Orange County's executive position has incumbent Steve Neuhaus and newcomer Pat Davis vying for the position. Both candidates have local roots and military experience, but differ on key issues like economic growth. 

"We can shift the focus and balance local development with attracting businesses in, which I do still think is critical. I think we'll be in better off shape so that we ... it's not necessarily at this point about quantity of jobs; it's more about the quality of jobs," Davis said.

"We need to continue to diversify our portfolio of businesses that are coming here. Not just warehouses; we need to continue to build upon our health care industries, we need to build upon our manufacturing, high tech, like Pratt and Whitney," Neuhaus said. "We also really need to continue to focus on the tourism."

For developments like the CPV power plant in Wawayanda, Davis says there should be more county action, while Neuhaus points to the county legislature's approval years ago.

"The county legislature, five years ago, voted 20-1 in favor of welcoming CPV here," Neuhaus said. "I'm not in love with the project. I think it's probably one of the worst PILOT agreements the IDA has ever given. They gave them a 30-year PILOT for roughly 30 jobs."

"For something like CPV coming in, even just appointing, asking our Department of Health, the Department of Health Commissioner ... to run a study on the health and safety impacts of putting ... this type of power plant in our backyards would be something that the executive should be doing," said Davis.

Legoland is another development. Some in Goshen feel their voices have not been heard with the Legoland approval process. Neuhaus points to this as a town issue.

"The other companies that are coming here, Amy's Kitchen, McKesson, Legoland ... it all goes to the local community," said Neuhaus. "If the town and village or city approves them in the process, which is the home rule state, then we support them."

Davis says among traffic and environmental concerns, the project's touted benefits aren't so great.

"This is an example where we're bringing in seasonal, part-time, lower-paying jobs, and that's not necessarily what we need right now," said Davis.

Election Day will also detirmine if Monroe and Kiryas Joel voters will choose to create the Town of Palm Tree. Both think the secession is a good idea, and see different opportunities that could come from it.

"But we need to keep the dialogue at this; we need the county leadership to step up. We need the county executive, in particular, to be involved in this," said Davis. "This is an issue that impacts way more than just the Town of Monroe. It impacts all the surrounding communities."

"It's going to give an opportunity to the outside community, the non-Hasidics, a chance to re-calibrate and protect their towns. Change their zoning, beef up some of their zoning laws and protect their open law space," said Neuhaus.