This day in 1914 in the Record
Saturday, March 14, 1914. “It may be early, but it is not too early to consider political conditions in Rensselaer county with relation to next fall’s election,” The Record reports.
It’s more likely that our editors are short on news today and have sent reporters out in search of political gossip. At least one man rises to the bait. The source is anonymous as usual, described as “one of the most seasoned volunteers” in local politics. Also a “veteran granger,” he predicts that rural Rensselaer County will make a greater effort this year to make its influence felt in party councils.
“The political farmer is going to put in some seed this spring,” the granger tells our reporter, “You may have noticed it, that you fellows in the city don’t have it so much your own way as you did once.
“Time was when the city machine turned out the candidates, and the countrymen accepted them as a perfect product. That’s not so any more. Whether it is generally understood or not, there is as wideawake political organization in the farming districts to- day as there is in the cities, and, maybe, the countryman is more than a match for the city politician.”
What the farmers want, beyond representation on the county ticket, is unclear as yet. The headline races this fall will be for sheriff, district attorney and county treasurer. Incumbent sheriff Henry W. Snell, a Democrat, is term-limited and can’t run again. Among the possible candidates to succeed him are county poor supervisor Freeman H. Munson and Board of Supervisors chairman Job Doty, on the Democratic side, and Republican Duncan C. Kaye, who ran unsuccessfully against Snell in 1911.
District Attorney Clarence Akin, also a Democrat, “says he does not want the office again,” but “those close to his secret thoughts say he would not turn it down. If Akin decides not to run, assistant D. A. William P. Keenan most likely will get the Democratic nod, while former D. A. Abbott H. Jones and former assistant Chester G. Wager will most likely vie for the Republican nomination.
County treasurer Francis Riley “will not seek renomination.” His office reportedly is the one Job Doty really wants, but he may accept a nomination for sheriff as a consolation prize if county Democrats, as rumored, offer the treasury nomination to Joseph McQuade, the local chairman of the National Progressive Party.
The Progressives, not yet two years old, remain small compared to the two major parties, but their 1,223 registered members might tip the balance of power in favor of the party that makes them the best offer this fall.