Youmans withdraws from Chester council race after DWI arrest, Klein replaces him

Brian Youmans’ DWI arrest in Chester forced a late change in the town council race, pushing the Republican line to Robert Klein and putting a criminal case at the center of a campaign that will help shape Chester’s next governing board.

Youmans, 33, was arrested April 3 after police said a vehicle backed into another car in the parking lot between Chester Town Hall and the Chester Public Library. Officers said he failed field sobriety tests and a breath test showed a blood alcohol content of 0.22 percent. At the time, Youmans was serving as vice chairman of the Orange County Young Republicans.

The arrest came only three months after Youmans was taken into custody in the Town of Wallkill on charges including attempted criminal possession of a weapon, criminal purchase of a weapon and falsifying business records. Those felony charges were later reduced to misdemeanors in March. The sequence turned the race into more than a routine ballot adjustment, raising questions about vetting and whether a candidate facing repeated legal trouble could stay viable in a small-town race where a few votes can decide control.

Party leaders moved quickly. On April 9, the Orange County Republican Committee asked Youmans to drop out. Courtney Canfield Greene, who chairs the county committee and serves as Orange County Republican commissioner of elections, said she had asked him to decline the nomination and step back from party roles. The Orange County Board of Elections received a notarized declination from Youmans on April 14, setting off the substitution process.

The Town of Chester Republican Committee then selected Robert Klein to replace him. Klein is an accountant, a member of the town Republican committee and an active community figure. He is married to former Orange County Family Court Judge Carol Klein, who retired in December.

The switch lands in a race that is already unusually fluid. Bob Courtenay is cross-endorsed by the Democrats, and Courtenay and town clerk Linda Zappala also received Democratic backing in 2025 as part of a local unity ticket arrangement. That makes the Republican replacement more significant than a simple name change on the ballot.

It also comes as Chester’s town board has shifted to a 3-2 Democratic majority after appointing Stephen Diffley to fill a vacant seat. The board meets twice monthly, on the second and fourth Wednesdays, and all four council seats will be on the ballot in November under a new ward system. In a year when the board’s balance, ballot structure and party alliances are all changing at once, Youmans’ withdrawal has become a local governance issue with immediate electoral consequences.