I was very involved in Sue Haynes’ campaign for Town Board in Brunswick. She ran the most effective campaign with most resources of the Democratic candidates, but she still lost against Republican Dan Casale and Republican Ed Sullivan for one of two seats. Another Democrat, James Beardsley, ran for the other seat, and had an even poorer showing then Sue.

There are many ways to interpret her lost. Here are few possibilities:

• Voters may not have liked her ideas or principles.
• Voters where aghast to vote a Democrat as life-long Republicans.
• Brunswick has a Republican enrollment advantage.
• Democrats might not have turned out for a local election.
• Incumbency and its the financial advantages benefited Republicans.
• Sue might not have been the right candidate.
• The election was stolen.

Sue Haynes became interested in community activism several years back through a group known as Brunswick Smart Growth. This group has made formal protests against several proposed developments that they believed to be inconsistent with their community values. They in many cases forced developers to be accountable and make the right choices.

Brunswick is very hilly, with only two narrow roads connecting to the city. Serious traffic congestion and gridlock is the norm for suburban commuters in Brunswick. It also has a lot of agricultural land, including many acres of poor-quality soils, suitable largely for pasture and similar uses. Many farmers felt selling this land close to Troy, could be incredibly profitable and provide for their retirement from farming.

This made her a polarizing figure to start her campaign. Developers and farmers with desirable land for development opposed this group. Suburban residents in the community who largely rely on choked arteries to get to work generally supported this group, as did many environmentalists and other residents who felt that their rural community was changing without check.

Many weekends she had dozens of people out canvasing for her. She mobilized many of the people from Brunswick Smart Growth, labor unions, Democracy for the Hudson-Mohawk Region (DFHMR), and the Kirsten Gillibrand-campaign to get out and talk to the voters in her district. Nearly every door, Democrat and Republican was knocked on. Key districts where canvased multiple time, and we made a genuine effort to reach out to everybody.

Yet, her canvas efforts where not targeted. She didn’t try just to get Democrats and other voters likely to vote for a female Democrat, such as Republican women and no-party people. We not only got our voters out, we also helped mobilize our own opposition by knocking on the opposition’s doors. While the Republicans had a minimal get-out-the-vote effort, we helped them out by reminding people who would otherwise not vote to get out and vote. On the other hand, we ran several phone banks, based on canvas data gather on previous weeks, trying to get out targeted voters.

It was not like the Republicans where totally asleep at the switch. They outspent Sue in the last few days of the campaign, purchasing full-page ads in Troy Record and other community papers, sending out a floury of negative mailers, and doing robo-calls. Both Ed Sullivan and Dan Casale did some door knocking on their own to targeted districts. Yet, the Republicans by far did not have the people knocking doors and talking to people. Somehow, they where more effective at getting their own people out, and winning the election.

It’s possible that voters simply preferred the Republican candidates. Town taxes had not gone up in the past couple of years, and Supervisor Phil Herrington and his Republican cohorts where quick to take credit for it. Herrington credited his board’s pro-development stance for keeping taxes low, by expanding the tax base. Herrington, also managed his family dairy farm in Brunswick, which brought him connections with other dairyman and respect for being a hardworking individual.

Sue was afraid to attack Herrington for the questionable things he did in office. Herrington bought several pieces of farmland that he later sold to developers at quite a markup. While he abstained for voting on his own properties and the zoning changes needed to make them able to be developed, he supported the efforts of fellow Republicans on the board to develop their lands. He has used his political connections to make well over $2.5 million dollars – not bad for spending most of your life as a cowhand.

Nor did Sue ever challenge the costs of development in the community in her campaign. While Sue was well known as the Smart Growth candidate, she rarely defended that position. She was at best timid to defend Smart Growth when she ran. She could have found out how much school taxes had gone up for districts, and connected that issue in voters minds. Herrington’s pro-development stances are in part to blame for the fact that school taxes have grown more then 50% in the past five years. She also didn’t look at the town’s declining fiscal status, and the new burdens that new town highways put on taxpayers.

I doubt Sue could have done much more to turn out voters or get more interest in the election. She was very effective at this— maybe too effective at getting not just Democrats out but also the Republican riled up. Sue and her volunteers did the best that they could do, and it was a tough seat to win after almost a decade of Republican-control. At some point though, Democrats will take the seat, much as had prior to the mid-1990s and the rise of the Brunswick-machine and Senate Majority Leader Joesph Bruno.

The re-canvas of machines after election day, suggests that the initial results where legitimate, and now we have to trust the results—even if we are in such a Republican-dominated area. Voters made their own choices, and we have to respect it. Maybe the majority of people in Brunswick believe that the proposals of the Herrington administration are good for the town, and they are happy with the status quo. We may never know why people chose the Republican candidates.