GUILDERLAND — Guilderland has fewer than 600 voters enrolled in the Conservative Party but the June 27 primary gives all of the town’s 25,517 voters a preview of the November elections.

The Republicans are putting up two town board candidates — pediatrician Brian Sheridan who made his first run for political office in 2021 and Jaime Ralston, a marketer making her first run as “a mom and a friend.”

The GOP is also backing a candidate for town justice, Stephen Chesley, a lawyer who has run for the post before.

While Guilderland’s GOP chairman, Douglas Breakell, said the party is putting its efforts into backing just those three candidates — all of whom are running in the Conservative Party primary — the Democrats are running a full slate.

However, only two candidates — Jacob Crawford for town board and attorney Margaret Tabak for town justice — are running in the Conservative Party primary. Other Democrats already have Conservative Party endorsement.

Crawford was unopposed when he ran for the town board seat in November 2022 soon after Democrat Laurel Bohl unexpectedly resigned from the post. Her term, and therefore Crawford’s, ends at the close of this year. Town board terms are four years

Crawford stepped down from his role as chairman of the Guilderland Democratic Committee after becoming a member of the town board; the post is now held by Albany County legislator Dustin Reidy, who could not be reached by The Enterprise this week.

Crawford continues as chairman of the Albany County Democratic Committee.

“Democrats across the county are running on the Conservative line,” Crawford told The Enterprise this week.

All of the current elected officials in Guilderland are Democrats. Crawford said that Town Clerk Lynne Buchanan and Supervisor Peter Barber will be on the Conservative line in the November elections as well as Robert Haver who is running for highway superintendent because Gregory Wier is retiring from that post. Crawford described Haver as second in command at the highway department

Councilwoman Rosemary Centi, who was elected to the post in 2015 after serving as town clerk for 13 years, is also retiring, Crawford said. Gustavo Santos, a member of Guilderland’s planning board, will be running on the Democratic ticket in November to fill the seat, Crawford said.

Crawford has been criticized by John Haluska for seeking Conservative Party endorsement. Haluska, a Guilderland Democrat, had wanted to run for Bohl’s vacated seat but failed to be nominated at the Democratic caucus last July. At the caucus, which overwhelmingly supported Crawford, Haluska called for Republicans and others to renounce the Jan. 6 insurrection at the nation’s capitol. “Silence deems consent,” he said, drawing applause.

Haluska sounds similar themes in a letter to the Enterprise editor this week, upset with Democrats seeking Conservative Party endorsement. “Are we that bereft of self respect that we need to stoop to this posture?” writes Haluska. “These are the people who supported Trump. These are the people who are, by their silence, OK with what took place on Jan. 6.”

Crawford responded, through The Enterprise, that it is not fair to assign the national political landscape to local elections. “We’re running on local issues, on what matters to the town,” said Crawford, citing issues like sidewalks, water, and traffic.

While The Enterprise could not reach Thomas Spargo who currently chairs Albany County’s Conservative Party Committee, the county Conservative Party for decades has backed Democrats seeking a small-party line.

Richard Stack, who was the county’s longtime Conservative Party chairman, told The Enterprise, before the 2017 primary, “You’ve got to give me a reason to change jockeys on the horse when the horses are already running.” 
 

Second-party lines can often make a difference in election outcomes.

In Guilderland’s 2021 town board race, Christine Napierski was the top vote-getter in a six-way contest for two town board seats with 26 percent of the votes. Her running mate, Amanda Beedle, got 23 percent of the vote. Sheridan, with 21 percent of the vote, garnered more Republican votes than Beedle did Democratic votes. The Conservative Party votes for Beedle then gave her the seat.

Crawford pointed out this week that the 2021 election for Guilderland Town Board was unusual because two other candidates — both of whom lost in the Democratic primary — were on the November ballot on other party lines, dividing the vote.

According to current numbers from the Albany County Board of Elections, among Guilderland’s 25,517 registered voters, there are nearly twice as many Democrats (10,854) as Republicans (5,684) but there are also a large number of voters not enrolled in a party (7,102), with the rest in small parties.

Three board candidates vie

for two  Conservative lines

Jacob Crawford said he is running again for Guilderland Town Board because he wants to continue doing the job he got elected to seven months ago.

Among the projects he wants to continue working on are getting the town more access to water, continuing the building of sidewalks in Guilderland, and improving parks, he said, citing the recent improvements to the town’s largest park, Tawasentha.

Crawford works for New York State United Teachers, a union representing over 600,000 teachers and school-related professionals, as an analyst. He said his work, analyzing both financial data and policy, includes skills that are useful for town board work.

Crawford, the father of young children, said he enjoys “knocking on doors” as he campaigns in Guilderland, listening to residents’ concerns and ideas.

