About the race

In 2019, a Democrat was elected Ulster County District Attorney for the first time in more than a century, winning by just 78 votes

This November, Republicans want to take back the DA’s Office, and they’re using the national GOP attack playbook to do it

Republicans and their DA candidate who lost in 2019 are distorting the facts, deceiving voters, and defaming public servants. Money is pouring into the race from a national right-wing group. The people of Ulster County deserve to know the facts.

FACT CHECK

Which campaign for DA is benefitting from outside money from a national PAC?

The national right-wing group Protecting Americans Action Fund has spent $50,000 (so far) on the Ulster County District Attorney’s race, releasing digital attack ads against Manny Nneji. Former Trump-appointed Attorney General Bill Barr, election denier Lee Zeldin, and one-term congressman John Faso are among the group's Advisory Board.

This PAC supports reactionary policies including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis removing a duly elected District Attorney to advance his book-banning and anti-choice agenda, and they work to stop Democratic candidates like Georgia’s Fani Willis who is prosecuting Donald Trump.

Manny's opponent submitted a letter to local media disavowing the PAC, yet his own campaign sent out a flyer with an offensive antisemitic trope, falsely implying that George Soros’ PAC is supporting Manny and that Kavanagh is "the only choice for undoing outside influence on public safety." The ambiguity in the letter could lead some to still believe that Manny is getting outside funding.

Manny’s campaign is run by people power—his team is made up of a diverse group of individuals of all ages and backgrounds who live, work, and study in Ulster County, committed to electing him as our next District Attorney.

"DISCOVERY" — What is it, how has it changed, and why is everyone talking about it?

In court cases, "discovery" is when each side provides opponents with copies of the evidence that they will use in the trial.

  • In 2019, a new law was passed in New York to shorten the time frame for prosecutors to turn over evidence to defendants. The new law also required that all evidence be shared. In some cases this could include thousands, even millions of pages of reports, digital messages, recordings, videos, etc.

  • The Republican DA in 2019, and his Chief Mike Kavanagh, did nothing to train or prepare Assistant DAs to handle the additional work that would be required starting on January 1, 2020 due to the new law.

  • Mistakes were made by some Assistant DA's as the new Democratic DA worked to bring the staff up to speed, all as the COVID pandemic presented additional challenges.

  • The increased workload from the new discovery law caused many Assistant DAs to leave their jobs. This exodus of ADAs has also been a huge problem in NYC and DA’s offices across the state.

  • Manny Nneji, the most experienced prosecutor in the office, took over many of the cases in which discovery mistakes had been made by other Assistant DAs.

How is the current Ulster County DA’s office dealing with discovery?

While the office made some mistakes early on when the new law took effect (like DA's offices across the state), the Ulster County DA's Office is now among the most successful in NY for bringing felony cases to court under the new discovery law.

Ulster County Judge Bryan Rounds dismissed the Snyder murder case after Manny did not appear in court to try the case. Why did Manny choose not to appear and instead file a lawsuit against the judge??

Manny's heroic action in the Raymond Snyder murder trial was necessary to preserve the rights of the victim.

  • In 2022 Judge Rounds made a controversial decision to prohibit essential evidence due to discovery mistakes made before Manny took on the case. The judge had the discretion to delay the trial to give the defendant time to review the evidence, but instead made the astonishing decision to disallow the evidence altogether.

  • Without that evidence, guilt could not be proven and prosecutors are ethically not allowed to try cases if they do not have the evidence to convict.

  • If Manny attempted to try the case, Snyder would be acquitted and go free, and could never be tried again because of "double jeopardy" (constitutional protection against being made to stand trial or face punishment more than once for the same criminal offense).

  • To prevent a miscarriage of justice, Manny did not appear in court to prosecute the case and instead the DA’s office filed a lawsuit against the judge's decision to prohibit the evidence (the case is pending in higher court in Albany).

  • Contrary to Manny's opponent's claims, appealing the judge's ruling was not an option for the DA's office. In accordance with criminal procedure law, the prosecution has a very limited right to appeal. Suppression of evidence due to a violation of constitutional rights may be appealed. A judge exercising discretion to preclude evidence based on the prosecution's technical violations in a case, may not be appealed.

