Brian Maher was 23 when he became mayor of the Village of Walden in 2009, among the youngest mayors in the state. He later served as Montgomery town supervisor, and in 2022 he won the State Assembly’s 101st District. A Navy Reserve sailor, he spent most of the 2026 legislative session deployed overseas.
So who is Brian Maher, what has he passed, and why did he side with the Orange County Industrial Development Agency against a state monitor? The record runs through two local laws, a benefits cliff task force vetoed three times, opposition to the state budgets of his first term, and a reelection run with no opponent on the ballot.
Quick Facts
- Party
- Republican (also on the Conservative line)
- Hometown
- Town of Montgomery, N.Y. (Walden)
- Date of Birth
- Not listed in official biographies reviewed
- Current Position
- New York State Assembly, 101st District; ranking member, Children and Families Committee
- Background
- Former Walden mayor; former Montgomery town supervisor; U.S. Navy Reserve petty officer
- In Office Since
- January 2023
EARLY LIFE AND FAMILY
Maher graduated from Valley Central High School in 2003, according to BallotReady. He attended Post University on a basketball scholarship and transferred to Brooklyn College, according to his Assembly biography. His first job, at 14, was bussing tables, according to the Irish Echo.
He is part Puerto Rican and was named to the Irish Echo’s “40 Under 40” in 2025. “I embrace my Irish heritage by learning the history of my family and their journey to America,” he said. He and his wife, Becky, live in the Town of Montgomery with their three children. PagPol could not confirm his birthplace or date of birth.
WALDEN MAYOR, 2009 TO 2015
Maher was elected mayor of Walden in March 2009 at 23. The result was contested. Three candidates sued over alleged violations of protocol, and he took office after a recount and the lawsuit, according to News 12. He appears to have run unopposed in 2011.
In September 2012 he challenged Assemblywoman Claudia Tenney in the Republican primary for the 101st District and lost. PagPol could not confirm the vote totals in an official source. In 2013 he was reelected mayor without opposition, according to WAMC. Maher left the mayor’s office in April 2015 after six years, according to News 12.
VETERANS WORK AND MONTGOMERY, 2015 TO 2022
After leaving office, Maher was communications director for State Sen. Bill Larkin and executive director of the National Purple Heart Honor Mission, and he co-founded Hudson Valley Honor Flight, according to his Assembly biography. In July 2018 he enlisted in the Navy Reserve as a logistics specialist, according to Spectrum News.
In November 2019 he was elected Montgomery town supervisor on the Republican, Libertarian, and Independence lines, beating incumbent Rodney Winchell and Maybrook Mayor Dennis Leahy, according to Times Hudson Valley. “Being a representative is not just about bringing in as much business as possible,” he said. PagPol could not find the vote totals.
The Wallkill River just north of the Village of Walden, where Maher served as mayor from 2009 to 2015. (Photo: Daniel Case, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
WINNING THE ASSEMBLY SEAT, 2022
When redistricting moved Assemblyman Brian D. Miller to another district in 2022, Maher ran for the open 101st. “I believe I can make a positive and profound impact as a state representative,” he told Times Hudson Valley. He promised a permanent state spending cap, lower crime, and more transparency.
That November he beat Democrat Matthew Mackey, a social worker, 30,340 to 18,361, or 62.3 percent, according to state results in PagPol’s Data Spine. “People desire a new approach to their government, one that is filled with optimism and built on genuine relationships,” he told the Daily Star as he took office in January 2023.
FIRST TERM, 2023 TO 2024
In May 2023 Maher opposed the $229 billion state budget. “While there are some positive items in the budget, I could not support it,” he said, according to his Assembly office. That spring he joined Democratic Assemblywoman Maritza Davila on a bill creating a task force on benefits cliffs, where a small raise costs a family more in lost aid.
The task force bill passed both houses in 2023, with a 61 to 0 Senate vote. Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoed it that November. “I was very disappointed with the governor’s veto of our task force on fiscal cliffs,” Maher said, according to the Chronicle. His office called it “his bill,” but Davila is the prime sponsor.
