GUILDERLAND — Bruce Sherwin, a Democrat, who has been a councilman on the Guilderland Town Board for four years, says he has been rebuffed by the town’s Democratic committee because he votes his mind.

Most of the time, the board’s members — all Democrats — vote unanimously. Sherwin has at times cast the only dissenting vote.
"I’m a Democrat without a party," Sherwin told The Enterprise Monday.

Although Sherwin wants to run for another four-year term, the committee is not nominating him, he said. He supported a Republican for county legislator, he said, and was branded disloyal by David Bosworth, the Democratic chairman and a town board member.

Bosworth, however, responded through The Enterprise that he does not decide who the committee endorses. He is only one of 64 committeemen and one of 8,500 Democratic voters, he said.

It seems likely, however, that the Democratic party will choose planning board attorney Paul Pastore to run in place of Sherwin, Bosworth said this week.

Sherwin said that, without support from the Democratic committee, his political career is over for now. He plans on spending more time with his family and continuing to volunteer for the McKownville fire department and other neighborhood committees.

Currently, the town supervisor, all five councilmembers, the receiver of taxes, and the clerk are all Democrats. This is the fifth year that the town has been dominated by Democrats. For nearly 200 years, it was Republicans who controlled town government.

About a third of Guilderland voters are enrolled as Democrats, about a third as Republicans, and about a third are enrolled in small parties or not in any party.

Sherwin’s claims come after the Republican committee announced its two candidates for two town board seats. Republicans Michael Donegan and Ed Glenning will likely challenge Democratic incumbent Patricia Slavick and Pastore this fall.

For town justice, long-time Republican incumbent Steven J. Simon may be challenged by assistant town attorney Denise Randall, a Democrat.

The Democrats are still reviewing candidate interviews and will announce official nominees in June, Bosworth said.

The Republicans have yet to name candidates for town supervisor, clerk, and receiver of taxes. Democratic incumbents Supervisor Kenneth Runion, Clerk Rosemary Centi, and Tax Collector Jean Cataldo are planning to run.

The Republican committee said in February that it had no real contenders for the election. So, it put an ad in The Enterprise. The ad asked anyone interested in running for supervisor, town board member, town judge, receiver of taxes, or town clerk to send a résumé to the committee.

This year, Tony Cortes, the party’s chair, said the Republican committee will endorse residents from any political party.
"We want people who are open-minded, who are willing to negotiate with our political compromises," he said.

He said later that the Enterprise ad was a sort of training process that brought local Republicans to the committee to find out about elected positions.

Sherwin’s strife
"I don’t believe I’m being renominated," Sherwin told The Enterprise when asked Monday if he was going to run again for town board.

Sherwin had wanted to run again, he said, and was interviewed by six members of the Democratic party.
"Based on the interview and the feedback I was getting, they didn’t think I’d get endorsed by the Independence party," he said.

Bosworth told The Enterprise Monday night about the importance of candidates’ being supported by smaller parties.
"With several thousand in minor parties, we look for candidates that can meet approval not only from Democrats," he said. Sherwin wasn’t interviewed by other political committees, as other incumbents were this year, Bosworth said.
"But," he said, "we’ve made it clear to Bruce all along that he needs to run on other lines."

Unlike the Republicans, the Democrats say they haven’t decided who will run in November’s election.
"I’d have to be like a fortune teller to tell you who the committee will vote for; it’s majority vote," Bosworth said. "But, I think a broad base of support is important, to consider a candidate’s electibility."

Sherwin said he is surprised that the Democrats who interviewed him aren’t supporting him.
"Based on my values and views, which are similar to theirs, I thought I could make a compelling case," he said. "I thought I had a decent chance."
Of the Democratic committee, Sherwin said, "They didn’t feel I’d given the party enough local help in terms of going door-to-door and in terms of putting up signs."

While Sherwin, who is an account exective for a publishing company, did some door-to-door campaigning, he said he felt he had limited time. He thought his time was best spent contributing to other local organizations, such as the library board, the Guilderland Performing Arts Center, the Schoolcraft House, the Guilderland Hamlet Neighborhood Association, the McKownville Fire Department, and the McKownville Improvement Association.
"I don’t know who the Democrats are who are saying that," Bosworth said, when told Sherwin thought he was criticized for not campaigning enough. "That’s a little vague. I haven’t heard that specific thing, but I didn’t participate in the candidate interview process."

