Candidates and their volunteers will be collecting petitions across the Town of Guilderland starting on March 2^nd through the following 3 weeks. 

We don't yet know if there are candidates for the Republican and Conservative Parties, but the Democratic Party has endorsed Peter Barber for Supervisor, Paul Pastore and Amanda Beetle for Town Council, Lynne Buchanan for Town Clerk/Receiver of Taxes, and Denise Randall for Town Justice.  The Working Families Party has endorsed Christine Napierski and Kevin McDonald for Town Council.

Peter Barber, Lynne Buchanan and Denise Randall are all incumbents and running unopposed.  Paul Pastore is also an incumbent, but he and Amanda Beetle (who currently serves on the Guilderland Planning Board) are being challenged by Christine Napierski and Kevin McDonald for the Democratic line and there will be primary for the Democratic line assuming all of the candidates collect the number petition signatures required to qualify to be listed for the primary ballot.

Democratic Party voters can sign petitions for up to 2 Town Council Candidates.  The Democratic Party is circulating a single petition for all of their endorsed candidates and Christine Napierski and Kevin McDonald have individual petitions.

This means that registered Democrats can sign the petition for the whole endorsed Democratic slate of candidates OR the individual petitions for Christine Napierski and Kevin McDonald.

So if you are a registered Democrat, be sure to save your signature for your preferred candidates.  

The Guilderland Democratic Party will be meeting virtually by Zoom to decide on candidate endorsements for the upcoming Democratic primary election. Unfortunately, at this time, there is no opportunity for the public to watch or listen to this meeting in a way that they can ensure that integrity of the vote is restricted to only those Committee Members attending according to the Guilderland Democratic Committee Chair, Jacob Crawford.

On Saturday night it was announced that Guilderland Democratic Party Executive Committee met earlier that day and voted to
recommended to the chair the following individuals for endorsement by the full Guilderland Democratic Committee for 2021:

• Town Supervisor - Peter Barber - Incumbent
• Town Clerk - Lynne Buchanan - Incumbent
• Town Council - Amanda Beedle
• Town Council - Paul Pastore - Incumbent
• Town Justice - Denise Randall - Incumbent

We also know that Christine Napierski and Kevin McDonald are running for Town Board Council seats and interviewed with Guilderland Democratic Party Executive Committee.

Christine Napierski is a former Guilderland Town Justice and has been serving on the GCRG Steering Committee since nearly the beginning of this organization until she recently resigned to run for Guilderland Town Board.  She has already been endorsed by the Working Families Party.

Kevin McDonald is a resident of Westmere Terrace and one of the plaintiffs in the suit against the Town for their violations of the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) process for the proposed development by Pyramid Corporations on Rapp Road, the Mall Ring Road and Western Avenue, including the Costco.  Kevin and the other plaintiffs won this lawsuit in the State Supreme Court which is currently being appealed by both the Town and the Pyramid Corporations.  He will learn whether or not the is endorsed by he Working Families Party after their next vote, which is also expected to happen on this same Monday night.

Amanda Beedle was appointed to the Guilderland Planning Board in January 2020 and voted to approved the SEQRA process the town was sued for lost in Supreme Court by Kevin McDonald and others.  She was previously appointed in January 2018 to Deputy Registrar of Vital Statistics and Marriage Officer.

Supervisor Peter Barber is currently leading the town's appeal, alongside the Pyramid Corporations, to the Supreme Court decision. 

In the court decision, Supreme Court Justice Peter Lynch stated that the Town of Guilderland Planning Board’s SEQRA process for the Rapp Road Residential/Western Avenue Mixed Use Redevelopment Projects “violated SEQRA procedure and the ‘hard look’ test, rendering the  . . . approvals arbitrary and capricious, null and void.”  Click here to read more about the decision.

We are not aware at this time of candidates being considered by the Republican and Conservative Parties.