06/13/2026
https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/ballston-supervisor-primary-antoski-connolly-22297482.php
BALLSTON — This month’s primary for supervisor is a replay of 2025. The same candidates. The same party line. And the same big issue: development.
Once again, Republicans will head to the polls to choose incumbent Supervisor John Antoski or his predecessor, Eric Connolly, as their candidate to address persistent land-use debates in the community.
Ballston candidates have been here before. Last June, these same candidates went head-to-head in a Republican primary. Antoski won by 30 votes out of 387 cast and ran unopposed in November’s general election, though Connolly launched a write-in campaign that failed to gain traction.
Antoski told the Times Union he won because “residents felt like they were not being heard.” But this time, Connolly says he’s the man for the job because, among other things, he “successfully negotiated an informal agreement to keep (a proposed solar array) project strictly under the existing 150-acre cap.”
That project is a 53-acre array of solar panels proposed by Connolly’s largest campaign contributor, Garth Ellms. To allow the project to move forward, the town would have to issue a variance to exceed its 150-acre cap on solar arrays. Currently, solar panels are on 124 acres in Ballston.
On his campaign page, Connolly is claiming he has stopped any further solar arrays being built in the town.
“The Building Department will no longer be accepting applications for large-scale solar development in our town,” he announced. “While the path to this resolution was unconventional, it saved our taxpayers from a costly legal battle and, most importantly, preserved the integrity of the code we built to protect our town.”
The Times Union could not independently confirm with the Building Department if this was the case.
Antoski is not questioning Connolly’s purported involvement in any agreement between the town and Connolly’s largest donor. But he did stress that government operations must follow proper procedure, “not informal agreements.”
“Applicants must apply and be approved through our Planning Board based on our code,” he said. “That is why we have a Planning Board: to approve or disapprove projects based on our code. It is a matter of following the established process.”
Antoski also said he is running to “help keep Ballston the wonderful community it has been.”
To him, the biggest issues are “listening to residents, maintaining and improving our infrastructure, protecting our quality of life, keeping taxes under control, and avoiding excessive development that threatens the very reasons people choose to live here,” he wrote in an email.
The candidates have a lot more in common beyond their roles. Both are social studies teachers. Antoski, 61, teaches at Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake, where he doubles as K-12 supervisor of social studies for the district. Connolly, 55, teaches at Schenectady High School.
Though the candidates appear to be similar on paper, Connolly wrote to the Times Union that he has “an entirely different level of ‘get things done’ energy to the job. I am happy to delegate important initiatives to the other members of our Town Board, but I am also willing to take the lead.”
He lists his accomplishments as building a new parking area at Ballston Creek Preserve, the new playground at Jenkins Park, and new sidewalks on both ends of the town.
However, more than half of the town — about 10,000 acres — is in a state-designated agricultural district. Connolly lost support from farmers with various actions, including changing the zoning of 90 acres of agricultural lands to commercial, standing by while the town blocked a farmer’s access to property by installing guardrails, and most controversially, disbanding the Farmland Protection and Preservation Committee.
Antoski re-established the committee even after some on the Town Board pushed back.
“I cannot say for certain that I was elected to protect farmland,” Antoski said. “I like to think that I was elected because a number of residents felt like they were not being heard.”
One difference from last year’s primary is the Ballston Republican committee endorsement — or lack thereof. In 2025, the party urged voters to back Connolly, then the incumbent. This time around, the committee chose not to endorse a primary candidate. Chair Aaron Smith did not immediately respond to a Times Union request to explain the decision.
Regardless of who wins the primary, both Antoski and Connolly will be on November’s ballot. Both have independent lines and Antoski received the Saratoga County Conservative Party’s endorsement. Chair Tom Sartin said that though Connolly didn’t seek the nod, the committee interviewed Antoski and was convinced he was “standing up for the residents.”
“Overdevelopment is a concern,” Sartin said. (Ballston’s population has spiked 21% since 2010.) “We looked at Eric’s track record and John is the better person to protect the farms. He also is professional at town meetings. Eric is not always polite to people at the podium.”
Connolly won in 2019 as a candidate who promised to stave off development. During his six years in office, he zoned out multiunit apartment buildings and established a purchase of development rights program for farmers.
In an email to the Times Union, he said he is running again to “permanently preserve our farmland and open space, to improve walkability on both ends of town, and to create community for us and future generations by connecting Burnt Hills to Ballston Spa with a Veterans Bike Trail extension.”
Antoski, on the other hand, said he wants to “focus on the essentials and deliver them exceptionally well.
“(I want to) keep the government effective, accountable and responsive to residents,” he wrote in the email. “Residents want the local government to focus on the basics that matter most to our community: safe roads, clean water, responsible spending, and reasonable taxes.”
Early voting begins Saturday and ends June 21. Primary day is June 23.
