Goshen, NY – With the stroke of a pen, Republicans have just lost their majority on the Orange County Legislature for the first time since it was created in 1970.
Legislator Michael Amo of Central Valley announced today unexpected that he's switching his party enrollment from Republican to Independence, leaving the two major parties tied at 10 members apiece on the 21-member Legislature.
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Amo, has been a lone wolf on the Legislature at times because of his advocacy for the Village of Kiryas Joel, which makes up most of his legislative district.
Most notably, he was one of three dissidents when the Legislature voted in October 2004 to sue Kiryas Joel over its proposed pipeline to the Catskill Aqueduct.
And when his colleagues voted, almost two years later, to refuse to let Kiryas Joel build water storage tanks on county-owned parkland, only one Republican joined Amo in opposition. [Record]