His bill A4089A, naming part of Route 747 for Army veteran and Honor Flight co-founder Steve Nicoli, passed the Senate 59 to 1 in June 2024 and became Chapter 444 of 2024, according to the Senate bill page. Democrats Chris Eachus and Jonathan Jacobson co-sponsored it. That November he was reelected without an opponent, with 44,817 votes.
SECOND TERM, 2025 TO 2026
Maher became ranking Republican on the Children and Families Committee in December 2024, and the benefits cliff bill passed again in June 2025. That October he defended the county’s IDA after its board voted to spend $100,000 on an Albany lobbyist to end a state-appointed monitor’s oversight. “Let’s be honest, what’s really happening here is political theater,” he said, according to his Assembly office.
In November 2025 Maher announced a nine-month Navy deployment to a combat zone. “It will be very difficult to be away for a period of nine months from the work and community that I love,” he said, according to the Daily Voice. His staff ran the office during the 2026 session.
In December Hochul vetoed the benefits cliff bill a third time, along with a nonprofit contracting reform he co-sponsored. “These were not radical demands; they were basic, good-government reforms,” he said of the nonprofit veto, according to his Assembly office. In May 2026 the Legislature extended the IDA monitor.
The New York State Assembly chamber in the State Capitol in Albany, where Republicans hold about 47 of 150 seats. (Photo: Matt Wade, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
His bill A2020, giving Montgomery town court officers peace officer status, passed the Senate 54 to 7 and became Chapter 170 of 2026 in July, according to the Senate bill page. Seven Democrats, including Liz Krueger, voted no. His Washingtonville residency bill, carried by Skoufis, awaits the governor. He was home by September, according to the Shawangunk Journal.
HIS VOTING RECORD
PagPol could not retrieve Maher’s individual Assembly roll calls. By his own statements, he opposed the 2023 and 2024 state budgets and attacked the 2025 Assembly budget proposal’s $17.4 billion spending increase as “alarming.” He has called for changes to bail and discovery laws and opposed more prison closures.
The New York League of Conservation Voters gave him 17 percent for 2025, according to the NYLCV scorecard. That matched fellow Republicans Karl Brabenec and Chris Tague, while nearby Democrats scored from 83 to 100 percent. He has also questioned the state’s zero-emission school bus mandate.
THE DISTRICT AND THE PARTY MATH
The 101st District was redrawn in 2022 and again in 2023, and Maher’s office says it has more than 138,000 residents, including Walden, Goshen, and parts of Ulster County. PagPol could not retrieve enrollment for the district. Orange County as a whole has 91,174 Democrats and 75,383 Republicans, according to state figures in PagPol’s Data Spine.
In Albany, Maher serves in a Republican minority of about 47 of 150 members, against a Democratic supermajority that also controls the Senate and the governor’s office. “One-party rule has plagued our local communities and I will continue to reach across the aisle,” he said in January 2025. No Democrat has filed against him since 2022.
2025 NYLCV environmental scores, Mid-Hudson Assembly members
MaherDemocratic membersOther Republican members
Scores out of 100 on the New York League of Conservation Voters’ 2025 legislative scorecard, which rates votes on environmental bills. Source: NYLCV 2025 scorecard.
COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS
Maher is ranking member of the Children and Families Committee and also sits on the Mental Health, Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, Health, Education, and Housing committees, according to his Assembly office. He serves on the Republican conference’s human services budget committee.
He co-chairs the Minority Task Force on Human Trafficking and belongs to the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus. In his first term he was ranking member on the Social Services Committee. He prime-sponsored 37 bills and co-sponsored 199 in the 2025 and 2026 session, according to Assembly data in PagPol’s Data Spine.
Bills sponsored in 2025 and 2026, Mid-Hudson Assembly members
MaherDemocratic membersOther Republican members
Bills each member introduced as prime sponsor in the 2025 and 2026 legislative session. Maher won the 101st District in 2022 by 24.6 points over Democrat Matthew Mackey and ran unopposed in 2024. Source: New York State Assembly data, compiled in PagPol’s Data Spine.
