Ken, this is David Buchyn of the Conservative Party in Saratoga Springs. As a longtime subscriber to the Post Star and a follower of this newsletter, we have communicated dozen of times over the past years. I wish you had reached out to me before you had written this, so you would’ve had the background on this.
For background on this matter, I suggest that you look up some of the excellent reporting that Wendy Liberatore of the Times Union has done over the past years about Tom Sartin from Saratoga Springs. Just Google Tom Sartin and the Times Union and you’ll see what Wendy uncovered with her investigative journalism.
Briefly, a few years back, the Republican Party tried to take over the WFP in order to gain access to their ballot line. In Saratoga Springs, Tom Sartin led that effort. Although they were somewhat successful in 2021, ultimately, their efforts failed, and they abandoned that attack. Now they are trying to gain control of the Conservative line. Same people, same tactics. It is known as party raiding, and it is against the law.
As you know, a few years back, the two major parties made effort to get rid of all the minor parties. They were able to get rid of the Green Party the Independence Party, the Libertarian and some others. But they couldn’t get rid of the Conservative and WFP parties. If you recall, it was Andrew Cuomo that had a particular beef against the WFP and he did everything to eliminate it. But the two major parties are still trying to get rid of the two minor parties. Those Democrats in the Republicans do not want to be challenged by a smaller party. They like the smaller parties only when they rubberstamp their candidates. This is what is going on in my particular situation. The Republican Party wants to take over and control the Saratoga county Conservative Party. We are fighting back with every means we know, including New York State election law, which specifically bans what they are trying to do.
We will do everything we can to prevent being taken over by the Saratoga county Republicans. Like you, I am uncomfortable with a lot of the verbiage in the letter we sent out, particularly the word loyalty, but the legal team wanted that in there, because that is how it is described in New York State election law. But we are questioning why 32 members of the far left WFP have decided as a group to join the far right Conservative Party, all at the same time and all before February 14 when voter enrollment changes can be made.
Please email me dfbuchyn@live.com if you have any more questions, or want to know where this all started. I don’t think what you have posted here is fair, accurate, or tells the true story of what’s going on. But we can both agree. The word loyalty is problematic.
There are many big questions here: is fusion balloting a good system? Should the Conservative Party and WFP be eliminated? It used to be when you changed party enrollment, you had to wait a period of time, almost a year, before the change in party became effective. Once the Democrats took complete control of the state government, they changed the law so changes in party registration took affect the very next day. That led to the party rating in the party switching that you see going on today across the state. People are now joining the Conservative Party and the Working Families Party not because they believe in the values of these parties, but they do solely for pure political gain. This stuff is happening all across the state. We in Saratoga are using state election law to defend our party
I (mostly) agree. This is all about party raiding and the behind the scenes political monkey business that goes on.
I am NOT in favor of eliminating any Parties.
I am in favor of eliminating fusion voting, which is adding votes for a candidate on all party lines. Fusion voting encourages this sort of monkey business.
If a 3rd Party never or very rarely has a candidate that is not on a major party line then they do not offer choice. Moreover, fusion voting allows people to run (for example) of both the Democratic and Conservative Party lines. If you look at those parties planks you will see that their political philosophies are basically opposites.
Last year Glens Falls and Queensbury Democratic committees passed resolutions that deny committee endorsement to a candidate running on any other constituted party line. It was an attempt to create some accountability for candidates. That all seems theoretical but here’s the test: when voters so often say “all the parties are the same” how does one party convince voters otherwise when there are candidates out passing petitions on multiple party lines?
It is an unethical practice which infuriated and confounded me when I was Queensbury Dem chair. I had candidates who passed petitions for judicial candidates running against Democrats. I had candidates who ran on the same party line as Donald Trump and Elise Stefanik.
I think we should have open primaries and ranked choice voting statewide and it would eliminate almost all of this. Folks can register for the party that aligns with their principles and vote for the candidate they like best without worrying about throwing away their vote.
I understand the desire for open primaries but I have concerns that they open the process to political shenanigans. New York State has a long record of problems with election interference and that history led to the stringent voting laws we currently have.
