What’s Schenectady candidate Ed Varno all about?

SCHENECTADY — During a recent candidates’ forum, Mayor Gary Mccarthy and his Republican challenger were joined by a man new to city politics and, by all appearances, new to debating.

The answers given by Ed Varno, representing the Working Families Party, were certainly unpolished, perhaps refreshingly so. And while his criticisms of Mccarthy’s tenure were generally mild, his assessment of Republican Matt Nelligan was much harsher.

Some observers, Nelligan included, think that’s by design — Mccarthy’s design.

“It’s a scam from start to finish,” Nelligan told me. “This guy is as much a Working Families Party member as I am, and he’s on the ballot purely for nefarious reasons.”

The primary aim, Nelligan believes, is to divide the antimccarthy vote, thus ensuring the mayor’s reelection. Mccarthy and Varno, a retired city firefighter, both deny the charge.

“Let me make one thing clear, Mr. Churchill: I’m nobody’s lapdog. I’m nobody’s foil,” Varno, 66, said. “Nobody put me up to this.”

Questions about Varno’s candidacy stretch back to before the June primary, when the Working Families Party accused him of attempting to hijack its line. The party had endorsed

City Council President Marion Porterfield, who was also challenging Mccarthy in the Democratic primary and narrowly lost.

Varno beat Porterfield in the Working Families race, 29 votes to 26. That kept Mccarthy from facing Porterfield, who many considered a viable threat to the mayor, off the November ballot.

“It was part of a concerted effort to knock me off the Working Family Party line,” Porterfield said, adding that Varno clearly has no interest in representing the group’s typically progressive positions.

Ravi Mangla, the party’s communications director, agreed and said Varno’s candidacy is a deception that may trick some progressives. Mangla added that attempts to hijack Working Families Party nominations have died down around the state but, for some reason, remain alive and well here in the Capital Region.

Of course, if progressives are tricked into voting for Varno, those would presumably be votes lost for Mccarthy. But Nelligan says Varno is much more of a threat to his candidacy, particularly among

voters aware of Varno’s conservative positions.

“He is so clearly not a progressive,” Nelligan said. “If he gets any votes, it hurts me.”

Varno’s path to the ballot was certainly odd — and includes a link to Mccarthy.

It happened like this: Brendan Savage, now an aide to the mayor, circulated Working Families petitions aiming to get his brother on the ballot. When the brother, John Savage, dropped out of the race ahead of the primary for unspecified reasons, he was replaced by Varno.

Varno told me he was asked to run by a member of the party he declined to name — it was not Brendan Savage or Mccarthy, he said — and happily accepted.

“I got in it to win it,” Varno said. “I think it’s going good.”

Mccarthy noted that Savage, who could not be reached for comment, was not working for him when the petitions were circulated, a fact that hardly allays questions about the mayor’s involvement. Mccarthy said he understands some might find the link suspicious but maintained there is nothing to it.

Varno positioned himself as a new type of Working Families candidate, one who seeks to move the party in a more “blue collar” and conservative direction. He joined the party a few years ago, he said, and believes “it has gone off the rails.”

So, in summary, the nominee of the Working Families Party doesn’t much like the Working Families Party. Varno does, however, offer a more positive take on Mccarthy.

“I think he’s done a relatively good job,” Varno said, adding that conditions in the Bellevue section of the city, where he has lived for decades, have significantly improved in recent years.

Comments like those won’t dispel suspicions that he’s a Mccarthy plant, but Varno doesn’t much seem to care. He certainly seems to prefer Mccarthy to Nelligan, who, as I noted in a recent column, is running an aggressive and combative challenge to the mayor. The Republican makes “bombastic proclamations,” Varno said.

“I think I have a lot of people in my corner,” Varno also said, adding that he’s running to address quality-of-life issues and improve the city’s walkability. “I’m a regular guy.”

But not a regular member of the Working Families Party.