WHY HE RAN AND WHAT HE BELIEVES
Maher says public assistance should help people move up. “All of us want to see public assistance act as a hand up,” he said in 2023. He has filed bills to study the drug xylazine and to create a commission to reform public assistance. “Right now, our state is going at it blindly and we can’t effectively help anyone,” he said of xylazine.
He also files conservative social bills. His A7008 would ban the terms “sex work” and “sex worker” from state law, and A2031 would set term limits for the governor and legislators. Neither has left committee. “There are plenty of bills that I disagree with,” he told the Chronicle in 2024.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE
PagPol could not retrieve Maher’s campaign finance totals from the state Board of Elections and found no news reports of his filings. He did not appear in the state’s public matching fund distributions PagPol reviewed for 2024 and 2026, which suggests he is not using the program, though PagPol could not confirm that across every report.
Other Hudson Valley Assembly candidates did draw public money. In the state’s July 30 distribution, Rob Bonomolo received $175,000, Dana Levenberg $99,064, Janet Tweed $62,334 for the general election, and Marcus Molinaro $42,168. With no opponent, Maher has little need to raise money this fall.
Public matching funds paid July 30, 2026, Hudson Valley Assembly candidates
MaherOther Hudson Valley Assembly candidates
Public matching fund payments in the state’s July 30, 2026 distribution. Maher did not appear in the distributions PagPol reviewed. Tweed’s figure is for the general election. Source: New York State Public Campaign Finance Board.
CONTROVERSIES AND CRITICISM
The sharpest criticism of a Maher position came over the IDA. Democratic Sen. James Skoufis said the agency “prioritizes corporate greed over protecting taxpayers,” and Democratic Assemblyman Chris Eachus called its lobbying spending “a slap in the faces of all hardworking residents throughout Orange County,” according to the Hudson Valley Press.
Democratic Assemblywoman Paula Elaine Kay said, “Transparency and integrity are not optional when public dollars are at stake.” Earlier that month Maher had defended the agency: “The IDA’s advocacy for local decision-making is not corruption, it’s common sense.” PagPol found no criticism of Maher by name, and no published criticism of his absence during his deployment.
Main Street in the Village of Goshen, the Orange County seat and part of the 101st Assembly District, in March 2025. (Photo: Mr. Matté, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
CLAIMS VERSUS THE RECORD
Maher campaigned on a state spending cap, but none appears among his 2025 and 2026 prime bills. His enacted laws as prime sponsor are local, a memorial highway and peace officer status for town court officers. His best-known policy effort, the benefits cliff task force, is a Democrat’s bill that Hochul has vetoed three times.
He promised to “restore transparency and accountability,” yet he defended the IDA’s push to end state oversight, a fight his side lost. His bipartisan claims have support in his work with Davila and Skoufis. For another Assembly member’s record, see PagPol’s profile of Carrie Woerner.
STATE COMPTROLLER AUDITS IN THE DISTRICT
A 2018 comptroller Walden audit found the village’s general fund balance fell from $859,588 in 2013 to $379,387 in 2017, and that $400,000 moved to the sewer fund from 2014 to 2016 was never repaid. The audit covered 2016 and 2017, after Maher left, so only part of the decline overlaps his tenure.
A January 2025 comptroller budget review found the Village of Washingtonville’s accounting records were incomplete or outdated, projected shortfalls of about $261,000 in sewer rents and $123,000 in water rents, and left the comptroller unable to confirm tax cap compliance.
A 2017 statewide comptroller audit of the Orange County IDA found the projects it reviewed had produced 2,009 of 3,660 promised jobs and that the agency had no way to recover tax breaks, according to the IDA audit. PagPol found no comptroller audit of Montgomery during Maher’s time as supervisor.
LOOKING AHEAD
Maher appears on the Nov. 3, 2026 ballot on the Republican and Conservative lines with no opponent, according to candidate listings, and he had no primary challenger in June. For more, visit PagPol’s Orange County page or subscribe to the Orange County newsletter.