Sherwin made some financial contributions to Albany County Democrats that the Guilderland Democrats didn’t like, he said.

Last fall, for example, then-assistant district attorney David Soares challenged his boss, Paul Clyne, for district attorney and beat Clyne in a stunning upset in the Democratic primary. Sherwin contributed to Soares’s campaign, he said, but Guilderland Democrats were undecided about supporting Soares.
He also supported Allen Maikels for county comptroller. "They were on the fence about that one, too," Sherwin said of local Democrats.

Bosworth responded that he didn’t know anything about committee members being upset with Sherwin’s financial contributions or his support for certain county candidates.

Supporting others

In the special Albany County Legislature election last April, Sherwin backed Republican David Reid. He says this is another reason why the Guilderland Democrats are not supporting him.

Long-time Democratic Legislator Mary Lou Connolly narrowly beat Reid. She continues to represent District 32, which includes McKownville and Guilderland Center.

Sherwin didn’t support Connolly, he said, because he wanted to see change in the legislature. He backed another Democrat, Herb Henning, to challenge Connolly in the primary, he said.

As Sherwin was helping Henning with his petitions for the primary, he said, he was called into Supervisor Runion’s office. In the office, Sherwin said, Bosworth told him on speaker phone that he was to support Connolly. Guilderland Democrats did not want a primary for Connolly, Sherwin said.
"I said that’s unacceptable," Sherwin said. "I said that, in a democracy, there should be differences of opinion. I was told that I’d have no future in the Democratic party because of this."
"I don’t remember that exact quote," Bosworth told The Enterprise in response. "I advised him to support the party’s choice. As the chair of the party, I normally support the committee people."

When asked about the primary this week, Connolly told The Enterprise that both Sherwin and Runion backed Henning. She said she was stunned, shocked, and hurt by this.
"I sat here and cried," she said. "Elected officials don’t do that to each other."

Runion said Tuesday, in response, that he didn’t publicly support Henning.

But, Henning never challenged Connolly in the primary.

Sherwin continued that, four years ago, Connolly campaigned against him, Runion, and Peter Barber, who ran on the Democratic ticket for town justice.
"She and Runion had a difference of opinion on an insurance contract that she wanted to get," Sherwin said of Connolly, who runs an insurance company. "She never forgave him for that."
"That’s ludicrous," Connolly responded to The Enterprise. "I supported Bruce Sherwin and Ken Runion. You never saw me anywhere not supporting them. I have always supported the nominated candidates, whether I disagree with them or not."

Of the disagreement, Connolly said she bid to be the town’s insurance provider and the town board went with a different company. She was upset by this, she said, but she has always supported the board members.

Runion responded that he didn’t know about Connolly’s supporting him four years ago or not.
"I heard a variety of rumors," he said. "I don’t know who she backed."

Of the insurance contract, Runion said the town went with a carrier that provided the best proposal for the lowest price.
Connolly went on, "I don’t agree with everything every elected official does, but I don’t do anything behind people’s backs. I have always supported Bruce Sherwin."
She said, "I know he was very close friends with David Reid and that’s fine. If Republicans didn’t vote for me when I first ran in 1992, I wouldn’t have gotten elected."
"The fact that she campaigned against us and there were no other Democrats I could support, I saw the next best candidate was Reid," Sherwin told The Enterprise.

Sherwin was scolded by the Democratic party for having a sign on his lawn in support of Reid, he said.
"At least two other Democratic elected officials gave money to Reid and went to one of his fund-raisers with me," Sherwin said. "Why am I being hung out if I did no worse""
"I know people were offended by his opposition to Mary Lou," Bosworth said of Sherwin. "I have heard criticism of his behavior in terms of Mary Lou."

Independent thinking
Sherwin went on to say that his independence on certain town board issues has made him unpopular.
"If I was going to guess, I don’t think Bosworth was too happy with the fact that I’ve been too independent," Sherwin said. "Through the four years, there’ve been issues where I was not voting with the other people."

Two of those votes were on well-publicized, controversial issues and focused on flawed town board process. One was approving the re-zoning of property so Jeff Thomas could build a senior-housing complex in the midst of a moratorium for rural western Guilderland. The other was on a Patriot Act resolution that took no stand, as a local committee had asked the board to do, but only said the town board will forward the committee’s opinions on the Patriot Act to state and federal officials.

