Republican Jared King says he’s out of the town’s party after he became dissatisfied with its leadership and an anonymous tipster aired the party’s dirty laundry in public.
Former town supervisor candidate, Victor Rodriquez, 23, came forward as the tipster recently after he forwarded to Spotlight Newspapers a series of e-mails between King and various other Republican Committee members.
Bethlehem Republican Chairwoman Melody Burns said King didn’t take losing his Albany County Legislative last year well and took losing to her for party chairmanship just as bad.
`I think he was a little stung after losing to Tom Cotrofeld,` Burns said of King. `I guess it’s just sour grapes.`
King said his party didn’t support him; Burns said he just didn’t run an aggressive campaign.
`He just handed out these little magnets, that was his whole campaign,` Burns said. `You’ve got to spend money and he wouldn’t put up signs. .I think that hurt him.`
King disagreed with the analysis and said he didn’t want to `air out the party’s dirty laundry in the press` but wanted to set the record straight.
`I had no support from the party in my race for the county legislature,` he said.
Problems began after a committee vote in September to elect officers in which King and Republican Mitch Goldstein ran as officers and lost. A weighted vote was not used and Burns called a new vote.
However, the new vote was scheduled on Yom Kippur, something which King took issue with.
`There were short notices and postponements it started to become apparent they were playing games,` King said of committee elections and meetings. `She scheduled it on Yom Kippur and we were the only two Jews on the committee.`
King said he just assumed Burns didn’t know when Yom Kippur was, but that when it was brought to her attention that she didn’t move the meeting.
`We have to respect people’s religious beliefs,` King said. `Some could argue she’s anti-Semitic.`
Burns denied the charges.
`The only person who said anything about the date [Oct. 9] was Mitch
Goldstein,` Burns said. `I understand that Yom Kippur ends on sundown, so I didn’t think there was a problem ` and everyone was able to send proxies.`
Burns said neither Goldstein nor King attended the meeting or sent in a proxy, which is a type of absentee vote.
On the flip side, former Republican committeeman Norman Morand, who also recently resigned, implied that Goldstein and King might have a problem with Burns besides her leadership.
`I don’t think they like the fact there’s a woman in charge,` Morand said about King and Goldstein, `but she works hard and she deserves to be there.`
When King was asked if he had a problem with a chairwoman running the party, he responded, `God, no.`
`On the contrary, I actually like women as a candidate, they bring a softer side that’s appealing to potential voters,` King said.
King said he wasn’t trying to take over the committee, but that he was only bringing in new members.
`When you have a rotten culture like we do there, you have to start fresh,` King said. `It wasn’t some kind of coup, it was just trying to recruit new people.`
King said Burns knew what he was doing.
`I suspect Melody knew I was recruiting people,` King said. `She wasn’t recruiting people because frankly she doesn’t inspire anyone.`
King reached out for support from Morand, only to find he had retired.
`Hi Jared, I resigned as the 6th committee man on [Sept. 22]. I no longer want to be involved,` Morand wrote in an e-mail response to King. `The committee is very small and if the Republican Party is ever to be successful in local politics everyone must work together. I suggest that if you and Mitch [Goldstein] can’t work within the current organization, you both should resign for the better of the party,`
In a later interview, when asked what he thought of the situation involving King, Morand responded, `He’s a smart guy, Jared’s a very smart person but if he only put that towards good.`
Another point of contention is the fact that even though Albany County and the Bethlehem committee endorsed James Buhrmaster in the 21st Congressional Primary, King carried petition for Republican challenger Steven Vasquez as well.
`Jared didn’t carry Jim’s petition, he carried Steve’s and never told us,` Burns said. `I didn’t know about any of that until after the fact, and I was like, ‘What’s going on?’`
King said he carried Vasquez’s petition only after getting `a significant number of signatures` for Buhrmaster, and only to give people a choice. He also said his committee wasn’t given a choice.
`The party endorsed Jim Buhrmaster, but we were never asked who we would like to endorse,` King said. `I gave people a choice, that’s our job as elected committee people.` King said choice is the most important process in a primary and said he and his supporters within the committee did not like Buhrmaster’s ties to former Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno.` We don’t like special interest politicians. We don’t like Joe Bruno,` he said.
Buhrmaster was only one of a number of various local, county and state Republicans and committee members named in King’s e-mails. Others include Albany County Commissioner and County Republican Party Chairman John Graziano; Albany County GOP attorney Tom Marcelle; and Albany County District Attorney candidate and attorney Roger Cusick.
Calls to Graziano regarding the Bethlehem Republican Committee infighting were unreturned as of press time.
`They just sit there and say ‘We’re losing because of George Bush,’ which is partly true, but they’re just not doing their job as committee people.` King said. `The only real difference between the Democrats and Republicans is that the Democrats fight for real power and Republicans fight over nothing.`
King said his next step is to ask the committee members who support him if they want to form their own party or move forward within in the committee.
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