After months of uncertainty, the Saratoga Springs Democratic Party will run a write-in campaign in this month’s special city council election.
Former Democratic Public Works Commissioner Jason Golub stepped down in August for a state role, leaving a vacancy on the five-person city council, which split over how to proceed.
The council eventually approved an election timeline in October, sending it to the County Board of Elections. Republican Commissioner of Elections Joe Suhrada was initially critical of the January 28th election, called the city’s charter “antiquated,” and requested approval from the attorney general or governor before agreeing to the scheduled vote.
City Republicans nominated planning board member Chuck Marshall while Democrats failed to nominate any candidate by the deadline.
After weeks of deadlock, the council appointed Democrat Hank Kuczynski on an interim basis and seemingly called off the election.
But following a suit from Marshall and the city Republican Committee chair Mike Brandi, county supreme court judge James Walsh ordered the election must proceed.
Over the weekend, the city Democratic Committee announced Kuczynski would be running a write-in campaign. Chair Otis Maxwell.
“There’s been a process which is basically marked by underhanded maneuvering on the part of Saratoga County Republicans including the Saratoga County Committee chair who is also an election commissioner and a judge who is a Republican, to create a ballot with only one candidate on it. And that is—basically we have a Democratic majority in Saratoga and the Republicans are trying to get something done with a power grab they can’t do in a straight-up election. So, I think Hank’s feeling is that this was just not fair, not democratic and he decided to do something,” said Maxwell.
Marshall rejects the idea that the Republicans are playing dirty.
“You know they set a calendar and I adhered to the calendar. So, the fact that I’m the only one on the ballot should be an indication of, ‘he’s the only one who paid attention to the law,” said Marshall.
Brandi supports the decision to hold the one-candidate election as upholding election laws.
“We’re treating this as a competitive election because it is one. We expected that they would do some sort of write-in. We didn’t know if it was going to be their original candidate or someone new. Frankly, I’m kind of surprised it’s the interim commissioner considering his past statements that he would not be seeking this position and would not be running in a special election. And here we are a few weeks later and it’s him. So, I’m a little surprised it’s him based on his statements. But nevertheless, we’re prepared to run a full-fledged campaign here,” said Brandi.
Kuczynski initially accepted the role on an interim basis in October so he could guide the city’s second largest department through budget season.
He says things have changed.
“So what happened was, the Democratic Party approached me and said ‘we believe that the people need a choice and could we use you as the write-in candidate?’ And after thinking about it, I wasn’t really, really considering anything like this, but I decided to do it because I believe a judge should not anoint an elected official in Saratoga Springs and I believe people should have a choice in democracy,” said Kuczynski.
Maxwell says selecting Kuczynski as a candidate made sense.
"He is not only the interim commissioner who's done a great job and has shown the ability to deal with some crises that happen during winter. But he also has previous city hall experience and has shown himself to be a very even-handed and even-tempered addition to the city council," said Maxwell.
Republican Mayor John Safford says he’s hopeful the election will bring the council’s attention back to running the city.
“I wanted to do this election right and got some criticism for that upfront, but I’ve always wanted to have this election. And now that we actually have it and the Democrats didn’t put anyone on the line and we hear some criticisms about that—in a way it’s not bad that they’re going to do a write-in. I think for a while they were thinking they weren’t going to. But at least I think it’s good that they’ll have somebody to support,” said Safford.
Early voting begins January 18th. And for people who might not want to vote for Marshall….
“Hank Kuczynski. K-U-C-Z-Y-N-S-K-I,” said Kuczynski.