In New Scotland
Dems and GOP faceoff with full slates



NEW SCOTLAND – The race is heating up in New Scotland – Republicans and Democrats have announced their party’s candidates for the town’s November elections.

The current town board has three Democrats and two Republicans in a town where Democratic enrollment now dominates with well over a third of registered voters not enrolled in any party.

Former town justice Thomas Dolin announced last month that he would run for supervisor on the Democratic ticket, while Councilman Douglas LaGrange, a Republican, was considering a run, and Supervisor Ed Clark said he would not seek re-election.

LaGrange, an eighth-generation dairy farmer, told The Enterprise this week that he "is going to run for supervisor" on the Republican ticket. He wanted to be sure that he could "unequivocally do the job as a full-time job. That can be done," LaGrange said.
"New Scotland is at a crossroads with planning," said LaGrange, who sees it as a defining issue in the election as a tech park is being developed in the eastern part of town.
"I think residents of New Scotland are well-served by the fact that both parties run good, qualified people," said the town’s Democratic party chair, L. Michael Mackey this week. "It leads to exciting races, and is a benefit to the residents."

The New Scotland Democratic Team, as the candidates are calling themselves, is made up mostly of incumbents. Dolin, a lawyer, who is making his first run at town supervisor, will be joined by Brendan O’Shea, a lawyer, who is running for one of two town justice positions, as the only other new candidate. Two slots are open because Dolin resigned as judge in order to run for supervisor.

Town Democrats up for re-election include: Diane Deschenes for town clerk; Deborah Baron, a school secretary, and Richard Reilly, a lawyer, for town board; Darrell Duncan for highway superintendent; and David Wukitsch, a lawyer, for town justice. Wukitsch was appointed by the town board in May, in a vote split along party lines, after Dolin’s late March resignation.
These candidates make "probably the strongest ticket the Democrats have ever run," said Mackey.
LaGrange, a lifelong resident of New Scotland, believes that his slate – including planning-board member Charles Voss and businessman Gary Schultz for the two town board seats, and Penny Barone for town clerk – "is the best group of candidates for the town, not for the party, that I’ve ever seen."
Republican Margaret Adkins, a lawyer, will seek re-election for her town justice post, and John Keenan, a lawyer, will run on the Republican ticket for the other judge position, LaGrange said. "Their résumés speak for themselves," LaGrange said of Adkins and Keenan, referring to them as "extremely good candidates" for the justice positions. "I’m thrilled with both of them," he added.

According to the Albany County Board of Elections, 35 percent of registered voters in New Scotland are enrolled as Democrats, and 29 percent as Republicans. Less than 1 percent of registered voters are enrolled in one of the small parties – 257 residents are enrolled as Independents, 174 as Conservatives, 11 in the Working Families party, 21 in the Green Party, and 1 Libertarian. That leaves about 36 percent of the voters not enrolled in a party.

The Republicans
Before making his final decision to run for supervisor, LaGrange said that he wanted to be sure that his wife and family were strongly behind it. "They certainly are, without any reluctance at all," he said yesterday.
He also wanted "to put together a slate of candidates that would be about the town of New Scotland," LaGrange said. "I had to have candidates that were going to improve what we already have" I wanted to get a slate of candidates that were business people who could attack the budget from a business perspective rather than a political perspective."
Chuck Voss, LaGrange said, "is a town planner by vocation. He brings so much expertise to the town board and he’s invaluable."
Gary Schultz has run a couple of businesses in Voorheesville, LaGrange said. When he asked Schultz to run for a seat on the town board, Schultz replied, "It’s time for me to give back to the community."
Penny Barone, said LaGrange, has the résumé and the ability to be a good town clerk. "She’d be a good face for Town Hall," he added.
Barone was very receptive to LaGrange’s idea to make Town Hall "more accessible to the public" by having office hours one evening per week so that residents wouldn’t have to rearrange their work schedules to get there.
LaGrange said he is tired of politics and of politicians who play on the emotions of the residents. "I think we need to be more honest," he said.
Though he believes Dolin is a "really good person" and "a good town justice," LaGrange believes that he is not experienced enough for the job. Dolin’s experience, LaGrange said, "is a shallow experience."
LaGrange said that he has had "cumulative experience" with town issues with his four years on the planning board, his work with the Residents Planning Advisory Committee (RPAC), and his nearly two years on the town board. "That puts me so far ahead," he said.
"I don’t want to stagnate in that office," LaGrange said of the supervisor’s office, "while we get someone up to speed."
He likened Dolin’s run for supervisor to his hypothetical run for town justice. If that were the case, LaGrange would be basing his experience on "my watching Judge Judy every day," he said.
LaGrange’s decision to run was "cemented" recently at a party of an old high-school friend, he said. His friend’s mother said that she heard that he was running for supervisor, and he said he hadn’t decided yet.

She told him that she would vote for him. He said that she told him that she had never known him to not be honest.
"It just took me to the next level of assurance that I was doing the right thing," LaGrange said.

The Democrats
Because most of the Democratic candidates in the upcoming election are incumbents, Mackey said, it was "easier" to compile the Democratic slate.
"I don’t think there is anyone more qualified in the town than Tom Dolin" for supervisor, Mackey said. "Brendan O’Shea is an excellent judge candidate," he added of the other new candidate.
The major issues within the town, Mackey said, are really "the same as almost every other election year."
The town needs to implement a plan of "controlled growth to help alleviate the tax burdens" without changing the fundamental character of the town," Mackey said.
"I know that the feeling of the candidates is that the town does need some growth, particularly commercial growth," he said.
In Dolin’s mid-May announcement of his run for supervisor, he stressed the importance that the town enact "a policy of smart, controlled, responsible growth.
"We obviously have to try and attract some commercial enterprises" in an attempt to combat the school-tax burden, which many residents feel is "becoming unbearable," Dolin told The Enterprise earlier.
Before becoming a judge, Dolin practiced law for 29 years. "I did a lot of commercial lending and trusts and estates work," Dolin said earlier of his years as an attorney.

He was the managing partner of a 14-lawyer law firm with more than $3 million in gross revenues, he said earlier.

He was also the attorney for the town of Westerlo for seven years, and the attorney for the planning boards in both New Scotland and Voorheesville.
In his 20 years as a planning board attorney, Dolin said that he became familiar "with the issues that rural towns and villages face with development pressures and the competing demands of established residents and developers."

Getting services to town residents, particularly water services, is another major concern for the town of New Scotland, Mackey said.
All of the Democratic candidates, he said, "feel that working closely with the larger neighboring municipalities" such as Guilderland, Bethlehem, Albany, and also with the village of Voorheesville which lies within town boundaries, will be crucial to solving the "age-old" issue of municipal water.
"I just recognize that there are a lot of people who are suffering without adequate water," Dolin said earlier of town residents. The town needs to work at determining "how to distribute it at an affordable price," he said.

Dolin, Baron, and Reilly are all interested in adjustments to the zoning law to address serious needs in the town, Mackey said.
There is a real need in town for senior housing, he said. It is a tremendous benefit to the town not only for aging residents, he said, but also "in terms of the contribution to school taxes."

They’re also interested in zoning adjustments that would encourage clustering of developments to maintain some open space, Mackey said.
All of the candidates "are tremendously well qualified," Mackey said. "It’s the strongest slate we’ve ever fielded."
The incumbents have "strong, proven track records," he said, adding, "The newcomers will prove themselves, once elected."