  • Despite the risk of inflammatory and distorted press coverage, Manny made the principled decision to preserve the victim's rights, putting public safety over his own personal reputation.

What is up with the CARES II grant program audit report?

Opponent Mike Kavanagh is all over social media playing politics with a recent audit report of the county’s Cares II Grant program, claiming that Manny and the current DA's office have an obligation to investigate the program’s failures.

THE TRUTH: The Comptroller's audit describes a sloppy process in which errors were made by the grant administrator, who is no longer employed by Ulster County. The report does not suggest what crime might have occurred, and the Comptroller has not referred the matter to law enforcement.

If the Comptroller communicated that she has reason to believe a crime has occurred, the DA's office would investigate.

The job of the DA's office is to investigate and prosecute crimes and deliver justice, not launch investigations in order to grab headlines.

Former Republican DA Holley Carnright wrote an inflammatory letter about Manny and the DA's office under Democratic leadership. Were the falsehoods and misleading statements in the letter refuted?

In June, former Republican DA Holley Carnright released a letter accusing Manny and the DA's Office of incompetence. Carnright was Mike Kavanagh's former boss, and had hand-picked Kavanagh to be his successor in 2019.

  • The DA's office corrected the record. Read the statement issued by the DA's office that directly responds to the misinformation spread by Carnright.

  • Manny spoke on the matter. Watch/listen to Manny's interview on Kingston Community Radio, hosted by Republican Don Williams, former Ulster County Court Judge and District Attorney.

  • The Daily Freeman was called out for its biased coverage. Read the letter chastising the editor for failing to adhere to basic journalistic standards.

Manny is eminently qualified to serve as DA, so Republicans and their candidate have stooped to attacking his personal life.

The latest REPUBLICAN LIE is that Manny is unfit to lead the DA’s office because of a past personal bankruptcy. They even claim he disobeyed court orders during foreclosure proceedings.

THE TRUTH: Personal bankruptcy is just that—personal. Manny’s past financial struggles never affected his work as a prosecutor, and the cause of his home foreclosure was not a failure to follow court orders. He made a decision he believed was best for himself and his family and consented to the foreclosure and filed for bankruptcy. This experience helped Manny understand first-hand the financial struggles that so many Americans endure. Here’s what happened:

  • In the mid-2000’s, Manny had excellent credit. He bought a house and also purchased a new car, which he paid off in two years.

  • In 2008, Manny’s younger brother in Nigeria became ill and went into a coma for six months before passing away. He had no health insurance. As the first son in the family, Manny took on the responsibility of paying for his brother’s medical care and used his entire personal savings to do so.

  • Manny went through a difficult divorce in 2014 that again wiped out his savings. He then took a huge pay cut when he left the State Attorney General's Office and came back to the Ulster County DA's Office. The DA had asked Manny to return because of a dire need for experienced prosecutors. Manny’s salary dropped by 30%.

  • After several years of consistently paying child support for his two sons and working to avoid foreclosure (his mortgage was under water because he bought at the height of the housing bubble), he reluctantly filed for bankruptcy in 2019.

  • Manny notified the court and the mortgage company that he would no longer fight the foreclosure and the summary judgment proceeded. Manny also alerted the court that he was prosecuting a trial that prevented him from attending and offered to appear during a break if necessary.

  • Despite his difficulties, Manny never missed work and tried the most difficult cases such as Gilbert, Stansberry, Gertz, Swartz, etc. (see sampling of cases). Manny also never missed a step on his volunteer work for youth.

  • Manny was granted the fresh start of bankruptcy in 2019 and has returned to a solid financial footing.

Ordinary people, without a powerful and influential family behind them, understand how personal tragedy and struggle can lead to temporary financial difficulty. It is disgraceful to distort the facts to score cheap political points. Ulster County deserves better.

Is Manny's opponent Mike Kavanagh a Republican?

No, but he was a Republican up until he changed his voter registration record in November of 2022.

  • Kavanagh is running on the Republican, Conservative and Libertarian Party lines.

  • The majority of donations to Kavanagh's campaign have come from Republicans and Conservatives.

  • Between 2010 and 2022, Kavanagh made 10 donations to Republican political committees.