The story of party raiding going on in the CON party of Saratoga County gives me pause. Well, that and because as a town chair I witnessed all kinds of wheeling and dealing in attempts to gain advantage that had nothing to do with letting the public understand candidate’s positions on issues. It had a candidate I was supporting, one who I asked to not carry petitions for the CON party line get arrested for petition fraud. That was personally embarrassing. I mention it every once in a while and the candidate in question has threatened me with defamation suits over it. But I wasn’t the one arrested. And he knew better.
I’m not convinced ranked choice voting will necessarily deliver the best candidate either. I’d like to see more real world evidence in smaller states before bringing it to large states.
The City of New York which is the size of a small state (8 or 9 times the population of South Dakota) has had success with ranked choice in its local elections. I was registered there the first cycle it was implemented. We had 5 candidates for a city council seat in my community. The favorite was a machine hack whose Daddy is a state assemblyman. You can vote for up to 5 candidates. I voted for the longest of long shots first and then second for a woman I really liked. And stopped there. The hack still won, but I felt really good about my vote and the woman I liked did better than expected and it elevated her profile. She will be around again.
And it worked really well in Alaska, I thought where they used it for their state and federal elections and ended up with some diverse results. They have open primaries and the top four than are elected by ranked choice in the general election. Sarah Palin was running for Congress in a special election. In the first round she was ahead with a plurality, but when the 4th.and then 3rd candidates were eliminated, it was Mary Peltola, a moderate Dem and indigenous woman who won.. I feel like it could work well in these polarized times, where maybe sometimes most of us end up with our 2nd choice, which is easier to accept than when your rep is at the opposite end of the political spectrum from you.
Ken, I agree that Lobo's comment about Albany was a cheapshot and ill-advised. But your comparison to Storrs misses the mark. Storrs isn't a city. Heck, it isn't even a town. Rather it is a section of the town of Mansfield. A better comparison would be Hartford, where the UConn women play about half their home games and which is similar to Albany in size and lack of things to do. Either way, though, Lobo left herself open to easy retaliation!
While I agree that Hartford is a good comparison too Albany, I don't have any idea where Lobo lives now so I thought it was kind of funny she thought Albany was dull when there is nothing in Storrs, CT. I was trying to be funny, maybe ironic.
Right. I've only been to Storrs a couple of times for soccer games. There is virtually nothing there except for the university and a few cornfields. As Lobo might say in another universe, "Good luck finding something to do there."
In my view, the comparison is fair: Northeastern capital cities of approximately the same size. Both are on the receiving ends of complaints about crime and lack of opportunity. To be fair to Albany, it is the site of a massive shrine to Nelson Rockefeller's ego.
Is the Conservative Party still lockstep with whomever the Republican Party candidate is? I’ve assumed that to be the case anyway. There’s a former Democrat from Queens who’s held some positions, and still does, that seem like they’d be blasphemy to conservatives.
Yes, the CON party is basically a subset of the GOP. The top of their ticket includes the likes of Donald Trump and Elise Stefanik. It is extraordinarily rare to see a candidate on their line who is not also on a major party line, but in Queensbury we had 2 this year, Travis Whitehead and Jim Dobkowski. They both lost. Despite my opposition to CON party planks I voted for Travis. I think he would have offered important insight on the town board. The CON party is anti-woman. I know Travis and I don’t believe that is true for him personally.
2 local Democrats, who did not get the Dem endorsement because they also ran on the CON line did win.
Agreed, but then everybody would get mad at us for splitting the vote. People like Ralph Nader, Jill, Stein, RFK JR. Both both parties are extremely worried about a third-party candidate in this years presidential election. If we conservative started running our own candidates, I don’t think the Republicans would ever win again. That’s a tough decision either way, but worth thinking about.
To my way of thinking each party has an obligation to run their own candidate otherwise they are not truly legitimate parties offering choice.
I’m already there on the Republicans never winning again. It is the party of Republicans in name only. In reality it is a collection of submissives with no spine. There are a few notable exceptions but the current leadership of what was once known as the GOP does not recognize them as legitimate Republicans.
Now is the perfect time to divorce that party of traitors.
The Conservative Party is generally in line with the Republican Party. However, when we don’t back their candidates, they don’t like it, and they come after us and try and take us over. That is what is happening here. They want us to rubber stamp 100% of their candidates. They put up a bad judicial candidate back in 2022, and we decided to go with a Democrat instead. They are still angry about that.
I think it is worth Albany considering the comment from Lobo constructively.
