NEW SCOTLAND — In the race to keep her town board seat, Laura Ten Eyck defeated Ally Moreau with 61 percent of the vote: 2,798 to 1,777.

Both are involved in their families’ local farms and businesses — Ten Eyck at Indian Ladder Farms and Moreau at Our Family’s Harvest. On Election Night, the two candidates discussed a changing and developing New Scotland, with Ten Eyck speaking of her plans for her next term and Moreau of her future endeavors to an elected office.

“It’s been an interesting election year,” said Ten Eyck. “There’s been a lot of division at the presidential level,” she said, adding that, on the local level, she and Moreau seemed to agree on most of the issues at hand, and Ten Eyck said that she herself found a great deal of bipartisan support.

Speaking about Moreau, Ten Eyck said she was impressed with her opponent’s run for election at such a young age.

“She’s dipped her toe in, that’s the first step,” said Ten Eyck. “When I was 20, I was not even thinking about that kind of thing.”

Ten Eyck said her primary concerns are agriculture in the town and an increase in residential development; she noted that the town plans to implement zoning changes based on the upcoming New Scotland Hamlet Master Plan and is applying for funding to update the town’s comprehensive plan.

In looking at the future of such developments in the town, Ten Eyck said she’d like to keep residential developments in their assigned zoning areas, but also would like to develop areas to vitalize small businesses in the town. Ten Eyck said she believes attractions like the Helderberg-Hudson Rail Trail and John Boyd Thacher State Park will draw visitors and should prove to be an opportunity for businesses.

“I think the town will see an increase in traffic, especially in our New Scotland Hamlet Zone,” said Ten Eyck.

She added that she’d like to bolster non-automobile transportation in such an areas with sidewalks or even bike paths.

This being Ten Eyck’s first time campaigning, as she was initially appointed to her position on the Town Board, she enlisted the help of state Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy and state senate candidate Sara Niccoli. The three Democrats made door-to-door campaigns, mostly to independent voters or lapsed Democrats, said Ten Eyck. (Fahy won re-election in a landslide, and Niccoli lost her first bid for state office.)

“They were people who were...maybe disenfranchised, cynical,” she said of the New Scotland voters the three women visited. “I think it offered them a bit of relief,” of seeing local candidates, she added.

Ten Eyck described the experience of the campaign as “humbling,” and said that she met hardworking families who wanted to see themselves represented.

“They want to know that somebody’s there looking out for their best interests,” she said.

Hopeful future endeavors

“I’m really glad I got involved,” said Moreau, after the final votes came in. “I received a lot of support from many people.”

Moreau noted that she received almost 40 percent of votes cast – a little under two-thousand people.

“Two-thousand people really wanted me to succeed,” she said.

Moreau said that this won’t be her last run for elected office either, and that, while she does not have a clear plan yet, she still hopes to make some change at the local level.

“I still plan to really advocate for the people,” she said.

Moreau says her door-to-door campaigning was one of the most interesting parts of the election season for her; she said she met many people and “did a lot of victory dances down driveways” after meeting supporters. She added that her campaign saw new voters registering and many of her former classmates getting motivated to go out to the polls.

Moreau said campaigning also brought more issues to light for her, such as concerns about increased traffic and how to handle new residents in the town with its current infrastructure.

As a full-time student enrolled in seven classes at Siena College, Moreau says she also learned something else on the campaign trail: time management.

“It’s a ‘busy’ I’ve never experienced before,” she said.

Besides her busy schedule, Moreau says she also saw other odds stacked against her: her age, her being the only Republican who would have been in the town government, and her late start in campaigning.

“I was a little late to the game; I decided to run in August,” she said.

She added that she also isn’t as well-known in the town as Ten Eyck.

“I don’t really have a name in the town,” she said. “It’s not really a strong name in the town — yet, anyways.”

She later added that the odds against her and the final election results did not perturb her.

“I still hope to make a difference in the town,” she said. “I’ll now have to go it a different route.”

About a third of the registered voters in New Scotland are Democrats, about a quarter are Republicans, and slightly more than a quarter are unaffiliated with a party. The rest of the voters are enrolled in smaller parties.

Unofficial results from the Albany County Board of Elections show Ten Eyck got 2,375 votes on the Democratic line and 423 Conservative votes for a total of 2,798 votes or 61.11 percent.

Moreau got 1,709 votes on the Republican line and 68 Reform Party votes for a total of 1,777 votes or 38.81 percent.