Recently, Sherwin said, Bosworth made a motion at a town-board meeting that was not seconded. After the meeting, Sherwin said, Bosworth sent an e-mail to the other board members.
"It said he couldn’t believe he was seated with four other Democrats and couldn’t get a second," Sherwin said. "We embarrassed him."
"I may have commented once that I didn’t get a second," Bosworth said. "It’s good parliamentary procedure...Without a second, you can’t have a lot of discussion. I thought I should get a courtesy second."
Two years ago, Republicans running against Bosworth for town board accused him of controlling the other board members. They nicknamed him "Boss Bosworth" and said it’s a conflict of interest for a party chair to serve on the town board.

Bosworth said then that the allegations were absurd.
Asked if he thinks other board members are controlled by Bosworth, Sherwin said Monday that he didn’t. "I was probably just more blunt. I went against the grain more times than the others," he said.

Sherwin has had other differences of opinion with the board, on issues like a proposed plan for rural Guilderland, he said.
"I’ve got to take full responsibility," he said. "I decided whether I was going to define the job or whether it was going to define me. I decided to do what I thought was right, to represent the entire town, not just do what Dave Bosworth wanted."
"I don’t think I’ve ever criticized anybody at a town board meeting," Bosworth responded. "I don’t interrupt."
"I realized at the time that it was a dicey move to make and that there would be consequences," Sherwin said of speaking his mind. "I was pretty positive there would be consequences. I knew that. It’s politics; politics can be a contact sport. I had a choice to make and I made it."
Asked if he were surprised at Sherwin’s comments, Bosworth said he wasn’t. "Bruce is a very independent voice on the board. He’s been a fairly independent person and he’s had some difficulty getting support for what he’d like to see accomplished.....Bruce was fervent in his beliefs and that can alienate people," Bosworth said. "He was a little outspoken on matters."
"For me, it’s a matter of, I wanted to stay independent," Sherwin said. "That’s the way an organization works. You have to fall into a certain mold. Is the party bigger than you or are you bigger than the party" For Dave, it’s the party is bigger than you. But I wasn’t all that interested in party politics.
"My only agenda is: What’s in the best interest of the town"" Sherwin said. "From my point of view, I was loyal. I did things differently; I didn’t play by the rules."
When asked if he thought Sherwin were disloyal, Bosworth said, "That’s not a decision I’d make as an individual. My opinion is not important."
But, Bosworth said, "He’s not a loyal party person. He’s distanced himself from party activities, like Democrat dinners, and he didn’t march in the bicentennial parade."
"I’d have been happier if Bosworth just called me and told me I didn’t reflect the values of the Democratic party," Sherwin said. "But, if it’s based on job performance, nobody’s ever said I did a bad job."

Sherwin regrets not being able to stay on the town board and pursue other issues, like the condition of the Watervliet Reservoir, Guilderland’s primary source of drinking water, and economic-development issues.
"I’m not upset because I did the best I could," he said. "I enjoyed the job and the people. It’s a public service. You serve at the behest of the people."
Asked if he would support Pastore in November’s election, Sherwin said he wouldn’t. "I thought I was the best candidate," he said.
Asked who he would vote for, he said, "I’d have to think a Democrat is better than I am to vote for them. If it’s not me, I’d like to see who the Republican candidate is. I’ll vote for the best guy for the job."
He concluded, "I take ownership for what happened. It’s okay. I’m not upset....It’s a marriage like anything else. I was the new kid on the block. I was young and fairly naive. But, it’s not like I haven’t compromised. It’s not like I haven’t supported people."

The Enterprise asked Runion if he knew of problems between Sherwin and Bosworth.
"I hear rumors and things, but I’m not really aware of anything," Runion said. "I’m not privy to any real problems."
He went on, "I do think Bruce is an independent thinker, but I think he’s always out working for the betterment of the town. Discussion amongst board members is a healthy thing. We don’t want to make decisions in a vacuum.
"I’m more involved in the administrative duties than in the day-to-day political activities," Runion said. "I’m a little out of the loop."
When asked for his thoughts on Pastore, Runion said he’d "make a fine board member." Pastore is a competent attorney, Runion said, and knowledgeable on planning and zoning issues, which is important.