With the Democrats sweeping Tuesday night’s general election, only one Republican continues to hold an elected office in the Town of Bethlehem.
Supervisor John Clarkson beat Republican candidate Fred DiMaggio 5,684 to 4,064. Clarkson said the election’s results signify a unified Democratic party in Bethlehem. Democratic candidates won all races including town board, highway superintendent and town clerk. The lone Republican in elected town office is receiver of taxes Nancy Mendick, who was not up for re-election Tuesday.
“When I first decided to run, we weren’t a healthy party,” said Clarkson on Tuesday night. “We had left the voters. We have now reconnected with the voters.”
In 2011, Clarkson chose to run for Supervisor against Town Board member Kyle Kotary after Sam Messina made it known he would not be seeking re-election. Messina’s decision left Kotary the sole candidate, who was endorsed by the town’s Democratic, Republican and Independence parties.
The following year, Clarkson played a key role in helping develop the town’s Reform Democrat movement, which continued the perceived split in the party after some longtime committee members were replaced.
“I think the majority of voters realize that we’re now trying to move the town in a positive direction,” said Democratic Chairman and Councilman Jeffrey Kuhn.
DiMaggio said the reason he opted to run for office is because he did not feel comfortable with a one-party majority in the town’s elected offices.
“I don’t think one-party rule is a good thing,” he said. “It wasn’t good for the last 150 years with the Republicans, and it’s certainly not good for the past 10 years with the Democrats.”
This election cycle, DiMaggio led a multi-party coalition called “Bethlehem United” that was endorsed by the town’s Republican Committee. DiMaggio said the coalition came together in the spring after it was announced a referendum would take place to decide if the town should abolish the elected position of highway superintendent and place those responsibilities under the commissioner of public works. The referendum failed 3,086 to 1,969.
The GOP endorsed candidates for Town Board were Linda Jasinski, a Conservative, and Dan Cunningham, a member of the Independence Party. The group’s main goals consisted of cutting taxes, lowering the town’s fund balance to provide tax relief and promoting economic development.
“When you talk about tax cuts, it doesn’t affect everybody the same,” said Cunningham. “So maybe the issues that we focused on were not as important to the people as we thought they should be.”
Julie Sasso and Councilman Bill Reinhardt were endorsed by the Democrats, and won with about 28 percent of the vote each.
Reinhardt said he was happy the Democratic Party remained positive throughout the campaign and Clarkson agreed.
“We don’t need to rely on false alliances. We don’t need to create fictions. We are the majority party. We are the responsible party,” said Clarkson to committee members during his victory speech. “The intelligent electorate we have in Bethlehem, they do not take easy answers, they do not take kindly to negative politics, and they certainly don’t want to see low-grade attack literature arriving in the mailboxes.”
DiMaggio said he felt the Democrats did their fair share of “mudslinging” as well, and did not feel all the blame should be placed on him.
“I don’t think there were major mistakes made in the campaign,` he said. `I think there were equally nasty and vindictive responses from the other side.”
Looking to the future, DiMaggio said he would continue to be involved in the town’s Republican committee but did not think he would go back to being the party’s chairman because felt it was time for a new voice.
Clarkson said now that the Democrats had won, their responsibility is to leave the town a better place for future generations and to care about every sector and political party in the town.
“We have run based on civility, integrity and professionalism, and we will deliver that,” said Clarkson. “We don’t always agree with ourselves, let alone people of other political parties, but we deal with the issues straight forward, we will try to reflect everyone’s views, and when we are done I hope people will say, ‘They listened, they heard, they understood, and we’re going to move forward.’”