the time she learned of the vacancy, the due date for candidate petitions had passed. 

She also had the added hurdle of having to have her employer sign off on her candidacy. As a state employee, Scally said she had to receive permission from two agencies: the Labor Department, where she works, and the Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government.

As an attorney, Scally said she thought she had “the experience where I could do the job” of village justice. 

On the Wednesday before the March 21 election, she received the all-clear from the ethics commission. 

In just a matter of days, Scally was able to whip up nearly as many votes as those of the two unopposed incumbent trustees up for re-election this year.

“Don’t underestimate the power of Altamont moms just texting and emailing people and asking them to write my name in,” she said. 

Scally received 43 write-in votes on Election Day. While incumbent trustees Nicholas Fahrenkopf and Michelle Ganance received 49 and 47 votes, respectively. 

With such a comparatively high vote-count, Scally was asked if her Election Day was spent outside of Village Hall asking residents for their votes.

“No, it was really emails and texts and former Mayor [James] Gaughan, who sent a lot of emails to a lot of people and asked for their support,” Scally said, along with asking her neighbors to write in her name.

‘“And obviously, I hope my husband voted for me,” she quipped about John Scally, a village trustee since 2017. 

Asked about living and now working in a small village where she likely knows more than a few of its 1,674 other residents, Scally was asked how she planned to navigate her new role. 

Given her truncated campaign schedule, Scally said she hadn’t given much thought to the question. But she noted that Hout did her job for three decades and that, when Scally talked to her before a decision had been made about running, Hout “never really expressed any concern in that area.”

Scally said, “You just have to do what’s fair and equitable and then hope people understand.”

Asked about why she wanted the position, Scally said she’d been practicing law, a job that she loves, for over two decades. She also said that she loves “being an advocate,” loves the community, and thought she “could lend some of my talents to my village.”

At the Labor Department, where she’s worked since 2003, Scally is one of Commissioner Roberta Reardon’s deputy general counsels.

As for why she chose the public sector over private, Scally joked, “Who wants to do billable hours?” But the real reason was that she’s always considered herself a public servant.

A Syracuse native who went to undergraduate school in Buffalo, Scally came to Albany for law school and never left, but it’s not like she was a stranger to the area. Her father grew up in Latham and she still has a lot of family here, she said, “and I always envisioned being involved in state government, so this makes sense, to be here in Albany.”

As for why she and her husband decided on Altamont, where they’ve lived since 2007, Scally said both she and John wanted to live in a Victorian home close to Albany.

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