Hilltowns

Randy Bashwinger

BERNE — Randy Bashwinger, a Republican leading a mixed slate of candidates as the party’s chairman, is running for a second term as highway superintendent. After being elected to fill out a term, Bashwinger is touting his accomplishments in the past three years as superintendent.

In Knox, a submission of a Freedom of Information Law request by a town councilman to the supervisor spiraled from a discussion about the duties of responding to such a request to arguments among both town officials and residents, resulting at one point in a scuffle between the supervisor’s wife and a co-chair of the town Democratic Committee.

The contested races in Rensselaerville include four candidates running for two town board seats, and four more vying for two assessor posts. The Democratic candidate for supervisor, Steve Pfleging, is unopposed.

RENSSELAERVILLE — “A small town is like a family,” says Steve Pfleging. A Democrat, he is unopposed in his run for supervisor.

It is Pfleging’s first run for political office and he’d like to keep the town on an “even keel,” he said. “I’m not a politician,” Pfleging said, “so running is new for me.”

RENSSELAERVILLE — Marion Cooke, a member of the Conservative Party, has served on the town board for eight years and is making her third run on the Republican line.

What she is most proud of during her tenure on the board is the town’s sound financial condition.

RENSSELAERVILLE — Marie Dermody says, “You have no right to complain if you don’t want to fix what’s broken. I’m putting my money where my mouth is.”

Dermody, a Democrat, is running for a council seat on the Democratic line.

RENSSELAERVILLE — Jason Rauf grew up in Medusa and has lived in Rensselaerville for his entire life.

At 30 now, he says he and his wife, Michelle, have decided to raise their first child, a daughter named Hannah, in the town they love.

A Republican, Rauf is making his first run for office on the GOP line.

RENSSELAERVILLE — Robert Tanner, a Democrat, is running for town board because, he says, “Rensselaerville is a small town. I want to make it more bipartisan..”

He went on, “There’s a lot of ‘them’ and ‘us.’ We all need to be one. There is strength in numbers. When we agree on something, we have to work for the common good.”

RENSSELAERVILLE — Kathryn Wank, an Independence Party member, is running for a second four-year term as assessor. As well as backing from her own party, she has the Republican and Conservative lines too.

RENSSELAERVILLE — Michael Weber had worked as an assessor for Rensselaerville before and hopes to do so again.

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