Fight for Dems’
Top spot a no-decision



ALBANY COUNTY — Albany County Democrats have no leader and haven’t yet decided how to choose one after a Dec. 21 decision invalidated the election of Frank Commisso as chairman.

The disputed election between Albany’s Commisso and Guilderland Councilman David Bosworth went to court after a standing vote was used instead of a weighted vote at the Sept. 27 biennial organizational meeting.

Bosworth lost to Commisso by a vote of 253 to 216.

Bosworth supporters challenged the results with many defining the division as an urban-suburban split. A weighted vote, some Bosworth supporters said, would clearly show suburban dominance. County totals in the recent gubernatorial race show not quite 30,000 from the cities voting for the Democratic ticket while over 50,000 from the suburban and rural towns voted for the Democratic ticket.
Justice Thomas J. McNamara acting for the state’s Supreme Court, the lowest court in the state’s three-tiered system, wrote in his eight-page ruling, "The election of officers undertaken at the organizational meeting of the Albany County Democratic Committee on September 27, 2006 is invalidated"The Albany County Democratic Committee is required to provide for weighted voting in all matters"a standing vote is inconsistent with a weighted vote."

Two other judges recused themselves before McNamara, who is a Republican from Saratoga, heard the case.

The committee has based its weighted votes on the Demo-cratic ballot cast in the last gubernatorial election, unless there has been redistricting, in which case tallies from an assembly election are then used. Enrollment numbers have not been used in calculating the weighted votes.
In addition to asking the court to throw out the election because a weighted vote was not used, the Bosworth slate also asked to "invalidate certain provisions of the rules [county bylaws], to invalidate a weighted vote formula circulated by the committee, and for the appointment of a referee to conduct a new election."
The petition sent to court also contained allegations that people were not lawfully appointed "because they were not lawfully enrolled in the Democratic Party or did not live in the Assembly District containing the election district that person was elected to represent."
Although McNamara made it clear in his ruling that the election of Commisso slate was invalid, and a new election was needed, he dismissed the other provisions of the lawsuit, saying, ""petitioners have not demonstrated any statutory or legal ground for judicial intervention."
He added, "There is a generally held view that courts should not interfere with the internal affairs of a political party."

Thirty-three documents were cited in McNamara’s ruling, consisting of show-cause orders and petitions to various affidavits and reply affidavits.

Three months after the original vote took place, no timetable has been set for a new election.

The petitioners challenging the election include: John (Jack) H. Cunningham, Shawn M. Morris, Barbara Smith, David A. Bosworth Jr., Matthew J. Clyne, Phillip G. Steck, Louis C. Mion, and Daniel A. Hornick.

Commisso nor his lawyer did not return repeated calls from The Enterprise.

What’s next"
With no chair managing the county party, what happens next"
"That’s the question. Normally, it’s the function of the chair to decide, but there is no chair," Bosworth told The Enterprise on Tuesday. "We have to sit down with everybody and figure it out"Hopefully, it will be productive."
Continuing, he said, "Now that we’ve gone through the lawsuit, we’ve got some very specific details to address."

This was the first contested election in the county party’s history of more than 80 years — the position is usually appointed.

Albany City Treasurer Betty Barnette took over as chair after Mike Burns died. She retired from the post in September after defeating New Scotland Democratic chair, Connie Burns, in a state Democratic committee seat election.

At the Sept. 27 organizational meeting, Barnette called for the standing vote over the weighted vote.

She could not be reached for comment this week.

The official results of the 2006 gubernatorial election have been released by the Albany County Board of Elections.

Out of the 111,509 votes cast for governor in Albany County, 80,210 were for Eliot Spitzer, who ran on the Democratic ticket.

Local results include these votes for Spitzer:

— Albany: 22,689 votes;

— Colonie: 22,142 votes;

— Bethlehem: 11,014 votes;

— Guilderland: 10,081 votes;

— New Scotland: 2,768 votes;

— Berne: 814 votes;

— Westerlo: 776 votes;

— Knox: 706 votes; and

— Rensselaerville: 585 votes.

The official totals for the 2006 Democratic gubernatorial vote were 29,673 from the cities of Albany County, and 50,537 from the towns of Albany County.

These are the numbers which are used to calculate weighted votes, but, according to Bosworth, the new 2006 numbers may or may not be used in the new election for party chair.
"There are still unknown factors to discuss"It is something that needs to be negotiated. A number of people want to changes the rules," Bosworth said about future talks on the new election process. "We have to get back to a middle ground."

However, Bosworth denies allegations of a suburban-versus-urban divide in the county party.
"I don’t see this as a city-suburban dispute," said Bosworth. "We have a number of allies in the city."

Bosworth cited the election of James Clancy, a suburban resident, as the county’s Democratic commissioner of the board of elections. Clancy’s victory is seen by some as the turning point of towns becoming more dominate in county politics.
"I actually had more support in the cities than the Clancy vote," Bosworth said.
"There are town committees involved, and city committees and ward committees," he continued. "My goal is to be in touch with all of the factions and foster the greatest amount of cooperation possible."

Not all Democrats agree.

Colonie committee member, Dick Barrett, told The Enterprise that there is definitely a "suburban-urban rift" in the county party, and he openly accuses the Commisso slate of "stealing" the election in the interest of city Democrats.
Bosworth said that, although he respects Barrett’s opinion, he doesn’t believe there is a "rift." He said that it is time to move forward for the good of the party at large.

Commisso has a long and impressive Democratic résumé that includes being an Albany County legislator for the last 23 years and acting as the majority leader for the past 14 years, as well as being a ward leader. He is currently the manager of the Albany Port Authority.

Bosworth is credited for turning the all-Republican town of Guilderland into a Democratic-dominated town as the town’s party chair for the past 10 years. He is serving his second term on the town board.

Both men are life-long Democrats.

As it stands now, Commisso is not acting as the official chair, said Bosworth, but, he added, Commisso is making sure the doors of the county headquarters are open each morning for volunteers.