WFP loss fuels rancor

Saratoga Spa Supervisor Gaston misses party nod

The newly minted members of the Working Families Party — a former unaffiliated voter and a Republican — have knocked the party’s endorsed candidate from the ballot line.

Incumbent Saratoga Springs Supervisor Tara Gaston, a Democrat and WFP candidate, lost her primary bid on Tuesday to Bruce Altimar and Gabriel O’brien who just recently registered for the party — a move that WFP officials said was meant to hurt Gaston in November.

“They hijacked the line,” said Joe Seeman, a WFP volunteer who endorses Saratoga County candidates. “We have to take this seriously. We have to register people who are not phony Working Families people, people with real working families values.”

While the primary numbers are unofficial, as the 17 absentees have been returned have yet to be counted, the Saratoga County Board of Elections reported that Gaston got two votes, Altimar, the formerly unaffiliated candidate got 21, while former Republican O’brien got 19.

“My biggest concern is that if there are people who are familiar with the Working Families Party and want to support Working Families candidates and aren’t aware of the background then they might end up getting votes from people who think they are progressive candidates and they are in fact not,” said Gaston who is still running on the Democratic line. “But we don’t know and therein lies the problem.”

Neither Altimar nor O’brien responded to the Times Union’s request for comment.

Earlier this year, the party, known for its progressive politics meant to uplift the working poor, registered 124 new members, boosting its ranks by nearly 30 percent to its current membership of 554 countywide. Most of those who switched — 73 — came from the Republican Party and the now-defunct Independence Party of New York that often teamed with the GOP to cross-endorse the same candidate.

While the WFP is still a tiny faction in

a county with 174,372 voters, leadership at the WFP has voiced concerned that a more conservative-leaning membership will push out progressive candidates. At the time, Seeman called the move Machiavellian.

The same thing happened all across the state including in Rensselaer County. However, on primary night, the WFP endorsed candidate for county executive, Gwen Wright, secured her place on the ballot. In a statement, the state’s WFP Director Sochie Nnaemeka said

Wright “withstood cynical Republican attacks against the WFP ballot line.”

“Our WFP members are enthusiastically supporting Gwen because she shares the values of the party, and she has the courage, dedication and experience to carry out her vision,” Nnaemeka’s statement read.

The state WFP did not comment on the Saratoga County loss.

Gaston said she is disappointed that so few voted and that Altimar and O’brien won, despite not campaigning. Copies of their petitions to get on the WFP line show they did not sign their petitions and that both petitions, which only required three signatures, were signed by the same three people.

“If you are running, you have to say who you are, what you want to do, or why you are doing it,” Gaston said. “Even if it’s, ‘I don’t like her and I want her to go away.’ That’s fine. I don’t think it’s a great answer, but you have the responsibility to share that with people.”

In addition to Altimar, Gaston and O’brien, GOP candidates running for the two seats to represent Saratoga Springs on the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors are John Safford and incumbent Matthew Veitch.