Gary Antonucci, Republican candidate for mayor, at Gloversville’s Four Corners on Nov. 11, 2024.

Gloversville mayoral candidate Matt Capano on Feb. 24, 2025.

Republican mayoral candidates Matt Capano and Gary Antonucci are preparing for a showdown in 17 days for the GOP line in November’s general election, after months of campaigning for the top elected position in Gloversville.

Current mayor Democrat Vince DeSantis is retiring after six years in the position.

The two local business owners are not facing a Democratic challenger, making the upcoming primary the determinant in the general election in the fall.

Antonucci, 62, who announced his campaign for mayor in November, is running on a platform centered around holding property owners accountable for buildings that aren’t up to code, or are otherwise in disarray.

“I’d like to enforce the absentee landlords, the codes for that, and the blighted properties. I feel that it’s every year or every time there’s a mayor running, that’s what they say. But it doesn’t seem to [be] enforced, and as I drive around and get signatures throughout the city, I see more and more [blighted properties] that I never saw before,” said the 1981 Gloversville graduate.

Capano, who is also 62, has a different priority for the city. In addition to encouraging local youth to be involved in extracurriculars, the business owner said he wants to increase police presence in the city in order to make the streets safer.

“I get complaints all the time that a lot of people are afraid to come downtown, and there are a lot of good things happening in Gloversville,” he said. “We need to clean the streets up with police presence to make people want to come and enjoy everything we got going on downtown.”

There’s is overlap between the two candidates: they’re both Fulton County natives; they’re both part of the Gloversville business community; they both serve on the Water Board; they both believe downtown growth is important to the city’s future; neither has ever run for mayor before; and neither went to college.

Antonucci, whose brother runs an eponymous wholesale produce and seafood company, has run Wood & Lock Mobile Locksmith for the last 20 years. He said that he has built up a following by responding quickly........

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