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| WILTSHIRE |
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| ZALEWSKI |
As one prominent Troy Democrat
said: “Hey, if we don’t have any decent Republicans to fight … we may as well
fight with each other.”
And there is no doubt a fight brewing within the Democratic ranks.
Chairman Tom Wade is looking to oust Council President Rodney, his wife Jolene and Councilman Ken Zalewski,
D-District 5 from the Democratic Party Committee. He strongly hinted that if
they don’t walk away from the seats quietly, and instead challenge his picks by
waging primaries, he would look to have them removed from the party for
disloyalty.
Safe to say, the three are not
going quietly.
“As a proud registrant and
committeeman of the Democratic Party, I have consistently proven my loyalty to
the party leadership, elected Democratic officials, voters and constituents,” said
Wiltshire, a former president of the Rensselaer County Young Democrats, in a
statement. “If the chairman wishes to proceed down this path I, along with my
attorney Kathleen O’Keefe, will pursue this in court.
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| WADE |
“I am a Democrat through and
through. I have never supported nor given money to a non-Democratically
endorsed candidate. I take these allegations seriously and I am prepared to
take this as far as it needs to go.”
O’Keefe worked for Sen. Cecelia
Tkazyk in her nail-bitter recount win over Assemblyman George Amadore and has
long been counsel to the state Assembly majority. In other words, she knows
Election Law and if Wade does try to bounce the three from the party it could
ultimately end up in court.
The disloyalty, Wade claims,
started when Wiltshire accepted the Independence Party endorsement in exchange
for giving the Republicans committee chairs and other appointments. Zalewski’s
disloyalty, according to Wade, was when he backed incumbent Republican Councilman
Dean Bodnar over his Democratic challenger Michelle DeLair during the District
5 race last year.
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| KOPKA |
Both sides are coy about their
strategy too. The way it works is a committee representative can run in any
Election District within the Assembly District where they reside. So few
signatures are needed to get on the ballot that they can wait until the last
minute to show their hands and disclose who is running where. In other words, we likely won't know who is running where and against who until petitions are filed next month. It really doesn't get more down and dirty than a good committee fight.
The brewing battle became public
when Wade handed out committee petitions for the “solid” committee members. I
say “solid” because there are 30 Election Districts in the city, and with each having
two committee members it’s not easy to fill the entire slate and there are
always vacancies. There are those party loyalists, however, who have served for
years and who run without question every two years. The Wiltshires and Zalewski
were once considered “solid” committee members.
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| ROSAMIlIA |
That started to change when
Wiltshire accepted the Independence Party line, which helped him knock Lynn
Kopka, D-At Large, out of the presidency she held for two years. Kokpa is a
tried and true Wade loyalist.
Add that to the ongoing investigation
the Council is conducting into two controversial demolition projects headed up –
or ordered by – members of the administration of Mayor Lou Rosamilia, another
Wade loyalist, and Wiltshire’s well known ambitions for higher office and …
well … we have a war.
The winner of the war, should the two sides continue with the game of chicken and actually bang heads when petitions are due next month, will likely have control of not only the Democratic nod for mayor but the Rensselaer County Democratic Party.
