Democrats For Madigan: The Genesis story
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. >> Courtney DeLeonardis and Charley Brown are both former chairs of the Saratoga Springs City Democratic Party.
They are now part of an organization called Democrats For Madigan.
This is a conversation about the genesis of how and why they broke off from the Saratoga Springs Democratic Party and formed their own group in support of the re-election of incumbent Commissioner of Finance Michele Madigan.
They share their thoughts on this very contentious election season, and why they felt they had to leave the Saratoga Springs City Democrats they had both served for so long. ••• How long have the two of you known each other?
DeLeonardis: “I think we’ve known each other about 6 years, since 2013; when I joined the Committee, Charlie was the chair. I worked very closely with Charlie and the committee. I was enthusiastic and excited to get involved so slowly I took a role on a subcommittee, and then it worked its way into me being on the executive committee, and Charlie’s first vice chair.”
Brown: “We’re re-elected on even years. When I first came onto the Committee, our Democratic community was mending, hoping to mend, after having this terrible split after Valerie Keene’s second run for mayor. There was a strong division within the Democratic community at that point.” ••• We should remind readers or new residents that there were ethics investigations and tremendous division within the City Council at that time.
Brown: “I spent a couple of years on the committee, was asked and moved in the direction of taking over as chair, in part, because I didn’t have a long history, therefore it was easier for me to reach out to the various parties.
“My approach and general major goal was to find a way to have the committee work together and build the Democratic community back together. Part of the way I would do that is to find the common ground and work from the common ground.
“In places where we had major divisions, we didn’t fight that out in the room. It was not going to change if we were screaming and yelling at each other.” ••• There had been a long period of dispute over the Comprehensive Plan among the Democrats on the City Council, and there was a lot, wasn’t there?
Brown: “There was. What I have found along the way is there is always a lot. This city is growing and I believe, most of our candidates believe we need to preserve the Greenbelt and some of what makes the
City unique, but at the same time, growth is happening. There’s a constantly a push and shove, going back and forth between those needs, and finding a way to make it work it out with the best answer.
“I can go over, time and time again where the Council was sort of at each others throats because they were searching for that answer.
“As my years went on, we had about four, five good years where we came closer and closer together. We put up our candidates that we endorsed, we built stronger procedures, guidance manuals so new members understood what it was about.
“We enhanced our treasury from when I got it, about $800 and books that were a mess to $10,00 when we left. When Courtney made the decision to step down, it was done as efficiently and as rapidly as possible to make sure the next committee had no stumbling blocks about moving forward.” ••• This was after the primary that was a surprise to many in which candidate for Commissioner of Finance Patty Morrison received the endorsement of the City of Saratoga Springs Democratic Committee.
DeLeonardis: “She won the primary by a close margin.”
Brown: “Which gives her the nomination and a slot on the ballot. There is confusion between nomination and endorsement. As a committee, we had endorsed Michele, after the long process, then Patty, who chose not to go through the endorsement process, even though she was a committee member and understood thoroughly the process..”
DeLeonardis: “The Saratoga Springs Democratic Committee (SSDC) has their own bylaws. We created our own city bylaws.”
Brown: “We’re a pretty substantial committee.
Small groups operate under county bylaws. We as a city committee, are actually a subcommittee of the county, which is a subcommittee of the state. Within our city bylaws, we structured the way we fulfill our endorsement process, who we have as an executive committee, who are standing subcommittees are.
“Over the years, we have established all these things on paper so procedurally the structure is there.”
DeLeonardis: “We’re very proud of the work we’ve done on the SSDC. We have a binder that goes through the expectations of people on the committee. We have expectations on how we’re going to dialogue with each other. We follow some aspects of Robert’s Rules of Order, we try to have very clear cut expectations so things can run smoothly.
“One part of that is our endorsement process. We expect the executive select members to be on the endorsement committee, and they are tasked with interviewing candidates, asking a series of questions.
“A very intensive process, then coming before the committee with their recommendation. We put it on Facebook to say we’re looking for candidates; if you’re looking for endorsement for any city position, you need to contact me immediately and we’ll put you in contact with our interview committee.
“Our primary moved to June. Typically, the primary would be in September if there was one, but our endorsement process has always been much earlier than that.
“Even though it was a lot more rushed than usual, we went through every step.
“Our platform is a little more broad and is very important to us. We asking candidates “Can you support this? It does change every two years.”
Brown: “Our candidates need to say this is something they can work with. Specific issues aren’t really part of the platform. The candidates are going to build their own platform on specific issues. ••• So this is foundational to the organization. How many did you interview for City Council this year?
Brown: “Certainly seven, because there’ll be seven seats. Then we had three seats with a second interested person. So that would have been ten, but it was nine because one did not go through the process- Patty Morrison. We didn’t have the chance to vet her position, her qualifications, and it made it easier for the committee to say we are going to continue to support Commissioner Madigan.” ••• When interviewed, Patty Morrison did not discuss that. What explanation was offered to you?
Brown: “That she had not decided yet.”
DeLeonardis: “We value everyone’s time and energy; it’s so important that we have that information before we make a recommendation to the full committee.”
Brown: “If you’re running a transparent campaign, you need to go through the process so we can ask all the questions we need to ask. When the committee voted, the committee voted to endorse Madigan.
