Crosier bows out of race

BERNE — Supervisor Kevin Crosier is officially not running for a third term this fall. The Albany County Conservative Party, which endorsed Crosier in the past, will not likely nominate a replacement.

Republican Carl Baranishyn will run for supervisor on the GOP line — another line that Crosier, an enrolled Democrat, ran on in the past two elections, and the Democrats will nominate their candidates at their caucus this Friday, Aug. 14, at the Berne fire house.

At their caucus, the Democrats will nominate George Gebe Jr. for supervisor, and current Deputy Highway Supervisor Kenneth Weaver for highway superintendent, along with the following incumbents: Gerald O’Malley as tax collector; Robert Motschmann as town assessor; Patricia Favreau as town clerk; Kenneth Bunzey and Albert Raymond III as town judges; and both Joseph Golden and Wayne Emory as town councilmen.

Crosier, who also works as an Albany firefighter, hopes to spend the freed-up time with his family once his current four-year term ends, he said.

“If I had taken another term, I would have been in office for 12 years, which would have been the entire life of my daughter’s existence in school,” Crosier told The Enterprise. “I think it’s time I spent more time with my daughter and my wife. They waited for eight years while I worked in town government, and they made a lot of sacrifices,” he said.

Crosier will miss being the town’s chief financial officer, he said.

“Being town supervisor becomes part of your life, and working with the people over the past eight years has been a real honor,” said Crosier. “The best part of the job was being able to talk to the residents, hearing their concerns, and being able to act on those concerns. We have accomplished a lot in eight years, and it was the vision of the residents.”

While Crosier had been endorsed this year by the Albany County Conservative Party, as he had in the previous two elections, the town’s Republican Party publicly denounced Crosier earlier this year, stating that it would not be backing him this fall, instead backing Baranishyn, a long-time Berne resident. [For full coverage of Berne’s new Republican Party and its rejection of Crosier, go to www.altamontenterprise.com, under archives for May 7, 2009].

Democrat Carolyn Anderson, another long-time resident, had planned to run for supervisor, temporarily taking Crosier’s place on the Conservative line when he was on the fence about running again. But after her election to the Berne-Knox-Westerlo School Board in May, Anderson withdrew from the race for supervisor.

She was forced to abandon her run for supervisor when she discovered that, according to New York State Town Law, “No county treasurer, district superintendent of schools, or trustee of a school district shall be eligible to the office of supervisor.” Anderson told The Enterprise that her loyalty was with the school district. [For full coverage of Anderson’s involvement in the Fall 2009 race for Berne Supervisor, go to www.altamontenterprise.com, under archives for May 21, 2009, and June 11, 2009].

Now that both Crosier and Anderson are out of the picture, Albany County Conservative Party Chairman Richard Stack said that his party would not be involved in the supervisor race in Berne this year.

“I don’t believe our party is going to endorse anyone in that race, now that our two best candidates have withdrawn,” Stack said. “I don’t see any reason to reconvene our committee at such a late stage.”