Race pits mayor against ex-mayor

Rensselaer city contest comes after plenty of strife over last 2 years

This year’s election is a battle of the mayors, as Republican incumbent Mayor Michael E. Stammel and Democratic challenger and former mayor Richard J. Mooney seek a four-year term in the top office in a city government that has been torn apart the last two years.

Stammel and the all-democrat seven-member Common Council have battled ceaselessly since he was elected in 2019 to fill the remaining two years of Democratic mayor Daniel Dwyer, who died in office in Nov. 2018.

Mooney, as Common Council president, succeeded Dwyer in 2018 before losing the 2019 special election to Stammel by 164 votes.

Since that election there’s been battles over staffing, two city budgets, the Dunn Landfill, providing ambulance service to city residents and keeping Stammel from running for re-election as the city’s legislator on the Rensselaer County Legislature.

“They have the supermajority. They do what they want,” said Stammel, 67, who is retired from Amtrak.

Stammel said the Democrats don’t want to work with him and won’t even meet. He said he’s in City Hall working to encourage development while pushing back against the S.A Dunn Landfill.

Mooney said Stammel is the impediment for the city to bring in new small businesses and expand its tax base.

“The city of Rensselaer has come to a standstill under this administration for the past two years. We have a mayor refusing to work with the Common Council,” said Mooney, 52, who works in the state Assembly.

Stammel ran to victory in 2019 by appearing on four lines, a Rensselaer County favorite strategy, stressing his role as chairman of the County Legislature to bring services to the city and channeling public rage over the landfill and its impact on the nearby Rensselaer City School District campus.

The Democrats have stripped away those advantages.

Mooney has the Working Families Party Line and the Independence Party didn’t get enough votes to stay on the ballot as an active party. Stammel had both those lines in 2019 plus the Republican and Conservative ballot positions which he maintains for the 2021 election.

Mooney appears on three lines, Democrat, Working Families Party and the Independent Rensselaer Party, a play on the name of the former Independence Party.

The Common Council followed the example of neighboring East Greenbush and passed a law forbidding an official who is serving in a city elected post from holding another elected position. Stammel opted to drop out from re-election to the County Legislature this year and run again for mayor.

The Democrats have taken

the position of standing against the landfill, but Stammel’s supporters have continued to push for them to do more.

Stammel points to the construction of new apartments along Broadway and proposals for activity in the city’s southern industrial zone as accomplishments done during his administration.

Mooney says most of the housing activity began with approvals that came before Stammel was in city government.

Early voting begins Saturday and runs until Sunday, Oct. 31.

Election Day is Nov. 2.