BERNE — With less than seven weeks till the Nov. 4 election, the Berne Republican party has splintered.

Three of the candidates chosen at the Republican caucus have the GOP line on the ballot but are not being supported financially or with publicity by the committee: Highway Superintendent Randy Bashwinger; Town Clerk Kristin De Oliveira; and Stephanie Audino, who is running for tax collector.

Joseph Martin, who chairs the GOP committee in Berne, told The Enterprise on Tuesday, “We’re extremely optimistic. We’re running a bipartisan slate, supporting candidates on both lines. And every single resident tells us that they want normalcy back in town and are so tired of the toxic environment from past administrations.”

Bashwinger believes the motive for the lack of support is revenge.

Berne’s election is unusual this year in that every town board seat needs to be filled because three of the board’s five members — Al Thiem, Leo Vane Jr., and Martin — resigned in August 2024, crippling town government for more than half a year. All five of the board members had been elected with Republican backing.

The three who resigned as a bloc cited a “hostile work environment” created by Supervisor Dennis Palow, who is not running for re-election, that they said made it impossible to conduct town business in accordance with their own standards for public service.

Asked why he had lost the backing of the committee he once chaired, Bashwinger said the schism occurred after the three board members quit: “It was instant. The spark was because the three of them are pissed at me because I didn’t come out against Dennis Palow.”

He went on, referring to Martin, Thiem, and Vane, “The three board members that quit our town are the three that stuck it in my back. They’re the ones that are endorsing Allen Stempel.”

Stempel, a Republican, had been defeated at the Republican caucus in his bid for highway superintendent but he has the Democratic line on the November ballot while Bashwinger, who enrolled as a Conservative last year after he no longer chaired the town and county Republican committees, has both the Conservative and Republican lines.

“I won the caucus by a lot; it wasn’t even close,” said Bashwinger, estimating the vote was “76 to 10, something like that.”

Politics

Berne politics had been dominated by Democrats for decades until the 2016 election when Republicans made inroads. Among the town’s 1,096 registered voters, there are still more enrolled Democrats than Republicans: 389 to 268. Additionally, Berne has 315 voters not enrolled in any party  and 124 in small parties.

After a seven-month hiatus of Berne government, the governor finally appointed Melanie laCour, a Democrat, to a seat on the town board, and in April the town board appointed another Democrat, Joseph Giebelhaus, as councilman.

The GOP is now backing Giebelhaus for supervisor. For town board, the committee is backing: Republicans Casey Miller and Darin Cook, Democrat Scott Duncan, and Conservative Chance Townsend.

Republican Kristin De Oliveira, who was first elected town clerk in 2021, was chosen at the GOP caucus and has the Republican line on the ballot but is now not being backed by the committee; she is running against Democrat Katherine Brown.

Republican Stephanie Audino, who likewise was chosen at the GOP caucus for tax collector and has the Republican line on the ballot, is not being backed by the committee; she is running against Democrat Jim Kaufman.

Anita Clayton wrote in a letter to the Enterprise editor this week, commenting on Bashwinger, De Oliveira, and Audino not being listed on GOP campaign flyers and not being invited to a Sept. 19 candidates’ forum: “This was a deliberate act on their part to help sway the election by confusing the residents so the above candidates are not elected.”

Clayton served as a town clerk during a Democratic administration, and later, still enrolled as a Democrat, was backed by the GOP in a successful run for town board.

Martin responded to Clayton’s allegations that the Republican committee was trying to confuse residents, “No, absolutely not.”

Asked why the committee has chosen to back, both with funding and publicity, other candidates rather than Bashwinger, De Oliveira, and Audino who had been chosen at the caucus, Martin said, “We’re going to stand by the candidates that we feel are the most professional and beneficial to all of the town’s residents.”

Asked what had changed since the caucus so that the committee no longer views those three candidates as the most professional and beneficial, Martin said, “I think that what’s happening in the caucus is that a lot of residents in such a small town are fearful to vote in public instead of having the primary option.”

