Commentary: Village elections are not until November, but the smear campaigns have already begun.

A letter writer to The Gazette questions a Voice of Croton candidate's statements about her political affiliations.

Stacey Nachtaler and her husband (right) with Mondaire Jones.

Smear campaigns, unfortunately, are nothing new in Croton. Those who have been here a while will remember attempts to brand the last challengers to the Croton Democrats, the group Croton United, as Republicans and right wingers—even though most of the founders and leaders of that group were registered Democrats.

More recently, the Chronicle reported on a concerted smear campaign against Leslie Pollak and Allison Samuels during their campaign for seats on the Croton-Harmon Board of Education. Some supporters of their opponents, Theo Oshiro and Will Begeny, tried to paint the two women as Trump supporters and right-wingers (we have no evidence that Oshiro and Begeny were directly involved themselves.) Despite the smears, Samuels received far and away the most votes in that election.

Now we are here again. In a letter in the current issue of The Gazette, Ali R. Jaffery of Croton makes some criticisms of Voice of Croton, which is certainly his right. But he goes on to essentially call one of the Voice of Croton candidates, Stacey Nachtaler, a liar when she claims to be a Democrat who has voted for Democrats her whole life.

Nachtaler wrote this in an earlier piece for The Gazette, and also in a Guest Editorial for the Chronicle. In her Chronicle piece she stated that she was “a Democrat who has voted for Democrats my whole life.”

But Jaffery does not believe her, including her claim that she has canvassed for the Democratic ticket. “I checked with people who have been doing that work for years,” Jaffery writes. “Not one could recall seeing this person” at canvassing or fundraising events.

Jaffery also checked the records for Nachtaler with the county Board of Elections, and found that she had registered with the Democratic Party in 2025.

So we asked Nachtaler to comment. Here is what she had to say:

“I’m a Democrat, and I’ve voted Democrat my whole life. I made the official change from Independent to Democrat after the 2024 election. In 2024, I tirelessly registered new Democrats through field team six (in the group led by Mervis Reissig) and canvassed through the miniVan app and have loads of proof of such activity. This activity was all done in earnest before I decided I wanted to challenge the establishment and serve our Croton community.”

In a followup text to us, Nachtaler added that she and her husband—a lifelong registered Democrat pictured with her and Mondaire Jones in the photo above—also canvassed for State Senator Pete Harckham.

There are many here in Croton who are registered as Independents but consistently vote the Democratic Party or Working Families Party tickets. But after the November 2024 election, Nachtaler says she changed her registration to more clearly express her affiliation with the Democrats and her opposition to Donald Trump.

Of course, Republicans and Trump supporters have a perfect right to run for elected office in our community, even though very few have done so in recent years, for reasons we will not get into here.

If Mr. Jaffery had questions about Nachtaler’s political affiliations, he could easily have asked her about them. Voice of Croton’s candidates are very visible in the community, and easily reached via their Web site. Taking to the pages of The Gazette to spread innuendo is dishonorable. But unfortunately it represents the kind of smear tactic we have seen all too often in Croton—and all too often being used by some local Democrats who really should know better, given their criticisms of Trump and the MAGA movement.

These tactics are not worthy of citizens who claim to stand for justice and fairness, and they are not worthy of the Croton community.

The Chronicle does not endorse candidates and does not take sides in elections, but our editorial space is available for candidates to state what they stand for. We have already done that for Nachtaler and Croton Democrats trustee candidate Karen Pecora, and we will be featuring interviews with the other candidates beginning as early as this weekend.

For those who want to know what the candidates really stand for, reading what they themselves have to say is a good first step in finding out.

Stacey Nachtaler (second from right) canvassing for Mondaire Jones last spring.

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