Smoky rooms and related metaphors

It’s hard to recall a time when the term ‘unity’ was used in the same sentence as the Saratoga Springs Democratic Committee. For more than three years now, the party has forged divides that make the chasms of the Grand Canyon look relatively insignificant. But believe it or not, there was once a time when city Democrats regarded themselves as birds of a feather. And believe it or not, it wasn’t that long ago.

The year was 2000 and the mules had just finished a take-over of the City Council majority. As their leader, they selected a feisty young Saratoga Lake resident heading the gubernatorial campaign of then-state Comptroller H. Carl McCall. The selection completed what was nothing short of a remarkable ascension through the state and city parties. In less than a decade, he went from being a recent UAlbany graduate running smear campaigns for the state Assembly democrats to being the lead fundraiser for the party’s choice for governor. In the Spa City, he proffered a message of unity among Democrats, after the party unanimously selected him to replace then-Mayor Ken Klotz as their chairman.

“Ken Klotz and [Public Works Commissioner Tom] McTygue and [Accounts Commissioner Ben] Mirling, they embody what Saratogians want," Shawn Thompson told the Daily Gazette at the time. “There’s a lot of Democratic support out there and a lot of independent thinker…One thing I learned during the campaign - the voters of Saratoga Springs are going to vote for the best person.”

Then things started to change. McCall’s campaign was an abject failure after he spent all his energy warding off a primary challenge by Andrew Cuomo. Short a job, Thompson sought refuge working for the state Senate minority. Meanwhile, he brought his brand of rough-and-tumble politics to city politics.

First on his hit-list was long-time Republican Supervisor Skip Scriocco, who he unsuccessfully tried to torpedo by claiming the then-animal control officer was conducting county politicking while on the clock with the city. In the meantime, city Republicans were maneuvering around Thompson to reclaim the mayor’s seat in a tight 2003 election. The majority squandered, he cried foul and claimed the GOP was intimidating college voters casting ballots at Skidmore; another Thompson campaign that produced no results.

By 2005, Thompson became affiliated with the Democracy For America message that was sweeping through the party in wake of the failed presidential run by Vermont Governor Howard Dean. To this end, he recruited a quasi-Manchurian candidate in the form of special education teacher Valerie Keehn, who he vehemently tried to foist as the party’s mayoral candidate. Party centrists, however, found themselves backing Hank Kuczynski against Thompson’s wishes. The end result was a bitter battle between the emerging new school DFA democrats and the old guard, headed by the Brothers’ McTygue and Klotz loyalists.

Still, the party managed to pull off what many termed an election coup, sweeping democratic and democratic-leaning candidates into all five council seats. But despite the outward appearance of victory, the party was anything but victorious. Two of the newly elected candidates –the Thompson-supported Ron Kim and the McTygue-supported John Franck –were card-carrying Republicans just several years before their Democratic endorsement. And the feuding between Keehn and McTygue had only just begun.

Less than a year later, the dispute boiled over into the city court system, when a Keehn supporter and vice-chairman of the committee alleged intimidation at the hands of a McTygue supporter. Thompson refused to quell the fracas, insisting it was “a criminal matter that has spilled out of a political debate” and was better solved by a city court judge. The divide was deepened when Thompson –working through Keehn –launched a failed campaign to revise the charter and do away with the commissioner-form of government. The two-fold motive was fairly clear from the get-go: Oust McTygue from office and then win Keehn a four-year term as mayor. Of course, we all know how that panned out.

Today, Thompson is back in the news as he seeks reappointment to his spot on the influential state committee. He’s being challenged by Pat Southworth, the chairman of the Ballston Town Democrats and husband of recently elected Supervisor Patricia Southworth. Thompson’s supporters claim Southworth is bankrolled by the McTygue faction of the party, which is fueling the ongoing implosion.

“I am hearing that some on the committee carried petitions for Pat Southworth,” wrote Planning Board Chairwoman Nancy Goldberg in a leaked memo addressed to party leader Lou Schnieder. “And you say that you want to bury divisive business.”

The missive drew fire from Phil Diamond, a former McTygue backer and the man involved in the aforementioned fracas, who accused Goldberg and the Thompsonian (i.e. the Keehniac) faction of conducting secret organizational meetings behind closed doors and outside of the committee’s purview; in essence doing the very things Keehn once accused McTygue of doing. Of course, he was referring to the decision to pull Keehn’s name from the hat for Joe Bruno’s senate seat and swing support behind two-term county Supervisor Joanne Yepsen instead of Gillibrand operative Mike Russo.

“Who anointed the little group that recently met in a metaphorically smoke-filled room to select a candidate to run for Bruno’s seat,” he wrote. “Some of those who were present are not even on the Committee. Most of us who are on the Committee were not asked to attend. Why? Is this the way to reduce divisiveness?”

Diamond’s letter was broadly castigated by other Thompson supporters who claimed it wasn’t their backroom dickering that is ravaging the committee. Instead, they claimed it was the committee that was clearly endorsing Southworth for the seat behind the former city chairman’s back. Committee member Al Ormsby claimed the city Dems attempted to endorse Southworth without having a quorum and without allowing Thompson to present his case. Brucie Rosch, who just a month earlier circulated petitions to stack the committee’s leadership with Thompson supporters, claimed Southworth’s push for the state seat was “deceptive” because he never mentioned his opponent’s name when asking for an endorsement.

“We should begin to care how this sort of behavior would appear to other Democrats, whether a voter or elected officials at the State and Federal level, or members of the party structure” she wrote in the July missive. “It makes us look like childish fools, and completely untrustworthy.”

Childish fools? Untrustworthy? These are uncanny descriptors for the crew of operatives Thompson has seemingly led since his falling out with the committee in 2005. Granted, he’s probably in a better position to affect change, given his ties to the state party. But Thompson’s ties can’t seem to obscure the damage he’s caused by his ongoing attempts at a power grab.

In eight short years, Thompson has taken a formerly united party and given rise to a venomous faction of the party that has frightened all but a small minority of Democratic voters away from their slate of candidates. Perhaps Southworth isn’t the best candidate for the job. But he’s a candidate that isn’t Thompson, who has guided the party down a steep precipice seemingly for his own gain.