Caucuses are private events run by political parties to choose candidates through debate and discussion while primaries are run much like general elections with ballots cast privately.

Martin also said of the caucus, “It’s such a small group, people don’t turn out because they’re so fearful of the past politics in town where, God forbid, you have an opinion, you get attacked.”

Asked why Bashwinger, De Oliveira, and Audino had not been invited to the meet-the-candidates even on Sept. 19, Martin said, “We want to see professional people in those positions in our town and they are actively trying to disrupt that event.”

Martin went on, “I have not heard from any of those candidates — not once other than a social-media message that was relayed to me. But they all have my contact information and I have not heard anything from any of those candidates.”

Bashwinger said of the Sept. 19 event, “They never invited me, which I wouldn’t go anyway because of the way they are. I could care less. I’ll do my own campaigning … But they didn’t invite Kristin and they didn’t invite Stephanie and both of them are Republicans and they’re both the candidates and they both won the endorsement from the Republican party.

“Shame on this group for not supporting them. This is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen and I’ve been in politics for 12 or 15 years. I’ve never seen this happen before — ever.”

Bashwinger said Martin was dismissive of him for not being a Republican. “Well, who do you think ran the Republican committee for 12 years, you jackass? So I’ve had enough with him. I’m not interested in anything to do with them. They can go off in the wind for all I care. I could care less. I just want to help the town move forward and I am looking forward to getting the new board in.”

Election signs

In her letter, Clayton also asks, “Why are the Vanes refusing to give Randy his campaign signs?”

Bashwinger says he was told by Anne and Leo Vane that he and De Oliveira could leave their signs from the 2021 elections in the Vanes’ barn.

Later, when he was told the signs belonged to the Berne Republican Committee and not to him, Bashwinger says, “I went to social media and I posted a thing stating that, if anybody wanted my ‘Bashwinger for Highway [Superintendent]’ signs, they could go to his address and here’s his phone number. And a few days later, I had Albany County Sheriffs at my house, saying that I was harassing him, which is totally incorrect.”

Martin has a different account. “He was actually given his signs back two years ago,” Martin said of Bashwinger, “but he believes there’s more, which there’s not. You know, signs were left in, all over the place.”

Martin went on, “If you go to Randy’s house right now, he’s got piles of them on his porch ’cause he was given them back. He’s saying he did not receive them back. And we’re saying, we gave them back to you. We’re not going to go back and forth with you like children. And at the end of the day, those signs were paid for by the Berne Republican Committee.”

Bashwinger, however, contends that only the 50 signs with the words “Berne Republican Committee” printed on the bottom were paid for by the committee. “The other 200 that he has at his location,” he said, “were purchased by me and there is not ‘Berne Republican Committee’ printed on the bottom of them.’”

Martin said, with the doxing, “Randy was targeting members of the Berne Republican Committee regarding his signs.”

Bashwinger’s post included the Vanes’ address and each of their phone numbers as well as Martin’s phone number. “I was told I had to take them to small claims court how childish,” his post said.

Bashwinger told The Enterprise he applied for small claims in the Berne Town Court. “They recused themselves so now have to go to Albany County small claims court … then they pick a town where I have to go to take him to court.”

He estimated the signs were worth about $2,000 and, by the time he gets them through the court, it will be after the election, Bashwinger surmised.

Both he and De Oliveira have purchased new signs using their own money or money from donors, Bashwinger said.

Bashwinger himself got 175 signs, which costs $1,800, he said. “A generous resident bought them for me so now I will continue to move forward and go to small claims court, but now I don’t have to worry about not having any signs.”

He concluded, “As soon as I win the election … things will change; we’ll have different people and I’m more than happy to work with Democrats. I have no problem with it. But I’m also working for the people of the town. I’m not working just for to kiss their ass.”