That said, Easter weekend is not typically known as a time when there is a lot going on in most cities but I’m sure there were plenty of opportunities for visitors to go to church.
Still, Albany hosted the biggest show in basketball in the world on Monday. Nobody else had it. Just Albany. When is enough enough?
Why not have trifolds around the city for restaurants, theaters, the arts, diverse businesses, and cool niche spots? Some stuff in Albany isn't obvious. YEAH you can Google if you want to live in your phone...The city does have work to do and most people have drained it of finances by moving to suburbs but Troy has rebuilt, and Schenectady. It's Albanys turn.
Sorry but I have to side with Rebecca Lobo. I have worked in downtown Albany for many years and I can vouch for the lack of entertainment, restaurant, and bar options around MYP Arena. If the total downtown restaurant/bar capacity was open, you could maybe entertain 1000 people? On Easter weekend - not even half that number could find a place to go downtown. And let's not discuss the routine traffic/parking/one-way nightmare which was escalated by the road closures for the NCAA games! Downtown Albany is not the place anyone wants to hunt around for entertainment, especially after 5 and on weekends.
Incredible! I’d like to hear more as I understand that many Republicans are being asked if they believe the last election was valid… terrible stuff. What was the outcome of this meeting?
Does Rebecca Lobo realize how much Albany is into UConn basketball and that she, too, has been respected and had her share of adulation as part of their sustained success story including this year so why she would feel the need to make a mean-spirited comment about the hosting community came as a real surprise to me. Perhaps, given the response, she will think twice before having fun with a putdown? One would hope.
IIRC, the Times-Union report on this story indicated that it was not "the party" (to the extent that the CPNY is a party) that initiated these proceedings. It was the chairman alone. The article stated that there is no officially constituted Conservative committee in Saratoga County and that the chair was appointed by the state party.
Ken, this is David Buchyn of the Conservative Party in Saratoga Springs. As a longtime subscriber to the Post Star and a follower of this newsletter, we have communicated dozen of times over the past years. I wish you had reached out to me before you had written this, so you would’ve had the background on this.
For background on this matter, I suggest that you look up some of the excellent reporting that Wendy Liberatore of the Times Union has done over the past years about Tom Sartin from Saratoga Springs. Just Google Tom Sartin and the Times Union and you’ll see what Wendy uncovered with her investigative journalism.
Briefly, a few years back, the Republican Party tried to take over the WFP in order to gain access to their ballot line. In Saratoga Springs, Tom Sartin led that effort. Although they were somewhat successful in 2021, ultimately, their efforts failed, and they abandoned that attack. Now they are trying to gain control of the Conservative line. Same people, same tactics. It is known as party raiding, and it is against the law.
As you know, a few years back, the two major parties made effort to get rid of all the minor parties. They were able to get rid of the Green Party the Independence Party, the Libertarian and some others. But they couldn’t get rid of the Conservative and WFP parties. If you recall, it was Andrew Cuomo that had a particular beef against the WFP and he did everything to eliminate it. But the two major parties are still trying to get rid of the two minor parties. Those Democrats in the Republicans do not want to be challenged by a smaller party. They like the smaller parties only when they rubberstamp their candidates. This is what is going on in my particular situation. The Republican Party wants to take over and control the Saratoga county Conservative Party. We are fighting back with every means we know, including New York State election law, which specifically bans what they are trying to do.
Losing Kusnierz has to have been helpful! We in Moreau worked together to bring about change.
We will do everything we can to prevent being taken over by the Saratoga county Republicans. Like you, I am uncomfortable with a lot of the verbiage in the letter we sent out, particularly the word loyalty, but the legal team wanted that in there, because that is how it is described in New York State election law. But we are questioning why 32 members of the far left WFP have decided as a group to join the far right Conservative Party, all at the same time and all before February 14 when voter enrollment changes can be made.
Please email me dfbuchyn@live.com if you have any more questions, or want to know where this all started. I don’t think what you have posted here is fair, accurate, or tells the true story of what’s going on. But we can both agree. The word loyalty is problematic.
There are many big questions here: is fusion balloting a good system? Should the Conservative Party and WFP be eliminated? It used to be when you changed party enrollment, you had to wait a period of time, almost a year, before the change in party became effective. Once the Democrats took complete control of the state government, they changed the law so changes in party registration took affect the very next day. That led to the party rating in the party switching that you see going on today across the state. People are now joining the Conservative Party and the Working Families Party not because they believe in the values of these parties, but they do solely for pure political gain. This stuff is happening all across the state. We in Saratoga are using state election law to defend our party
I (mostly) agree. This is all about party raiding and the behind the scenes political monkey business that goes on.