“I’m using this opportunity to listen and learn,” he said, adding he is eager “to see what we can do.”

Asked why he is seeking the Conservative Party line, Crawford said that he and his Democratic colleagues in Guilderland town government are fiscally conservative. 

“We continue to find ways of providing more services without raising taxes,” he said.

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Jaime Ralston, who grew up in Guilderland, is making her first run for political office because, she said, “I truly love this town.”

She stressed that her candidacy is “not a stepping stone” for a political career; rather, she is running because she cares about making her hometown a better place.

After graduating from Syracuse University, Ralston returned home because she wanted to raise her children here, she said. She and her husband have four children, ranging in age from 6 to 13. She works in media sales for Spectrum Reach.

If she is elected, Ralston said, she will focus on helping small businesses. “Let’s market our town so people want to work and live here,” she said.

Another of her priorities, Ralston said, would be investing in roads and other infrastructure. She believes “connectivity” is important and finds it frustrating that some of the town’s sidewalks “just end” and pedestrians have to cross the street to then walk on the other side.

She is also concerned about the condition of some of the town’s small parks and said one near her house has swear words on the playground equipment that children should not have to be subjected to.

Public safety is also a top priority, Ralston said, and gave the example of a “simple ‘stop’ sign” making a difference.

Ralston cited the “dangerous” intersection of Route 20 with Willow Street and Foundry Road and asked, “How many more accidents do we have to have before the town does something?”

Asked why she is seeking the Conservative Party line, Ralston said her views on less government and lower taxes fit with Conservative views.

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“I want there to be a voice for people in town who feel they aren’t being heard,” said Brian Sheridan of why he is making his second run for Guilderland Town Board. “I want some balance, not just five people on one side.”

Sheridan, who grew up in Rensselaer, said he always knew he wanted to be a pediatrician. After getting his medical degree in 2003 from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, where he has family, he completed his residency at Albany Medical Center in 2006.

He and his wife, who grew up in Guilderland, settled in town in 2005 and he started practicing at Schoolhouse Road Pediatrics in 2006. They are raising two daughters. Through his work, Sheridan said, he has come to know many families in town and he listens to their concerns.

He said this week that, as he was during his first run, he is still concerned about how “dilapidated” many of the properties are on Western Avenue, Guilderland’s main thoroughfare, and he’d like to see that improved.

Also, he said, of his priorities if elected, “I want families to have opportunities to take part in activities in town … I’d like to see more programs for children.”

Asked why he is seeking the Conservative Party line, Sheridan said, “A lot of what I believe aligns with the Conservative Party … A government needs to be held accountable and needs to keep taxes low.”

Two justice candidates vie

for one Conservative line

Margaret Tabak has been practicing law since being admitted to the bar in 1988 after graduating from Albany Law School; she ran for Albany Family Court judge in 2019.

 She previously ran her own firm, and then went into a partnership, Tabak and Kiosse, LLP, focused on matrimonial and family law.

Tabak in 2019 described herself as passionate about her work, which has included a great deal of pro bono work, and as a strong advocate for her clients, but “not somebody who loses her cool easily.” Her work involves looking at all sides of a situation and advising clients accordingly, she told The Enterprise, and her ability to take a larger view would help her on the bench. 

Tabak’s judicial philosophy, she said, centers on knowing the law and being able to use it; being prepared and efficient; and being compassionate.

Tabak has been on the board of the Albany County and Schenectady County bar associations and is past president of the Capital District Women’s Bar Association. She is a member, she said in 2019, of the “small but mighty” B’nai Shalom Reformed Congregation in Albany.

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Attorney Stephen Chesley has been representing clients in town courts across the area and the state throughout his career, which means he would bring not just education, but experience, to the position of town justice, he told The Enterprise when he was running for Guilderland town justice in 2019. 

He works as in-house counsel to Amtrust Financial and was formerly a partner at Sullivan, Keenan, Oliver & Violando, LLP.

Chesley attended New York University for his undergraduate degree and then graduated from New York Law School. He has experience in many of the issues a town justice needs to handle, he said, including criminal law, landlord-tenant issues, and small-claims cases. 

About treating equally all the people who would come before him in court, Chesley said in 2019, “I think somebody’s background is completely irrelevant.” 

He added, “Justice is blind. That’s what we’re taught, and anyone who can’t put that into practice has no business being on the bench.” 

Chesley’s judicial philosophy centers on impartiality, he said. Anyone who appears before him must feel that he or she is starting with a clean slate and that the facts are being looked at without any bias at all, he said.

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Guilderland voters enrolled in the Conservative Party may vote on June 27 at any of three polling places: Christ the King Church at 20 Sumpter Ave., Altamont Village Hall at 115 Main St., or Lynnwood Reformed Church at 3714 Carman Rd. Early voting runs from June 17 to 25.