“This was about April because of the pushed up primary. Then the committee will go out and get signatures for all your endorsed candidates. All 50 members are going out into their community, gathering what we call our slate. What we ask is if you can’t support the decision, you don’t publicly go against it.” ••• So you were faced squarely with having to make that decision yourselves.
Brown: “We were.”
DeLeonardis: “If I can go back, the concern that occurred we endorsed Michele Madigan. Then we had Patty never communicating to the executive committee that she was going to still move forward with a running in the primary.” ••• So a schism was created from within.
DeLeonardis: “Yes. From there, it’s a weighted vote, it’s fair. Whoever wins, committee members need to support them. You don’t need to go crazy, but you need to carry your petition for your district. We had someone publicly working against the endorsed candidate.” ••• Was Patty Morrison disciplined, so to speak, within the Party? Did anyone call her on not “playing by the rules”?
DeLeonardis: “We were struggling with this. In addition, we had new members also working for Patty; this is earlier this year. We had our procedures and rules not being followed.”
Brown: “It is not written that you can’t work against a candidate. This is procedurally understood at the state, county and city levels.” ••• You made such a point of putting a great deal in writing.
Brown: “We would have to rewrite the bylaws. You need a two-thirds vote. We have not done that. Courtney could have said you can’t be on the committee, gone to the county and state and said “Look, she’s not following procedure, we want her off the committee if that’s what she’s going to do.”
DeLeonardis: “The gift we give our endorsed candidate is we’re getting their signatures for them so they can be on the ballot for the primary. We were knocking on doors, Morrison and other committee members had already been at people’s doors.”
Brown: “Working against the norms of the Committee. This was a breach. There could have been a huge tear in the committee. We decided to go ahead and support the endorsed candidate. Morrison and her supporters that were on our committee were saying there should be a broader vote than just the committee on who gets the Democratic nomination. We all agreed to it, but the communication got worse at that point.
“When Patty won, she said that even though only about 10 percent of voters in the city had a chance to vote, that that was the end. Now she is the nominee and Michele can no longer run, even though she has three other lines to continue on: Working Families Independence and the new party, SAM-Serve America Movement.”
DeLeonardis: “And the Democratic Committee had endorsed her.”
Brown: “We had left them, giving them room to make their own decisions based on which candidate they wanted to work for.”
DeLeonardis: “We wanted to talk about the conduct during the primary that caused further issues. We didn’t try to cause trouble, we were disappointed and they remained in the SSDC. We said we’re going to let this go and let things happen; it caused a strain and confusion among constituents who were asking ‘Why is Patty coming to our door?’
“We had to make sure Michele was getting enough signatures.”
Brown: “She suggested that she was the Democratic candidate.” ••• If they could have split off as you eventually did, why didn’t they just do that ?
Brown: “That’s a question for them. This was a group that clearly came
in to conquer and divide. By winning the primary, they believed they had conquered. However, Commissioner Madigan still has three other lines to run on and we, as Democrats believe this is the strongest decision for numerous reasons.
“The county committee informed us “You must support the winner of the primary and then told the group that had been supporting Morrison that we must support her. It got flipped.”
The people trying to lay a foundation, yourselves, got held to a foundation. Is that what I’m hearing?
Brown: “That’s exactly what happened.” ••• And you replied, “We can’t.”
DeLeonardis: “When I spoke to the County chair, I said ‘I can’t in good conscience, do this.’” ••• Please tell the readers who that was.
DeLeonardis: “Todd Kerner is the Saratoga County Chair of the Democratic Party. He was emphatic; he said he had no control over the SSDC.”
Brown: “I asked him ‘Is there anything in the state or county bylaws that says we have to support this candidate? Nothing in any of them. Do you have authority to make the City chair support this candidate?’ He said ‘No. But if you don’t do it, I will be supporting the winner of the primary.’”
DeLeonardis: “This is a person I’d always consulted, was a mentor to me, supported my decisions and had a great dialogue with. It was really hard for me.” ••• So in allowing the Morrison supporters on the committee their autonomy, it in fact cost the primary. We have extensively covered both sides of this season.
Brown: “We are Democrats. Commissioner Madigan is a Democrat and we will continue to be so. We did it with all intentions of leaving the next group in the best shape that we could.”
DeLeonardis: “It was about four weeks after the primary that I decided to leave and announced it. We could have done a million things that made this group life very difficult. That’s not what we wanted to do.”
Brown: “It was clear that this was not a group that wanted to work together.” ••• This brings us to June, when you two made your announcement at the High Rock Spring.
Brown: “The emotional consequence, time and energy to do this job well; it’s very demanding.” ••• Was this a paid position? DeLeonardis: “No; but it’s several hours every night. Tons of phone calls, preparing agendas for two meetings, that last for several hours, the space at the Library needs to be reserved, touching base regularly with all your subcommittees. Things come up with the media. Many emails. It’s high stress; people can be nasty. You take a tremendous amount of abuse.”
Brown: “We set a standard. We have been working for ten years. I need to be honest about my position. The ethical thing to do was to step away. We needed to choose for the well-being of our City.”
DeLeonardis: “I was in a position of being obligated to endorse Patty and un-endorse Michele. That was very troubling to me. I knew I had to follow the procedure, and I couldn’t in this case.”