A Democratic Saratoga County supervisor officially launched her campaign for mayor of Saratoga Springs on Saturday and the move is already making waves in city politics.
Michele Madigan previously served as the Saratoga Springs Finance Commissioner for a decade, from 2012 to 2022.
In 2024, she became one of the city's two representatives on the Saratoga County board of supervisors.
Last, year she unsuccessfully ran for country treasurer.
As she seeks to continue to advance her political career, Madigan says her experience makes her the perfect candidate to take on Republican city Mayor John Safford, who is seeking a second term.
“I am running on my record, almost 12 years in elected office of getting things done. The latest thing I was able to accomplish in the minority on the county board of supervisors was getting a permanent Code Blue facility in Saratoga Springs after over a decade of not having one,” said Madigan.
In Saratoga Springs’ unique commissioner style of government, all five city department heads also serve as the city council with equal power.
On Saturday, the same day Madigan received the endorsement from city Democrats, city GOP committee chair Mike Brandi called her loyalty to the local Democratic Party into question by sharing personal text messages from Madigan criticizing party officials.
After losing a Democratic primary in 2019, Madigan pushed ahead on her own non-partisan "One Saratoga" platform, which divided city Democrats. Brandi says Madigan remained critical of city council Democrats after her departure from the five-member body.
Messages released by Brandi from Madigan criticize the city council’s approval of Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran’s hefty legal bill connected to an on-call pay dispute — what she labeled potential “fraud and theft.”
Madigan also took a shot at her successor as Finance Commissioner, Minita Sanghvi, calling her bid for State Senate in 2024 "the best hearty chuckle I've had in a long time."
Madigan does not deny sending the messages. She tells WAMC city Democrats met following Brandi’s press release.
“We have all pledged to work together and move forward. I have had my differences in the past, and I we all actually apologized for past comments because I am a Democrat and we want to move forward together,” said Madigan.
She says Brandi’s move to throw cold water on her campaign the day it was launched was not surprising.
“I’m going to run on my record. I will say I think John Safford is a gentleman. I have said this before. He’s got a campaign team behind that can be quite—I want to say underhanded, nasty, fear mongering, that’s what they do. And to me that’s what they’re going to continue to do over the next seven or eight months. And it’s unfortunate, but we’ll weather it. I’ve weathered this before and I’ll weather it with them now,” said Madigan.
Brandi says he thinks voters need to know how Madigan feels about fellow party members.
“This is Michele Madigan’s words on the record, so I thought it was important for voters to understand as Michele has taken this nomination, what her motivations might be behind her running, because she’s not a fan of her running mates. At least according to the text messages. She’s accused them of being unethical, potentially undertaking illegal actions and yet here she is standing shoulder to shoulder with them on the Democratic ticket. So, it certainly is interesting and concerning to me that she is,” said Brandi.
Meantime, city Democratic committee chair Otis Maxwell defends Madigan. He dismissed her prior remarks as "locker room talk."
“It’s stuff that you say behind closed doors and you’re kind of griping and never expecting it to see the light of day because you feel that you’re talking confidentially to a friend. And, unfortunately, for Michele she considered Mike Brandi a friend and that’s a mistake that I don’t think she would make or anyone else would make again,” said Maxwell.
Maxwell doesn’t expect the early attack to impede Madigan’s ability to lead the Democratic ticket.
“Her apologies were graciously accepted by the people that she mentioned in those remarks and we’ll definitely move forward and it’s good that we got this out now, get it out of the way. If that’s what Mike Brandi’s got then, you know, we’ve got it, thank you,” said Maxwell.
Sanghvi, who is now running for Madigan's county seat, calls Brandi's comments “divisive” and “fear mongering.”
“These are Republican tactics that they use nationally that they’re trying to employ locally. In fact, what we are seeing though is that Democrats of all stripes, whether we agree on everything or not are banding together because we believe we are stronger together,” said Sanghvi.
First-term Public Safety Commissioner Tim Coll, who won his seat in 2023 with GOP-backing and support from the One Saratoga platform, received the Democratic endorsement for the first time for November’s election.