Town Republicans say they are moving forward after an apparent rift divided some committee members and even divided support for the Republican candidate for the 21st Congressional District.
The rift has led to some committee members leaving the party and new members jumping on board.
Bethlehem Republican Chairwoman Melody Burns was re-elected to her post in September by the Town of Bethlehem Republican committee after vocal community activist and former county legislature hopeful Jared King challenged her for the seat.
Burns won the party election, and King is now out of the committee.
Spotlight Newspapers obtained a number of e-mails to town and county Republican committee members from former Town of Bethlehem supervisor candidate Victor Rodriquez, who has begun his own political action committee called RodPAC.
The e-mails detail an apparent coup led by King to remove Burns from the helm of the town party and also revealed some of the inter-workings of the committee concerning membership and political activities.
The intra-party fighting seems to have led to a few resignations as well as several threats of resignation, and centers around King’s assertions that the party’s leadership was playing town politics and only looking out for it own political future and not the party’s.
After the party’s first election, Burns said King had suggested scheduling a new election using a weighted vote after he spoke with Tom Marcelle, the Albany County GOP attorney.
`Jared ran against me. He pretty much had it all arranged,` Burns said. When asked if King was still in the committee, Burns said, `Nobody really knows, he was involved in the elections in January when I was elected and nobody saw him again until May or June.`
Burn did say King `is a good worker` and that `Jared is a political animal; he loves this stuff. He lives and breathes politics.`
King wrote an e-mail to fellow party members laying out his vision for the party.
`I’ve got a plan for Bethlehem that builds Republican community, introduces candidates, provides value to people, recruits volunteers, attracts NOP and Democrats, and makes your job as a committeeman much less labor intensive,` King wrote. `Are you willing to help? In the words of Martin Luther King, ‘I am more concerned by the apathy of the good people than the hate of the bad people.’`
King also in wrote in one e-mail that he only asked Marcelle for confirmation that a weighted vote should have been used and not for an actual re-vote. He wrote that Albany County Republican Chairman John Graziano told him he could ask for another vote if he wanted.
`I asked Tom Marcelle to confirm what I thought to be true, namely that because the current leadership conducted an election that violated Rule 7 of the county committee’s bylaws, the election was void,` King wrote. `County Chairman Graziano also told me at the county organizational meeting that I would not have to sue the county party to force the Bethlehem general committee to comply with the county bylaws, that a new election was ‘yours for the asking, whenever you want.’`
When reaching out to other members for support, King received an e-mail response from Norman Morand, who told him he had left the committee and suggested to King that if he cannot get along with other party members for the good of the party then he should resign, too.
Rodriquez originally forwarded the e-mails anonymously, but when asked to go on the record by Spotlight Newspapers, he responded.
`I cannot stand behind the cloak of anonymity while sending salvos against those I oppose. It seems as if after the last few losses, the party lost its way, and rather than coming together, they are falling apart at the committee level,` Rodriquez wrote. `It seems as if they put more importance in their committee position, than on winning elections. I hope that this is a wakeup call to the committee and the registered Republicans in town that something needs to be done to revive the party.`
He said that King tried to get him on his side.
`Jared attempted to recruit me for the committee and I did consider returning to the party that I started my political carrer in,` said Rodriquez. `However, I don’t feel that putting all my efforts into a dysfunctional committee is the right thing for me. This is the sort of thing that drove me away from the party. The principals of federalism and conservatism are being tossed aside by partisanship.“