Albany Dems bolster mayor

Three incumbents spurn Working Families line

Incumbent Democrats in the city often carry the Working Families Party line, a sign in how aligned the two parties’ priorities and candidates are on most issues. This year will be different.

The three incumbent Democratic candidates for citywide office declined to carry petitions for the WFP, a rebuke for the party’s refusal to endorse Democratic Mayor Kathy Sheehan’s reelection bid.

Common Council President Corey Ellis, Chief City Auditor Dorcey Applyrs and Treasurer Darius Shahinfar received the WFP endorsement for their reelection campaigns and would have appeared on the ballot line this year, as in previous elections, if they had collected the signatures.

Instead, the three, who are all running unopposed in the Democratic primary, decided not to.

“In solidarity with Mayor Sheehan, we decided not to carry or submit Working Families Party petitions,” Shahinfar said on Tuesday. “We agree with them on 99 percent of everything but for that one percent, they choose to go in a different direction.”

Anita Thayer, the WFP’S secretary, said she had spoken with Ellis and Applyrs about their decision.

“We believe they share our values and we’re disappointed they chose not to carry our petitions and appear on our ballot line,” she said.

Ellis and Applyrs did not return calls for comment.

The WFP declined to endorse any candidate for mayor. The party’s decision to withhold its support from Sheehan came out of frustration with over issues around police accountability, including her refusal to ban the department from using tear gas in the city and taking a larger role in police discipline.

Jake Crawford, chair of the Albany

County Democratic party, said the party’s slate for citywide offices was unified.

“As chair of the Democratic party, I’d call on all Democrats in Albany County to not accept the Working Families Party line this year because we run as a united team and our team will not be divided by a minor party,” he said.

The WFP’S interviewing and endorsement process has rankled Democrats throughout the city. Several Democrats also questioned the local WFP’S efforts in creating a diverse party.

Thayer did not dispute that the party was not as diverse as some would like but said it was making strides to fix that issue.

“We’re growing every day,” she said. “We’re more diverse than we were last year, and we’re were more diverse last year than we were the year before.”

The Working Families Party has been an aggravation at times for Democrats both locally and statewide. In 2019, the state passed changes meant to make it harder for third parties like the WFP to qualify for automatic ballot access.

The previous threshold was 50,000 votes every four years, tied to the governor’s race. Now, a party must now qualify every two years and its candidate for president and governor must receive 130,000 votes or 2 percent of the total votes cast, whichever is greater.

Those rules erased the Independence and Green parties from the ballot after both failed to reach that bar in the 2020 presidential election.

Locally, the WFP backed progressive challenger Matthew Toporowski against Albany County District Attorney David Soares, a Democrat.

Sheehan was the only citywide office holder to publicly back Toporowski’s primary challenge and city Democrats noted the WFP used Sheehan in its campaign materials for months before deciding not to endorse her.

Sheehan faces at least five opponents in her run for a third term, including activist Lukee Forbes, previous mayoral candidates the Rev. Valerie Faust and Marlon Anderson, Republican candidate Alicia Purdy and independent candidate Greg Aidala, an entrepreneur and comedian.