KNOX — In the first major election in Knox after the Republican Party filled the board with its chosen candidates in 2020, local Democrats have put up only two challengers despite seven seats being available. 

Russell Pokorny, a Democrat, is the party’s choice for supervisor, and Deborah Liddle, a Democrat, was nominated for town clerk.

Pokorny, who with his wife, Amy, had run the general store in Knox, retired as the town’s long-time assessor in 2019. Russell and Amy Pokorny, a former town board member, both ran unsuccessfully for supervisor against incumbent Vasilios Lefkaditis, who manages a hedge fund.

“We couldn't find anyone else who wanted to run,” Democratic Party Chairman Paul Scilipoti told The Enterprise this week. “My opinion is that town board meetings have become so distasteful in recent years, it has discouraged participation. We Democrats haven’t fared well in recent elections either.”

Lefkaditis, a Democrat, took office in 2015 on the Conservative Party line after he failed to get backing from the Democrats. Since then, the Democratic Party has been slowly losing its grip on what would normally be an easy town to campaign in, considering that Democrats make up approximately 55 percent of the town’s enrolled voters. The town has more unaffiliated voters than enrolled Republicans.

In 2012, Knox went for Democrat Barack Obama in the presidential election; in 2016 — despite enrollment that skewed Democratic — the town went for Republican Donald Trump. 

In the years that followed Lefkaditis’s election, he frequently clashed with remaining Democratic board members, who, along with some sympathetic residents, have accused him of bully-like tactics. By 2020, the town board was made up entirely of Lefkaditis’s slate, all backed by the GOP.

Lefkaditis is not seeking re-election this year for reasons he never divulged despite repeated Enterprise inquiries, so Pokorny will campaign against Knox resident Kregg Grippo, who does not appear in party enrollment records obtained this month from the Albany County Board of Elections. 

“[Grippo] is exactly what the Town needs to keep the momentum going,” Lefkaditis told The Enterprise in an email. “He’s not a politician (which served me extremely well).”

He went on about Grippo that he “has been successfully self employed for 25 years in the contracting industry, and is family/community oriented.”

“That experience will go a long way towards continuing the trend of questioning every expense and reinvesting into the community,” Lefkaditis said. “His experience is literally indispensable as the Town Board contemplates a much needed new highway garage and/or transfer station in the next several years.”

Democrat Deborah Liddle, who is currently the town’s court clerk, will challenge Conservative Traci Schanz, the incumbent clerk endorsed by the Republican and Conservative parties. 

Brigitte McAuliffe, who is running on her own Accountability Party line, is seeking one of two available town board seats, which are being defended by incumbents Ken Saddlemire, a Democrat, and Karl Pritchard, a Republican.

Saddlemire is a dairy farmer and Pritchard owns and runs a car sales and repair shop.

McAuliffe, a Republican, regularly attends and live-streams town board meetings, and is a strong critic of Lefkaditis. 

The remaining positions — highway superintendent, tax collector, and town justice — are being sought only by their incumbents, who are endorsed by the Republican and Conservative parties. 

Knox is not the only Hilltown to have an underwhelming election year. Of the four Hilltowns, only Berne has a full Democratic slate.

In Westerlo, where, like Knox, the Republican Party recently overcame years of Democratic control, the two parties endorsed the same slate of candidates. 

And in Rensselaerville, where partisan politics have been less prevalent than in the other Hilltowns in recent years, the Democratic Party endorsed the same supervisor and clerk candidates as the other parties, while making no endorsements for the remaining three positions.

The Enterprise editorialized earlier this month on lack of choice for voters, arguing that uncontested elections diminish voter participation. 

“We’ve seen in the two villages we cover — Altamont and Voorheesville — how low voter turnout is when there is no choice,” Enterprise editor Melissa Hale-Spencer wrote.

“Altamont, for example, has a population of about 1,700,” she continued. “This year, a total of 60 ballots were cast in the village’s uncontested election. That’s about a 75-percent drop from the village’s previous contested election, in 2019. In that election, 210 people voted.

“A choice gives citizens a reason to participate — to control the direction of their government. For the good of democracy ... give voters a choice.”