By Carmel Democratic Committee
Mr. McCracken is campaigning to be the Legislator from District 8, in Mahopac. Voters should be aware that there are serious questions about where he actually resides. And they should know his record as an absentee Mahopac School Board Trustee before deciding if he will be an effective legislator.
In September of 2025 Mr. McCracken changed his voter registration from his previous address in District 9 to a new one in District 8, which enabled him to seek the open Legislative position there. He even kept the old one as his mailing address on his new voter registration. So where does he actually live? In District 8? In District 9? Or, perhaps in Albany where he works for a Republican state senator.
His Albany job explains his absentee record at School Board meetings. From 2021 to 2026 he was only present at meetings 67 percent of the time. That’s just shy of failing the grade. Out of 153 meetings, he was present only 93 times, and was there virtually another 15 times. (We gave him the benefit of the doubt for 12 meetings for which there are no attendance records available.) In ‘24-‘25 his in-person attendance dropped to 57 percent. He failed to attend critical meetings, such as the vote on the superintendent’s departure and transition in district leadership. A change that reportedly cost the district approximately one million dollars.
In addition, Mr. McCracken sat on the fence when it came to “challenged” books in the schools’ libraries. He abstained, rather than go on the record and take a clear position. Importantly, the NYS Schoolboards Handbook states that school board members cannot abstain simply because they have philosophical objections. They might have added that political motivations are not a valid reason for abstaining.
Voters might also be interested to know who is funding Mr. McCracken’s campaign. The New York State Board of Elections require candidates to file all their donations and expenditures on a regular basis. These reports become public record so that voters have a clear understanding of the money behind a candidate. McCracken filed once out of the five times required by law.
Voters have a choice. They can elect Gwen Burke, an Environmental Engineer with an MBA in Finance, who has lived in the District for over 34 years and raised her family here. Or Mr. McCracken, who is apparently more interested in Albany than in Mahopac and doesn’t seem to think the rules apply to him.
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