Most incumbents are running for town posts
GUILDERLAND — Most of the town’s officials who are up for re-election — all Democrats — are running again. Town board members Patricia Slavick and Paul Pastore said that they are considering a run.
The other incumbents are Peter Barber, town supervisor, elected in a close race two years ago; Jean Cataldo, town clerk, who ran unopposed for her second term two years ago; Patricia Slavick, a town board member first elected in 2000; Lynne Buchanan, receiver of taxes since 2013; and town justices Denise Randall, first elected in 2005, and Richard Sherwood, first elected in 2013.
The Republicans put up a full slate in the last town elections two years ago and got one candidate elected to the board. Asked who will be running this time, Douglas Breakell, chairman of the Guilderland Republican Committee, said, “We are still in our selection process.”
Jacob Crawford, 30, who is currently the first vice chairman of the Guilderland Democratic Committee, will step into the acting chairman position, following the death last week of longtime chairman David Bosworth. Crawford will serve as acting chairman until the next election, in the fall of 2018, he said; elections are held every two years. Crawford works as a higher-education analyst with New York State United Teachers, where he does policy, data, contractual, and financial and budgetary analysis.
In 2015, Barber edged out then-board member and fellow Democrat Brian Forte— who was running on the Republican ticket — in a race that was too close to call without counting the absentee ballot. The supervisor post pays $113,099 in 2017, according to Stacia Smith-Brigadier, the town’s personnel administrator.
Lynne Buchanan was deputy receiver of taxes when she ran for her current post in 2013 against Republican Bryan Best. The full-time job of receiver of taxes is currently paid $59,495.
The town clerk receives $59,495.
Justices each receive $51,170.
Town board members are paid $24,197.
Party enrollment in Guilderland breaks down this way: 40 percent of the town’s voters are enrolled Democrats; 25 percent are Republicans; 26 percent are unaffiliated; and the remainder are enrolled in other parties.
