Albany County sees shift in party leaders
Albany Both the county Democrats and Republicans will go into 2021 with fresh faces as the leaders of their parties.
Jack Flynn and Christine Benedict, the respective Democratic and Republican party chairpeople, both decided to not seek another term.
Into their places stepped Jake Crawford, 33, and Randy Bashwinger, 49. Both men take over at pivotal times in their respective parties, as the 2016 election revealed changing political trends within the county that could reshape their parties’ power bases.
Bashwinger is the Berne town highway supervisor, a role he’s held since 2014. Though he casts
himself as a “normal guy,” who hated politics growing up, he’s caught on fast. In addition to running for highway supervisor, he won a seat on the BerneKnox-westerlo school board. Then he stepped in as the town Republican committee chairman.
From that position, Bashwinger led a revolt against Democratic control of the Hilltowns, giving Republicans control of the town boards in Berne, Knox and Westerlo over two election cycles. Many of the voters he relied on were Democrats who voted for President Donald Trump in 2016.
A former building materials salesman, he described a campaign of door-todoor work, convincing voters that the Republican-backed candidates were better suited toward their interests.
“I like being the underdog,” he said. “You can surprise a lot of people.”
Bashwinger’s successes in the Hilltowns drew notice and the state GOP party named him a “rising star” in 2018
For the next election cycle, he’s set his sights on two of the county’s largest suburbs, Colonie and Guilderland. There, he believes, the county GOP can continue to make inroads among moderate Democratic and independent voters turned off by some progressive Democratic policies.
But Bashwinger acknowledged the difficulties in separating people’s opinions about national Republicans, such as President Trump, from local
politics.
Colonie is seen as the next town most likely to flip from Democratic to Republican control. Supervisor Paula Mahan escaped her 2019 re-election battle with a 106-vote victory.
Bashwinger believes a strong “boots-on-the-ground” campaign next time around could push Republicans over the top there. Guilderland, he conceded is much more of a stretch but he said he plans to apply the same strategy there.
That would bring him into Crawford’s backyard. An East Syracuse native, Crawford, 33, is believed to be the youngest Albany County Democratic Party chairperson. But Crawford, who is currently a Guilderland zoning board member, has been involved in local Democratic politics since joining the town committee in 2011.
Both power and votes are on Crawford’s side. Democrats have an overwhelming majority in the County Legislature and the party ’s share of registered voters in the county has continued to grow, part of a larger trend in the state.
His c hal l e ng e wil l be t o not only beat back Republican i nroads t o t he c ounty ’s s uburbs a nd r ural t owns, but a l s o manag e a di ve r s e part y t hat c a n s pl i nt e r bet ween i t s vocal progressive wing and more moderate voices that have hel d sway.
A key part of that job will be knowing when to tell people “no”.
“The Democratic Party, as t hey say, i s a bi g t e nt part y,” he sa i d. “The main g oal i s t o come tog ether. The more unified we are the more we c a n a c hi e ve .”