I am NOT in favor of eliminating any Parties.
I am in favor of eliminating fusion voting, which is adding votes for a candidate on all party lines. Fusion voting encourages this sort of monkey business.
If a 3rd Party never or very rarely has a candidate that is not on a major party line then they do not offer choice. Moreover, fusion voting allows people to run (for example) of both the Democratic and Conservative Party lines. If you look at those parties planks you will see that their political philosophies are basically opposites.
Last year Glens Falls and Queensbury Democratic committees passed resolutions that deny committee endorsement to a candidate running on any other constituted party line. It was an attempt to create some accountability for candidates. That all seems theoretical but here’s the test: when voters so often say “all the parties are the same” how does one party convince voters otherwise when there are candidates out passing petitions on multiple party lines?
It is an unethical practice which infuriated and confounded me when I was Queensbury Dem chair. I had candidates who passed petitions for judicial candidates running against Democrats. I had candidates who ran on the same party line as Donald Trump and Elise Stefanik.
I think we should have open primaries and ranked choice voting statewide and it would eliminate almost all of this. Folks can register for the party that aligns with their principles and vote for the candidate they like best without worrying about throwing away their vote.
I understand the desire for open primaries but I have concerns that they open the process to political shenanigans. New York State has a long record of problems with election interference and that history led to the stringent voting laws we currently have.
The story of party raiding going on in the CON party of Saratoga County gives me pause. Well, that and because as a town chair I witnessed all kinds of wheeling and dealing in attempts to gain advantage that had nothing to do with letting the public understand candidate’s positions on issues. It had a candidate I was supporting, one who I asked to not carry petitions for the CON party line get arrested for petition fraud. That was personally embarrassing. I mention it every once in a while and the candidate in question has threatened me with defamation suits over it. But I wasn’t the one arrested. And he knew better.
I’m not convinced ranked choice voting will necessarily deliver the best candidate either. I’d like to see more real world evidence in smaller states before bringing it to large states.
The City of New York which is the size of a small state (8 or 9 times the population of South Dakota) has had success with ranked choice in its local elections. I was registered there the first cycle it was implemented. We had 5 candidates for a city council seat in my community. The favorite was a machine hack whose Daddy is a state assemblyman. You can vote for up to 5 candidates. I voted for the longest of long shots first and then second for a woman I really liked. And stopped there. The hack still won, but I felt really good about my vote and the woman I liked did better than expected and it elevated her profile. She will be around again.
And it worked really well in Alaska, I thought where they used it for their state and federal elections and ended up with some diverse results. They have open primaries and the top four than are elected by ranked choice in the general election. Sarah Palin was running for Congress in a special election. In the first round she was ahead with a plurality, but when the 4th.and then 3rd candidates were eliminated, it was Mary Peltola, a moderate Dem and indigenous woman who won.. I feel like it could work well in these polarized times, where maybe sometimes most of us end up with our 2nd choice, which is easier to accept than when your rep is at the opposite end of the political spectrum from you.
Ken, I agree that Lobo's comment about Albany was a cheapshot and ill-advised. But your comparison to Storrs misses the mark. Storrs isn't a city. Heck, it isn't even a town. Rather it is a section of the town of Mansfield. A better comparison would be Hartford, where the UConn women play about half their home games and which is similar to Albany in size and lack of things to do. Either way, though, Lobo left herself open to easy retaliation!
While I agree that Hartford is a good comparison too Albany, I don't have any idea where Lobo lives now so I thought it was kind of funny she thought Albany was dull when there is nothing in Storrs, CT. I was trying to be funny, maybe ironic.
Right. I've only been to Storrs a couple of times for soccer games. There is virtually nothing there except for the university and a few cornfields. As Lobo might say in another universe, "Good luck finding something to do there."
It was a big party school in my day.
Hartford?? Yikes. Albany is not a fair comparison to Hartford. N Broadway is cool.
You are probably right, but I haven’t spent a lot of time there. Mark Twain’s house is cool
In my view, the comparison is fair: Northeastern capital cities of approximately the same size. Both are on the receiving ends of complaints about crime and lack of opportunity. To be fair to Albany, it is the site of a massive shrine to Nelson Rockefeller's ego.
