The campaign for Bethlehem town supervisor rolls on.
Democratic voters went to the polls Tuesday, Sept. 13, and selected John Clarkson as their candidate for the November general election, ousting the party’s endorsed choice, Kyle Kotary.
“I’m very grateful to the voters, and I’m looking forward to taking the next step and moving forward to Nov. 8,” the candidate said from his Slingerlands home, where supporters were gathered.
He also said he’d received a call from Sen. Neil Breslin, D-Delmar, congratulating him and extending his endorsement in the general election.
“I’m looking forward to unifying the Democratic Party,” Clarkson said.
The unofficial totals showed Clarkson with 61 percent of the vote, having garnered 1,503 votes. 868 votes were cast in Kotary’s favor, or 39 percent of the total, with 86 write ins making up the remainder. All totals are unofficial results.
On Wednesday, Councilman Kotary issued a statement saying he’d be considering the way forward. He still holds endorsements from the Republican and Independence parties.
`I congratulate John on his primary win. My campaign focused both on our town’s strengths and our community’s future challenges. Our team ran an honorable, positive and issue-based primary campaign with no personal attacks and no regrets,” Kotary said. “Right now, I’m going to spend time with my family and continue working on the town’s budget. In a few days, I’ll share my thoughts on how to move forward for the best interest of our Town.”
Kotary also noted the turnout of under 2,500 is only a fraction of the town’s total voter base, saying 93 percent of the town was not at the polls.
Bethlehem Democratic Committee Chairman and Albany County Democratic Elections Commissioner Matthew Clyne said the town’s committee has not yet decided whether to support Clarkson.
“We’ll wait and see where Mr. Clarkson is on the issues,” Clyne said. “We had interviewed him and selected Kyle Kotary because we thought he was the better pick. We’re not taking the public’s expression of support for Mr. Clarkson lightly, we’ll just see if we can come to terms between the committee and Mr. Clarkson.”
Clyne mentioned Clarkson’s support of a 20/20 Committee recommendation to make three town offices appointed instead of elected as a key point of dissension between party leaders and the candidate.
Clarkson built his campaign largely on the fact Kotary had secured endorsements from both major parties, saying this denied voters a choice. On Tuesday night, he said when going door to door voters ended up being more interested in matters like the town’s finances and governance.
“I don’t think it’s fair at all to say I’m a one-issue candidate,” he said.
Clarkson also was successful on the Conservative line, which was open as an opportunity to ballot write in. According to Albany County Conservative Party Chairman Richard Stack, Clarkson’s name was written in 68 times to Kotary’s 18, with 12 absentee ballots out.
The matter proved to be divisive for the Conservative Party, with Stack supporting Clarkson and Bethlehem Conservative Party Chairman Ben Conboy backing Kotary.
“The message by Mr. Conboy and Mr. Kotary was soundly rejected,” Stack said. “I’m very pleased with that. My members responded to the issues.”
Bethlehem’s results were reported far behind those for the rest of the county on Tuesday night, with final numbers not landing until nearly midnight, long after most other municipalities had been fully reported.
Clyne attributed the delay to election workers from some districts failing to bring the memory card used by the electronic voting machines to collection points. They instead left them at the polling places with other materials, locked up and left for the night. Sheriff’s Deputies had to go out with Board of Elections representatives and retrieve the data, Clyne said.
“They didn’t follow the instructions that were given to them,” Clyne said.
