RENSSELAERVILLE — Along with the traditional political party picnic, knocking on doors, and road signs, Jeffry Pine, the Democratic committee chairman, tried a small­scale robocall this year, featuring county executive Dan McCoy’s voice endorsing his slate of candidates.

As Democrats have struggled to dominate in elections in this rural town of 1,800 as they once did, Pine laments lower voter turnout. But, he acknowledged, the political tide had been against incumbent Democrats four years ago, when he was unseated as assessor by Richard Tollner, the incumbent Pine defeated this Election Day.


In the race for the town board, the one Democratic candidate, Gerald Heath, got the least votes on Nov. 3, losing to incumbent Independence Party Member Margaret Sedlmeir and Republican newcomer Kevin McGrath, an accountant who had the most votes with 370, or 37.72 percent, according to unofficial results from the Albany County Board of Elections. Sedlmeir got 332 votes or 33.84 percent. They will start their two new terms in January.


In the race for Rensselaerville’s next town justice, Democrat Dwight Cooke beat out Brian O’Keefe, running on the Republican, Conservative, and Reform Party lines. Cooke, a retired lieutenant at the county’s jail , said he likes the use of community service in sentences. “A lot of people who make mistakes shouldn’t be locked up,” he said in his October election interview. “You can pay your debt without being behind bars. It’s a hardship on their family.”

Rensselaerville has 605 enrolled Democrats, 275 Republicans, 59 Conservatives, 105 Independence Party members, five members of the Working Families Party, one Green Party member, and 260 nonaffiliated voters.
“I’m sorry that Heath didn't get in, but I think he's going to run again in two years. He's done the groundwork,” said Pine.

Currently, the town board is led by a Republican, Valerie Lounsbury, and made up of two Conservatives, one Independence Party member, and one Democrat. Conservative Bob Bolte did not seek re-election.

McGrath said he is new to town government, but serious about his new job.
“It's the same thing when I was in accounting,” he said, “you have to start working with the people and see how it pans out and, after that, make decisions about what you're going to do.”


Specifically, McGrath said he would offer a trained eye when it comes time for planning the town’s budget.
“In the prior years, I’m not sure what was done or what the procedures were,” said McGrath. “Certainly I’ll look at it from an accountant’s point of view and give that information to the supervisor and see if it's useful. I’m not going to look at it to point fingers.”


Pine himself won a seat in the assessor’s office, for which he ran and lost in the previous two elections. His opponent, incumbent Richard Tollner, beat him in 2011, with a narrow margin. This time, Pine had 16 votes over Tollner, according to unofficial results. Tollner said he doesn’t expect to have the assessor’s seat based on the absentee ballots. An appointed assessor in Duanesburg, he will continue in the same role there.

Pine isn’t concerned about the absentee votes. “We always split out positive,” he said.
The town’s assessor from 1999 to 2001, Pine says he has the knowledge to jump into the job in January, but he’ll have to take an ethics course required of assessors. “I’m going to get a list of all the properties that were damaged in the flood in Irene and Lee,” Pine said of tropical storms that ravaged parts of upstate New York in 2011. “The building department kept an intensive list from FEMA,” he said of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “I’m going to review that list and make sure they were adjusted properly.”

He has certification as an assessor and as a building inspector, a job he says he’ll keep in New Scotland.
One of three elected assessors working for the town, Tollner says the assessments for flooded properties in Rensselaerville were appropriate. He believes Pine’s focus on the issue influenced the election.

“All I know is I ran an honest campaign without any negative advertising against a situation where there were half truths,” said Tollner.
Tollner once served as deputy supervisor and started recording videos of town meetings. He said he’ll continue the practice at town meetings he attends.

“I’ll still help the town out because there are some very good hardworking people in town, including the three guys that just got elected,” said Tollner, naming the winners for town board and town justice. “You have a Republican, Independent, and a Democrat there, and that's the way it should be.”