NEW SCOTLAND — Town Democrats are running on the Albany County Conservative Party line in the September primary, while Republicans have been shut out, according to New Scotland Republican Party Chairman Timothy Stanton.

Republicans running for town council are seeking write-in votes for the Conservative line in the primary, Stanton told The Enterprise. Republicans are also running on the Reform Party line — a party that formed over anti-Common Core sentiment in the previous election, he said.

“No Republican bothered to come in for interviews,” Albany County Conservative Party Chairman Richard Stack told The Enterprise.

Both the Republican and the Democratic parties were given requests for questionnaires and interviews to get the Conservative nod, Stack said.

“At the end of the day, they didn’t comply,” he said of the Republicans.

“That is an absolute bald-faced lie,” Stanton told The Enterprise. “We were never, ever notified or asked. The Democrats were automatically put on the line without anyone else being considered. That’s why all our candidates are ‘primary-ing’ as a write-in.”

Incumbents and Democratic candidates for town council Adam Greenberg; Patricia Snyder; and William C. Hennessy Jr. are running on the Conservative line, as is Albany County Legislator L. Michael Mackey, the Democratic incumbent for District 38.

New Scotland has 201 enrolled Conservatives, which is three percent of the registered voters. Republicans make up 24 percent and Democrats 37 percent of registered voters. Another 27 percent are unaffiliated and the rest belong to small parties, the largest being the 372 in the Independence Party, making up 6 percent of registered New Scotland voters.

Mackey, who serves as the New Scotland Democratic Party chairman, told The Enterprise that the town council has a record of conservative budgeting; the council is currently made up of Snyder, Hennessy, the newly-appointed Greenberg, Democratic Supervisor Thomas Dolin, and Independent Deputy Supervisor Douglas LaGrange.

“New Scotland has the lowest town property tax rate in Albany County,” Mackey said. “That’s probably what the Conservative Party looked at.”

Mackey said that neighboring Guilderland may have a lower rate, but the town does not provide services like garbage removal, as New Scotland does.

New Scotland, with a Democratic board overseeing budgeting, “votes conservatively on issues that are really relevant to local government,” Mackey said.

“Dolin, and the others, have many years of low budgets,” he said. “You don’t get to be the lowest-taxed municipality in the region unless you’ve been pretty conservative in your budgeting.”

Mackey said that factors in New Scotland’s previous budgets have been the town’s slower residential and industrial development compared to its neighbors.

“New Scotland has developed in a way it hasn’t needed a town police department,” he said. “It has developed in a moderate way — more than the Hilltowns, less than suburban towns.”

Discord

“People that are part of the Conservative Party are very unaware that the Conservative Party is not seeking Conservatives,” Stanton told The Enterprise. “They have a different agenda. When they’re looking to fill their slot, they’re not seeking the most conservative candidate. They have their own agenda of people they want put on.”

Stack told The Enterprise that New Scotland Republicans did not respond to his efforts to communicate.

“Nobody ever contacted me, and nobody every asked for an interview,” Stack said.

He said that cross-listing Democrats with the Conservative Party is not unusual, with the advent of more small parties, like the Libertarian and the Green parties. The Conservative Party, Stack said, stands for fiscal conservation and family values.

“It’s all what you feel in your heart, over and above your political affiliation,” Stack said.

Conservatives pull more votes than other minor parties, he said. In Albany County, 2,000 members are enrolled in the Conservative Party, but the party consistently receives 5,000 to 7,000 votes during elections, Stack said.

Stanton said that his Republican town board candidates — Craig A. Shufelt and Christopher P. Frueh — are still seeking write-in votes for the Conservative Party line; they completed paperwork with the county for the opportunity to ballot in the September primary, with hopes of being on the ballot in November.

“Essentially, we are primary-ing. It is very difficult, but we’re doing it,” Stanton said of seeking write-in votes for Shufelt and Frueh.

Stanton is running against Mackey for the county legislature in District 38. He was unable to complete his opportunity-to-ballot petition due to an error on the form he submitted, he said.

“It’s very disappointing that very conservative candidates — who are conservative in their beliefs — were not even contacted or interviewed by the Conservative Party,” Stanton said.

He described a conservative voter as someone who is cost-conscious or anti-spending, leading to a more fiscally responsible person; and as a person who prefers less government to more.

“We are all on the Reform Party line,” Stanton said of town Republicans. “The Reform Party has kind of picked up the conservative people.”

Stanton said that the Reform Party started as an anti-Common Core group during the last election cycle. Now, with no Common Core items at the foreground, the party changed its name, he said.

When asked if it were unusual for Democrats to align with the Conservative Party, Mackey told The Enterprise, “No, I don’t think so. Historically, the candidates in New Scotland have a record of conservative budgeting. Social issues like abortion aren’t relevant in local government.”
Conservative management of finances is what matters in a local election, Mackey said.