SARATOGA COUNTY — Around 30 members of the Saratoga County Conservative Party will be questioned Saturday during hearings on why they joined the party after previously being enrolled in the more liberal-leaning Working Families Party.
In a letter, which was provided to The Daily Gazette, it states that members will need to appear before the acting party chairman David Buchyn between 1 and 5 p.m. at the La Quinta Hotel by Wyndham in Clifton Park to answer to allegations made in a complaint against them.
“Please take notice that a complaint has been received alleging that your views and actions are not in sympathy with the principles of the Saratoga County Conservative Party,” the letter states. “Further it has also been alleged that you have engaged in acts that are disloyal to the Saratoga County Conservative Party. I have reviewed the complaint and determined that a hearing is warranted to consider canceling your enrollment in the Saratoga County Conservative Party.”
Buchyn confirmed the letter had been sent, declining to comment further in an initial phone call about the hearings.
State Conservative Party spokesperson William F. B. O’Reilly said the hearing is regarding “party raiding.”
“A small group of Saratoga Republicans have been hopping parties, evidently, in an attempt to take them over — first the WFP [Working Families Party] and now the CP [Conservative Party],” he said in an email.
A Times Union story from 2023 indicated that several people who had previously been part of the Republican Party and then switched to the Working Families Party had now joined the Conservative Party.
According to that article, Buchyn welcomed the switch at the time.
But in February, the county Conservative Party warned members that Thomas Sartin, who had once been a Republican, then switched to the Working Families Party and then to the Conservative Party, was circulating petitions that weren’t for prospective candidates endorsed by the party.
Sartin confirmed Friday he was one of the people to receive the hearing notice.
“I switched to the Conservative Party because it conforms more to my true values,” he said.
He said he beat Buchyn “two to one” for the Judicial Delegate for 113th district and now believes Buchyn is trying “to eliminate his competition.”
Sartin also noted Buchyn was someone who switched into the Conservative Party in 2020 after being a Republican previously.
“How is Dave questioning the values of anybody that’s in the party when he himself put Democrats on the line for Supreme Court justice,” Sartin said.
In 2022, the Conservative Party chose to endorse two Democrats instead of Republican-backed Richard Kupferman and Chris Obstarczyk for state Supreme Court judge of the Fourth Judicial District.
Sartin also shared screenshots of texts Buchyn sent to him seeking Sartin’s help getting people to vote for John Safford during his campaign to become the Saratoga Springs mayor.
Sartin also said Samantha Guerra, who Buchyn supported financially when she ran for a Saratoga Springs City Council seat, had received a letter as well.
We were unable to reach Guerra for comment.
Sartin said he will be attending the hearing Saturday with an attorney.
According to a statement from Buchyn, provided by O’Reilly, once the county party has finished questioning people it will determine whether further action is needed.
The letter states that a stenographer will be at the hearings “to prepare a transcript in the event litigation is required following the hearing.”
These hearings come as Buychn was recently criticized by Saratoga Springs Republican Party Chairman Mike Brandi for repeating racial epithets during a recent City Council meeting. The state Conservative Party chalked up Brandi’s calls to remove Buchyn as Saratoga County Conservative Party chairman as a political ploy.