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Saturday, August 18, 2012

Party Reorganizations Looming

As primary day approaches, political committees will be required to reorganize under State Election Law. A battle appears to be looming for Rensselaer County Democrats with the current chair facing questions and significant dissatisfaction from numerous factions within the county committee.

This letter in today's Troy Record touches on some but hardly all of the factional disputes initiated by current Chair Tom Wade. Democrats affiliated with the influential McGrath clan in Troy are also disturbed after the Chairman went after Troy Councilman Kevin McGrath's role in the voter fraud debacle in Troy.  He has often resorted to name calling creating a series of "boogie men" in the party he terms "the delusional bunch".

Yet unanswered in all of this is how the key operative in the voter fraud, convicted former City Clerk McInerny, appointed to his job with the support of Chairman Wade in a November 2007 party meeting, would have done any of the things he admitted to and not kept his party leader informed? He admitted in sworn testimony he engaged in all that forgery of ballots to "get a better job with the Democratic Party".  It seems only logical that he would have been anxious to let the man responsible for his current job and future jobs,know about all his hard work.

Yet it appears neither he or anyone else questioned in the caper was ever asked the key question of whether he kept his party leader aware of his activities. That's a question for the special prosecutor to explain but that's not stopping committee members from asking the question themselves.

So at this stage, committee members are weighing the facts and deciding whether to back Wade for another term, on who's watch, this whole episode occurred. Stay tuned.

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