WESTERLO — Westerlo residents shouldn’t expect a nail-biter Election Night this November — unless they’re highly invested in the town justice race. 

The Westerlo Republican and Democratic committees have each nominated nearly the same slate of candidates for two town board seats and the supervisor position, at odds only over the candidate for town justice.

For justice, the Democrats nominated incumbent Ken Mackey, a Democrat, while the Republicans nominated Stuart Elderd, a Republican.

Both parties nominated Matthew Kryzak for supervisor, and Lorraine Pecylak and Joshua Beers for town board; all are Republicans. 

Kryzak is currently a member of the town board, having been elected in 2019. Named deputy supervisor earlier this year after town board member Joseph Boone, a Democrat, relinquished the title, Kryzak will perform the supervisor’s duties in an interim capacity through the end of the year due to the absence of former Supervisor Bill Bichteman, a Democrat, who resigned earlier this month.

A vacancy will be created when Kryzak is promoted, but for now, the town board seats to be filled belong to Boone and Republican Richard Filkins. Neither is seeking re-election.

“They care about the community,” Democratic Party chairman Ned Stevens told The Enterprise about the nominees. “They’re all willing to work together.”

Enrollment in Westerlo skews Democratic — there are 953 Democrats and 578 Republicans, according to the county’s board of elections. The Westerlo Town Board was controlled by Democrats until 2020, when Kryzak joined two other Republicans on the five-member board. 

In a press release, Westerlo Republican Committee Chairwoman Lisa DeGroff wrote that the 2021 town board campaigns will be run on “fiscal responsibility, transparency and ease of access to town government endeavors, responsible economic growth and ethics in government.”

Kryzak is vice president of his family’s contracting company, and told The Enterprise in 2019 that “running a town isn’t too different from running a business.” 

Beers is a business owner, according to candidate profiles posted on the Westerlo Republican Party Facebook page, and spent 17 years as a corrections officer. Lorraine Pecylak is described as a lifelong resident who “for over 50 years has watched the community grow and prosper while raising her own family.” 

Elderd, like Beers, is a former corrections officer, and formerly a military police officer with the New York State National Guard. Mackey, who’s spent three decades as a welder for Hannay Reels, is wrapping up a third term as town justice, having last been elected in 2017 on the Democratic line.