A Monroe property investor and historic house enthusiast, Timothy Mitts runs a self-financed election campaign in New York state’s 42nd Senate District.
Mitts, a Conservative Party candidate, faces incumbent Democratic Sen. James Skoufis and Republican candidate and Monroe town councilwoman Dorey Houle in the race.
The 42nd Senate District covers most of Orange County except Newburgh and Montgomery.
Born in Long Island and raised in Rockland County, Mitts attended Pearl River School District before studying accounting at a local community college.
“I came from a poor family on welfare, and parents gave us the best they could,” he told The Epoch Times.
“I came to learn that if you have an accounting background, you have an ability to make a living in anything because you understand how to run a business.”
After working for a few years at a company, he started his own business in 1992 and followed his clients into real estate businesses in 2003.
That year, Mitts and his business associate and girlfriend, Pamela Lee, bought their first investment property in Monroe, a piece of land with four bungalows and a two-family house.
Over the next 20 years, they steadily grew their portfolio to 27 rental properties in town. Mitts, who moved to Monroe in 2014, runs the day-to-day property management.
In 2016, after closing on a house for his oldest daughter, Mitts came upon a historic house on High Street in Monroe and felt an urge to check it out.
“I saw this house—if you saw it, you would be floored—and I walked into the foyer with my realtor, and I said, ‘Imagine standing in here in this hallway and seeing little kids around a Christmas tree,’” said Mitts.
He later found out the property had been used for decades as a vacation home for blind people and that the renowned disability rights advocate Helen Keller had a hand in its operation.
Mitts and Lee bought the house for $450,000 and put in $1.6 million to restore the century-old building, which was later added to the National Register of Historic Places.
He now hosts annual Christmas events at the house and rents it out for nominal fees to the local Jewish community on holidays. In the long run, he wants to turn it into a museum.
Two years ago, Mitts and Lee purchased another historic property, Pinecrest Bungalow Colony, which was built in the 1930s as an upstate getaway for New York City residents. The 20-acre property has 20 cottages, a recreation hall, and a private lake.
“It is a personification of what built Monroe,” Mitts said, adding that he has put more than $3 million into the property and has big plans for it.
Over the past few years, Mitts has been involved in a series of disputes with town officials over these historic buildings and a restrictive rental law, which he said is part of the reason why he decided to get involved in politics and run for the state Senate seat.
In June, Mitts ran against Houle in a Conservative primary and won by 435 to 398.
Nearly nine in 10 votes for Mitts came from the district of Palm Tree; Houle carried all the rest of the election districts by large margins, according to the Orange County Board of Elections.
“One vote is a vote, and it doesn’t matter who voted,” Mitts spoke of his primary victory.
“I run a self-financed campaign, and I don’t answer to anybody but the people. I do what I say, I say what I do, and I have no fear of fighting.”
Mitts said he wants to address water, sewer, and overdevelopment issues at the state level.
