Black community leaders held a press conference Tuesday afternoon on the steps of Schenectady City Hall to speak out against "ongoing attempts to suppress Black leadership."
The press conference came a day after the Schenectady County Board of Elections invalidated nominating petitions for city councilors Marion Porterfield and Damonni Farley. The BOE ruled that the Democrats lacked a sufficient number of signatures.
The press conference was organized by the NAACP Schenectady chapter. President Nikita Bowen-Hardy is the organization's president. "We are here today because there is a pattern, a persistent and intentional one taking place right here in Schenectady, a pattern where black leaders are elevated when it benefits the powerful but dismissed when they lead boldly, a pattern where transparency is demanded from us but never modeled by those who make the rules,” Bowen-Hardy said.
She accused the Schenectady Democratic Committee of a repeated pattern of silencing Black voices. The committee did not endorse Farley and Porterfield.
Bowen-Hardy went on to read an Op-Ed critical of the city Democratic committee that she says was rejected from the Daily Gazette. "It was clear. It was flat, factual, and it was urgent, and the Gazette rejected it, not once, but twice. That's not oversight, that is suppression," she said.
The Democratic Committee has not yet responded to requests for comment.
In response, Daily Gazette editor Miles Reed disagreed with the NAACP's characterization. He said in part: "It’s irresponsible and flat-out false to suggest that we’ve somehow engaged in the suppression of Black leaders like Ms. Porterfield and Mr. Farley. Nothing could be further from the truth. We routinely run front-page stories about leaders of color who are making a difference in the community. Leaders like Ms. Porterfield and Mr. Farley and countless others who’ve made big contributions to the community."
Meantime, Farley and Porterfield say they will continue to push ahead despite not appearing on the June Democratic primary ballot.
Porterfield expects to remain on the Working Families Party ballot.
"I'm still deciding how to move forward on this. It's a new experience. I've never been here before, so I have some decisions to make. I have my team to talk to so we can make those decisions," Porterfield said.
Farley urges his supporters to stay grounded.
"I ask that, as we are in this point of reflection in a nation, we recognize that that's something that we must do ourselves, because if you're not doing that, then what you're doing is perpetuating the problem that's happening right now. With our own Democratic Party, we need some more mirrors and maybe some less windows. Okay, we really need to stand up and stand for Democratic values," said Farley.
But tensions remain between the councilors and Democratic Mayor Gary McCarthy. The mayor says the politicians "failed themselves."
"To run for office today, the election law is very clear," McCarthy said. "You have to get 5% of the enrolled voters in a particular party to sign nominating petitions for an individual's candidacy. That's whether you're Republican, Democrat, conservative, other party members. Some of the candidates here in Schenectady failed to get the minimum number of signatures. And there was press conference yesterday where if the people that showed up at the press conference had just gone out and got four or five signatures each, they would have been on the ballot."
Schenectady County Republican Board of Elections Commissioner Darlene Harris says the candidates have a short window to challenge the BOE's determination of a lack of valid signatures.
"They have until Thursday of this week to file an order to show cause and bring about a court proceeding for them to have it reviewed through that system, to validate it. To overturn the Board of Elections determination," Harris said.
Harris says three Republican city council candidates’ petitions have also been invalidated. Jacob Dobbs, Ed Varno, and Sara Ibrahim also faced insufficient signature issues.
