BERNE —  Unofficial election results show Timothy Lippert far ahead of Anita Clayton in the Democratic primary race for a vacant town board seat, currently held by Republican Leo Vane Jr.

Both of them are Democrats but Clayton, who is currently town clerk, is also expected to run for town board on the Republican line, having already secured Conservative Party backing.

Lippert has received 181 votes, or 66 percent, while Clayton has received 90, or 33 percent. Four people wrote in a candidate. The unofficial election results show the total votes cast in person, on or before Primary Day, but do not include absentee ballots, which can arrive at the Albany County Board of Elections as late as June 29 (but must have been postmarked by June 22).

The Board of Elections told The Enterprise that 131 absentee ballots were requested by Berne residents, and that 119 had been returned by early Wednesday morning. 

To win, Clayton would need 112 of all absentee ballots, or about 85 percent, assuming that Lippert receives the balance. 

“A two-to-one ratio sends a clear message, the voters are not happy with the current status in Berne,” Lippert told The Enterprise in an email Wednesday morning, acknowledging that absentee ballots had yet to be counted. He said he was looking forward to November, and to the continued efforts of Democratic candidate for supervisor Peggy Christman and the “Berne Working Together” team. 

Clayton declined to comment until results are certified. 

This is the first year within the past 10 that the Berne Democratic Party has held a primary instead of a caucus. 

A total of 406 people voted or requested a ballot in the primary, representing about half of the town’s 809 enrolled Democrats, according to 2021 enrollment figures from the county board of elections. 

This number is far greater than the number that would typically participate in caucuses, which Berne Democratic Chairman Kevin Crosier estimated this week at about 100. He said that the decision to hold a primary had partly to do with accessibility, since some voters, he felt, might find the caucus process intimidating, because it involves all participants gathering in the same room.

“I thought the voter turnout at the polls was excellent,” Crosier said. 

Democrats are the majority in Berne, with the three other parties having a combined total of only 667 enrolled voters — a 55-to-45 split. The Republican party has 495 voters, the Conservative Party has 115, and the Working Families Party has 57. 

The candidates

Lippert, a Democrat, is endorsed by his own party and the Working Families Party, and currently holds the Working Families Party line. Clayton, also a Democrat, is endorsed by the Conservative Party and currently holds that party line. The Republican Party has yet to hold its caucus; however, it will likely have the same slate of candidates as the Conservative Party. 

The two candidates are more easily distinguished from one another by their political associations than their views on specific local issues as defined in campaign interviews with The Enterprise last week. 

Clayton, who is currently the town clerk, has been elected to that position twice, each time on the Democratic line, and each time alongside Crosier, who was supervisor before Sean Lyons, a Republican who took office in 2018. 

However, since the GOP took control of the town board in 2020, Clayton has been seen by some residents as an ally of that party, primarily because of how long it takes her to respond to Freedom of Information Law requests, and complaints from the single Democrat on the board, Joel Willsey, that she does not provide him with important information in time for meetings. 

During her interview with The Enterprise, Clayton expressed sympathy for the current board, which has been heavily criticized for wantonly — and in some cases, illegally — firing town officials, pulling financial and personnel support away from the dormant Switzkill Farm property, and not allowing public comment at meetings, among other things. 

Of Switzkill Farm, Clayton said she is an admirer of the property but would defer to the will of her constituents when it comes to maintaining or getting rid of it. Lippert, meanwhile, staunchly advocated for the property.

Of the way town officials and employees were fired, Clayton distanced herself from the actions of the town board (“What happened with all of that, I can’t attest to …” she said) and indicated that no further system is needed for evaluating employee performance than what’s already in place.

Lippert said the town needs to “do a lot better” in terms of handling personnel matters, and also better scrutinize employees’ backgrounds and qualifications, obliquely referencing the GOP’s appointment of Chance Townsend as code-enforcement officer even though he lacked certification. 

And of public comment, Clayton said that it is “absolutely necessary” but was critical of the way some residents use their speaking time. Lippert also supported public comment, and said he felt a three-minute time limit per resident would be sufficient for keeping meetings on track.

However, Clayton, unlike Lippert, defended Highway Superintendent Randy Bashwinger, the current county GOP chairman and the former Berne Republican chairman, who has long been controversial, but especially so since a town highway worker, Peter Becker, was killed on the job last October when a dump truck he was working underneath fell and crushed him. 

A subsequent investigation conducted by the New York State Public Employee Safety and Health Bureau uncovered seven “serious” safety violations at the town highway garage related to the accident, including lack of training and lack of developed procedure.

In addition to working full-time for the town, Bashwinger works part-time for the Albany County Board of Elections, spending his mornings there, which he has argued is compatible with his duties as highway superintendent. However, some residents disagree and, like Lippert, feel that Bashwinger’s absence from the highway garage may have allowed Becker’s fatal accident.

In light of the GOP’s various scandals and controversies, Clayton says she was asked by the Berne Democratic Committee to denounce the GOP during a confidential candidate interview earlier this year, which she said she refused to do, sharing her frustration from the incident in a letter to the Enterprise editor in February. 

Lippert, meanwhile, is part of a Democratic cadre determined to undercut the GOP’s growing influence in the town, which corresponds to the election of former President Donald Trump and relies on populist strategies similar to those Trump employed on the campaign trail and in office.

“It’s pretty clear that people want their government back,” Berne Democratic Party Chairman Kevin Crosier told The Enterprise on Wednesday. “We’ve been hearing it all along when out knocking on doors. People feel they’ve been left out, they have no voice, they’re not allowed to speak at meetings. There’s no input for anything … They want their town back, they want volunteers back, they want committees back. They want people doing stuff.”