Sr. Ann Sakac, retired president of Mount Saint Mary College, given lifetime achievement award

NEW WINDSOR – The national election may have been a repudiation of many years of an unpopular president, according to Lee Miringoff, nationally-known pollster and director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion at Marist College in Poughkeepsie.

He spoke at the annual awards reception of the Hudson Valley regional think tank organization Pattern for Progress.  Miringoff discussed the results of the general election and the implications that they have for the future.

Miringoff said President-Elect Barak Obama pulled in large numbers from people under 30 and time will tell if he can build on that.

“That’s a critical political analyst’s question as to whether this is a repudiation of President Bush, worry over Iraq, worry over the economy or whether this is something where he can build a new generation of leadership, and then our political system does change if that’s the case,” he said. “The jury is still out on that.”

Miringoff was the right speaker for the evening, given the fact that the general election was held earlier this week, said Pattern President Jonathan Drapkin.

The reception, held at Anthony’s Pier 9 in New Windsor, honored the Bardavon Theatre in Poughkeepsie, Gateway to Entrepreneurial Tomorrows, Inc., and Hudson Valley Agri-Business Development Corp with quality of life, economic, and regional achievement awards, respectively. Sr. Ann Sakac, former president of Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh, was given a Lifetime Achievement award.

Pattern for Progress is a non-profit organization whose mission is to "preserve and promote the social, economic and natural environments of the Hudson Valley region by building consensus for a pattern of growth that will insure a high quality of life."