Eddie Miller, chair the Saratoga County Independence Party, has announced his party’s endorsements.
Their Saratoga Springs endorsed candidates are:
Mayor: Mark Baker (R)
Finance: Michele Madigan (D)
Accounts: John Franck (D)
Safety: Donald Braim (R)
Public Works: Skip Scirocco (R)
Supervisor: Matt Veitch (R)
Supervisor: John Safford (R)
Judge: Francine Vero (D)
According to the Times Union,Hank Kuczynski, former deputy mayor under Ken Klotz, has notified Saratoga Springs Democratic Chairman Charley Brown that he would like to be considered for the position of Mayor on the Democratic line.
Here is the link to the Times Union article:
I received the following from Charley Brown, Saratoga Springs Democratic Committee Chairman. Yes, yet another error by your feckless blogger that required correction. Here is his email.
Your statement..”Interestingly, they declined to take action on the mayoralty race. My understanding was that it was a very close vote to delay an endorsement.” Is incorrect. The vote to delay the endorsement was nearly unanimous.
The closer vote was ‘were we going have Meg Kelly address/introduce herself to our members at yesterdays meeting’? It was decided that to keep the process as open/unbiased as possible it would be best to wait on that as well…. The debate was due to the fact that we regularly have candidates that are seeking our endorsement come, address and have a Q&A with our committee. (All the endorsed candidates did in fact speak with the committee over the last few months)
We will have our ‘official’ statement out later today in our ‘In The Loop’ news letter…..
I received the following statement from Mayor Joanne Yepsen:
Not sure which Charley Brown you spoke to?
Charley Brown, the City Democratic Chair and I spoke Thursday for 26 minutes. (I, of course, called Todd Kerner, the county chair as well twice). In our conversation, Charley said he knew I wasn’t sure, and he appreciated the call before Saturday’s meeting. If you had asked me two weeks ago, I was running. But out of RESPECT to the process, I made my final decision last week. I brought him up to date that there are too many options opening up that I need to explore and Charley completely “understood” and thanked me for my dedication and service.
Also in our conversation, Charley was enthusiastic about Meg being willing to run and asked that she call him that evening, which she did. He said he was concerned about who we could run, if I didn’t. He asked her to attend the meeting on Saturday. (I had just been asked to attend the Skidmore Commencement breakfast and ceremony to welcome our special guests, which I did as Mayor on behalf of the City). In the end, Meg waited for 3 hours but was not allowed to speak. She’s happy to go through whatever process they feel is appropriate at this point.
In that same conversation on Thursday, Charley and I discussed the fact I would draft a press release and get it out on Friday. He asked that I call him to let him know when it goes out so I called Charley again — from the Carrie Woerner democratic women’s luncheon on Friday — I called Charley at 1:18 p.m. to let him know it was done and would be emailed shortly and that I would send him a copy to circulate to the Committee, which I did. Again, he thanked me and I said whatever he needed, I’d be happy to help.
I then sent Charley an email Saturday morning before the Dem meeting to say I hadn’t heard that he wanted me at the meeting. I wished him good luck knowing it was a big day and assumed he had circulated my letter.
Meg Kelly being willing to run (and win!) helped me in my very difficult decision. I love being Mayor and plan to do so with the full vigor and dedication that I’ve shown throughout the last 3 1/2 years. I needed to feel the city would be in good hands after I leave the office. Therefore, I threw my support to Meg because she’s running with hopefully the Democrat, Working Families, Women’s Equality, and Independence Party endorsements. With all my campaign experience, I will help her raise money and serve as her campaign advisor. But, I really want to focus on being Mayor, not the candidate. Charley and I also discussed this as well.
Happy to talk, or provide you witnesses and documentation to confirm this process as written, if necessary. Hope it doesn’t come to that. There’s enough distrust in the world. I’m sure Charley misspoke or misunderstood and will clear it up soon.
Joanne
On May 20th I emailed Saratoga Springs Democratic Chairman, Charley Brown, asking him whether Joanne Yepsen had informed him of her decision not to run for re-election prior to her issuing a media release. On the same day he emailed back writing that she had not.
Following a request by one of the followers of this blog who had challenged the truthfulness of Mr. Brown’s assertion, I emailed Chairman Brown asking for permission to post his email to me. He declined.
As it turned out, what he had written me was untrue. I wrote to Mr. Brown and advised him that I planned to post the unfortunate truth and offered to allow him to write an explanation to the readers of this blog. He sent me the following statement:
“I was told 16 hours prior to the Press Release”
I want to publically apologize to Tara Gaston. Ms. Gaston was endorsed by the Saratoga Springs Democratic Committee for County Supervisor along with Pat Friesen. I did not have her name in the original story about the endorsements.
I have offered to post links to her campaign website once she sets it up.
Also omitted from that story was the endorsement by the committee of Francine Vero for City Court Judge. Again apologies for this omission as well.
On May 16th the New York State Assembly voted overwhelmingly for a single payer health care plan for our state. According to the website Spotlight News, the vote was 87 to 38. Ms. Woerner was one of a handful of Democrats in the Assembly to vote no.
Here is an excerpt from the article on the Spotlight News website about the Health Act that Woerner voted against:
The New York Health Act would establish a universal health care system within the state, known as New York Health, and expand coverage eligibility to include all residents, regardless of wealth, income, age or pre-existing condition. In addition, every enrollee would have access to the full range of doctors and service providers offered. The plan would provide comprehensive inpatient and outpatient care, primary and preventive care, maternity care, prescription drug costs, laboratory testing, rehabilitative care and dental, vision and hearing care.
The Saratoga Springs Democratic Committee met on Saturday morning to endorse candidates in city races. They endorsed Commissioners Madigan for Finance and Franck for Accounts. They endorsed Peter Martin for Commissioner of Public Safety. They endorsed Pat Friesen and another person for the supervisor races. They made no endorsement for the Public Works Commissioner.
Interestingly, they declined to take action on the mayoralty race. My understanding was that it was a very close vote to delay an endorsement.
Mayor Yepsen released her letter announcing her decision not to run the day before the endorsement meeting. In her letter she endorsed her deputy Meg Kelly for mayor. I received confirmation from Charley Brown that Mayor Yepsen did not contact him prior to releasing her letter/announcement to the media. Apparently, the committee declined to endorse Ms. Kelley on the basis that the process should be an open one in which all interested candidates would be considered.
While I expect that Ms. Kelly will, in all likelihood, receive the endorsement, the Mayor showed a lack of judgment in this affair which did more harm to her deputy than good. It is to the credit of Mr. Brown and the majority of the committee that they insisted on an open process.
Mayor Yepsen announced today that she will not seek another term as Mayor. She also announced that her deputy, Meg Kelly, will be running for Mayor. The city Democratic Committee will meet on Saturday to decide on endorsements.