But we like our lack of things to do in Albany. 🤦♂️
Is the Conservative Party still lockstep with whomever the Republican Party candidate is? I’ve assumed that to be the case anyway. There’s a former Democrat from Queens who’s held some positions, and still does, that seem like they’d be blasphemy to conservatives.
One of his many blasphemies.
Yes, the CON party is basically a subset of the GOP. The top of their ticket includes the likes of Donald Trump and Elise Stefanik. It is extraordinarily rare to see a candidate on their line who is not also on a major party line, but in Queensbury we had 2 this year, Travis Whitehead and Jim Dobkowski. They both lost. Despite my opposition to CON party planks I voted for Travis. I think he would have offered important insight on the town board. The CON party is anti-woman. I know Travis and I don’t believe that is true for him personally.
2 local Democrats, who did not get the Dem endorsement because they also ran on the CON line did win.
Good to know. Sounds as though they may be more principled than the rusting hulk of the GOP.
Yes, despite the CON party having awful principles … they have principles!
Whatever the GOP has become has no core principles. Zero. None. It is all whatever Trump woke up this morning thinking.
We try to be independent of the Republican Party. But that’s the last thing they want.
Ending fusion voting would fix that.
Agreed, but then everybody would get mad at us for splitting the vote. People like Ralph Nader, Jill, Stein, RFK JR. Both both parties are extremely worried about a third-party candidate in this years presidential election. If we conservative started running our own candidates, I don’t think the Republicans would ever win again. That’s a tough decision either way, but worth thinking about.
And let’s not forget Ross Perot!
To my way of thinking each party has an obligation to run their own candidate otherwise they are not truly legitimate parties offering choice.
I’m already there on the Republicans never winning again. It is the party of Republicans in name only. In reality it is a collection of submissives with no spine. There are a few notable exceptions but the current leadership of what was once known as the GOP does not recognize them as legitimate Republicans.
Now is the perfect time to divorce that party of traitors.
The Conservative Party is generally in line with the Republican Party. However, when we don’t back their candidates, they don’t like it, and they come after us and try and take us over. That is what is happening here. They want us to rubber stamp 100% of their candidates. They put up a bad judicial candidate back in 2022, and we decided to go with a Democrat instead. They are still angry about that.
I think it is worth Albany considering the comment from Lobo constructively.
That said, Easter weekend is not typically known as a time when there is a lot going on in most cities but I’m sure there were plenty of opportunities for visitors to go to church.
Still, Albany hosted the biggest show in basketball in the world on Monday. Nobody else had it. Just Albany. When is enough enough?
Why not have trifolds around the city for restaurants, theaters, the arts, diverse businesses, and cool niche spots? Some stuff in Albany isn't obvious. YEAH you can Google if you want to live in your phone...The city does have work to do and most people have drained it of finances by moving to suburbs but Troy has rebuilt, and Schenectady. It's Albanys turn.
Sorry but I have to side with Rebecca Lobo. I have worked in downtown Albany for many years and I can vouch for the lack of entertainment, restaurant, and bar options around MYP Arena. If the total downtown restaurant/bar capacity was open, you could maybe entertain 1000 people? On Easter weekend - not even half that number could find a place to go downtown. And let's not discuss the routine traffic/parking/one-way nightmare which was escalated by the road closures for the NCAA games! Downtown Albany is not the place anyone wants to hunt around for entertainment, especially after 5 and on weekends.
Looking forward to the summer of 2025 and the staging of your play. Wishing you the best in your writing.
Incredible! I’d like to hear more as I understand that many Republicans are being asked if they believe the last election was valid… terrible stuff. What was the outcome of this meeting?
Does Rebecca Lobo realize how much Albany is into UConn basketball and that she, too, has been respected and had her share of adulation as part of their sustained success story including this year so why she would feel the need to make a mean-spirited comment about the hosting community came as a real surprise to me. Perhaps, given the response, she will think twice before having fun with a putdown? One would hope.
IIRC, the Times-Union report on this story indicated that it was not "the party" (to the extent that the CPNY is a party) that initiated these proceedings. It was the chairman alone. The article stated that there is no officially constituted Conservative committee in Saratoga County and that the chair was appointed by the state party.