GOSHEN – Orange County Legislator Jimmy O’Donnell of Goshen has filed petitions to run for county sheriff on the Conservative line.
He must first face Republican candidate Paul Arteta in a Conservative primary in June. Arteta had earlier received the Conservative nod to run on that line.
O’Donnell, who is a retired member of the State Police, wants to give members of his political party a choice.
“On the Conservative line, certainly I want to give the Conservatives the opportunity to get the best police professional as the next sheriff to continue the excellence that the sheriff has had for the last 20 years,” he told Mid-Hudson News.
O’Donnell has served as a major commanding Troop F of the State Police headquartered in the Town of Wallkill. He was later promoted to assistant deputy superintendent. Following his retirement from the State Police, he went on to become chief of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police Department and served during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Arteta, who was forced to resign from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office over a controversy dealing with the physical abuse of an inmate, will face off in a GOP primary against current Undersheriff Ken Jones. He has the backing of the retiring sheriff, Carl DuBois.
Running on the Democratic Party line will be Bernie Rivers, the retired chief of the state Environmental Conservation Police.
