RENSSELAERVILLE — David Bowdish says he was surprised on Thursday night to hear from a neighbor that he was on the ballot, running on the Republican line to be town supervisor.

“I’m going to quote the Civil War general, William Tecumseh Sherman, when they wanted him to run for president in 1884: I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected,” Bowdish told The Enterprise on Friday.

The Rensselaerville ballot, which is posted on the website for the Albany County Board of Elections, shows Bowdish on the Republican line, running against Steven Pfleging on the Democratic and Independence party lines. The Enterprise ran issues-based profiles on Oct. 12 of the candidates named by the Democratic and Republican party town chairmen. Bowdish was not among them and residents have called to ask why he wasn’t included.

Richard Tollner, the town’s Republican chairman, told The Enterprise at the time, “We had two candidates who were interested. But one had an employment conflict and the other was a New York State employee at a level where it wasn’t allowed.”

Bowdish, who is 66, says he retired several years ago from his job as territory sales manager for Getty Petroleum.

He described election events unfolding this way: “I have been asked before about running for supervisor … I’m retired now and just not interested.”

He said he likes doing things “at a leisurely pace” now. For example, he has spent a long time rebuilding a stone wall on his property outside of the hamlet of Medusa where he lives. “I’ve torn it down a couple of times and rebuilt it,” Bowdish said. He wants to get it “just right.”

“We have some acreage down a dead-end road,” he said of his home. We watch the deer on the front lawn … We see all the new fawns in early spring and hope to see them grow up.”

He and his wife also like to take trips in their motor home. “We just enjoy life,” he said.

So Bowdish, who is enrolled as a Republican, did not go to the GOP caucus this year, he said. After the caucus, he got a phone call from Tollner, he said.

“He said I was nominated for supervisor,” recalled Bowdish. “He said, ‘Yep, we put your name down until we could contact you.’”

Bowdish says he told Tollner he was not interested in running.

Tollner said on Friday that he had, indeed, called Bowdish the night of the caucus and Bowdish told him he would not run.

That was the last that Bowdish thought about it until he heard from his neighbor on Thursday.

Matthew Clyne, the Democratic election commissioner for Albany County, told The Enterprise on Friday that Bowdish’s name “was included on the certificate of nomination sent in by Republican leadership.” The nomination had to be declined within three or four days, he said.

Since Bowdish was an enrolled member of the Republican Party, he did not have to fill out any paperwork to accept the nomination as someone from another party would have had to, said Clyne. “It just gets processed … We don’t verify these,” he said. Names are looked into only if an objection is raised or “there’s a declination,” Clyne said.

“The time has expired, the ballot is set,” Clyne said; there is no way, at this point, that Bowdish’s name can be removed from the ballot.

The Enterprise on Friday asked Tollner, who submitted the paperwork, how and why Bowdish’s name got on the certificate of nomination. Tollner said, “In the caucus, Dave’s name came up … and we nominated him ... I submitted the results of the caucus at which Mr. Bowdish was nominated … Apparently, the process is, if you’re nominated, you get to go on the ballot. That was not how I understood it.”

Tollner also said, “We’re putting word out he’s not interested in running.”

Asked what would happen if Bowdish were to be elected, Clyne said, “Realistically, if someone is not campaigning, they are not going to get elected.”

Pushed to answer the hypothetical — if Bowdish were elected but did not want to serve — Clyne said, “He would resign…. It would be up to the town board to make an appointment to fill the vacancy. Then there would be a special election.”

Clyne concluded, “He should be congratulated on his fortuitous nomination.”

Bowdish, who has lived in Rensselaerville since 1986, said he has become discouraged with politics. “When I was younger, I ran the Town of Rensselaerville Tea Party group,” he recalled. “It wasn’t totally politics,” he said. “There were so many different things we could share with people. A lot of it was about sustainable living.”

One of the monthly speakers, for example, explained how to set up a hand pump so that water could be accessed when the power is out, said Bowdish.

Also, he said, “Veterans came in to show how to properly fold the flag and what it represents … People running for office came in to explain why.”

An average of 75 people attended the monthly meetings, Bowdish said; the meeting on Second
Amendment rights attracted twice that many.

Bowdish concluded, “I’m not as active as I used to be because I got disappointed in other people. You can put in, and put in, and put in. It’s kind of like the people in the rescue squads, or in the military — they commit life and limb, and then others want to criticize.”