© 2025
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

WAMC public records request lays out Pittsfield Ward 2 city council candidate Blumin’s “long history of disruptive and sometimes aggressive behavior”

Alex Blumin at the October 10th, 2023, Pittsfield, Massachusetts city council meeting.
PCTV
/
Provided
Alex Blumin at the October 10th, 2023, Pittsfield, Massachusetts city council meeting.

A public records request by WAMC reveals a Pittsfield, Massachusetts city council candidate’s long history of threatening behavior against municipal employees.

Ukrainian-born Alex Blumin is a landlord running against attorney Brittany Bandani for the Ward 2 seat on the 11-member Pittsfield city council. He’s been endorsed by outgoing one-term conservative firebrand Charles Kronick. Blumin is a constant presence at Pittsfield public meetings, and WAMC filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the city to understand more about the candidate.

Given the sheer number of emails Blumin has either sent to city hall or been referenced in by the city of Pittsfield, what follows is just a selection from hundreds of messages secured by WAMC.

To use his own words from a 2022 email, Blumin is “a Conservative Straight Religious White Jew Republican which is Not Crime yet in United States.”

Blumin’s messages run a broad gamut, with recurring themes including his passionate support for President Trump and his opposition to what he perceives as left-wing or progressive policies. He often threatens to sue city employees, relentlessly files records requests, frequently issues calls for resignations, and regularly accuses elected officials of conspiracy or being devices of left-wing political projects.

In 2015, Blumin called on then-Ward 3 councilor Nicholas Caccamo to resign over being too young and immature to hold the seat. Caccamo, who spent eight years on the body before stepping down of his own accord at the end of 2021, responded simply with “I will not be resigning Alex.”

A year later, Blumin emailed then-Ward 6 councilor John Krol – who is now running for mayor – a rambling condemnation of communism and socialism – including a claim that he is related to “Berney Sanders” – as well as a question if he could be “a Republican and Straight--Not homosexual” in Pittsfield. He accuses Krol of acting “like a child who wants to please his parents, so they may give him delicious sweets.” In an email to then at-large councilor Kathy Amuso – who is running for the seat again this year – Blumin complains that Krol is a “Socialist Bernei Sanders supporter,” and ends the message with the statement: “If I could --I would move from this Village long ago! I am just stucked here!”

In the runup to Trump’s victory in 2016, Blumin’s stance on the LGBTQIA+ community comes into focus. In an email, he tells at-large councilor Pete White that “LGBT may not survive what is about to come in new Legal and Constitutional Battles.”

Blumin was often the subject of Pittsfield Police Department communications. On January 6th, 2017, Blumin entered the city clerk’s office to talk about a march by the Four Freedoms group in opposition to Trump the following day, leading to an internal PPD email warning officers working the event:

“During the conversation, [a city employee] stated that Mr. Blumin was questioning the format and legality of the event. At that time, Mr. Blumin warned [her] that if he was not allowed to speak at the rally, ‘There was going to be big trouble.’”

The same day, Blumin emailed a local Democratic activist with another threat that was forwarded to the PPD:

“I will come tomorrow with several friends whom I reserve the right to use as the witnesses against you and people from Boston who organized this ‘Non-Partisan’ Meeting. Any speeches against Federal Government will be reported to proper Authorities by us. See you tomorrow and I WILL BE SPEEKING---I GUARANTEE YOU THAT!”

Blumin did not speak at the rally.

That April, Blumin emailed a number of city councilors and Mayor Linda Tyer to claim that Krol had yelled “ass” at him on the street, and references a failed effort to get a restraining order against the then-councilor. Nothing came of his effort to rally city leaders against Krol.

In July of that year, Blumin unsuccessfully attempted to have Pittsfield investigate the nomination papers of Berkshire NAACP Chapter President Dennis Powell in his bid for school committee, claiming malfeasance and asking the city to conduct a forensic handwriting analysis for every signature in the document.

In 2018, Blumin expressed fury at a local rabbi for delivering a prayer at Mayor Tyer’s state of the city address, which he viewed as a violation of the separation of church and state. Blumin’s use of legal threats comes into focus with an email directly to the Jewish leader threatening to sue both him and Pittsfield and also get him removed from his synagogue.

In regard to the school committee’s move to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous People’s Day that year, Blumin told a city councilor that he planned to “file Federal and Local lawsuits (Federal 100% guarantee--they have no activists, no friends there) asking Preliminary injunction into School Committe decision to remove Columbus Day and monetary compensation of $50K for pain, suffering and emotional distress.” While Blumin actually filed this suit, he submitted a motion to dismiss without prejudice in August 2018. The next month, in an email with the subject line “Transgenders—No,” Blumin told city councilors that “Transgender theory is most rediculous left Dem/Progressive lie.” The year ends with Blumin in rage over an incident where he was accused of threatening and intimidating municipal employees over a dust up in the city clerk’s office.

2019 saw Blumin up in arms and threatening suits over diversity, equity, and inclusion training on the city council, which he characterized as “DemLiberalPropagandaTraining” and the work of communists.

In February, a member of Pittsfield’s Human Rights Commission went as far as to request a police presence at a public meeting over alleged threats from Blumin that made her fear for her personal safety. The PPD provided an officer. Blumin’s behavior toward the commission member is characterized by “stalking” by the body’s head in one email, and the member in question emailed Tyer directly to say that he had actually come to her place of work with a copy of her resume and home address along with a handwritten request that she be fired — information that Pittsfield had apparently published on its website. The email to the mayor says that “I cannot believe that the city made such a serious mistake and puts me in danger. I have neither been told nor asked if my information could be made public.” The commission member says Blumin stared at her for an hour during the meeting despite repeated requests for him to stop, and that “I have to seriously think about resigning from the commission. I think it would be necessary for the city to give us more legal support and assures us that our privacy is protected at any time.”

Tyer did not respond to the email.

In June of that year, a crime analyst with the PPD requested a statewide database to send over any additional information on Blumin to Pittsfield, saying that “Blumin has a long history of disruptive and sometimes aggressive behavior at City Council meetings, as well as various city board, neighborhood watch, and community meetings. A board member has recently expressed concern for his and others’ safety, citing the tragedy in Virginia Beach, so we just want to check every resource we have to make sure we’re not missing anything with regards to Mr. Blumin.”

In May 2019, a disgruntled Virginia Beach city employee carried out a mass shooting that left 12 dead and four wounded.

In response, the state agency noted that Blumin had one charge of Assault and Battery out of Pittsfield in 2015 and that the Berkshire State Police Detective Unit had one limited interaction with him in December 2014.

The next month, a report of suspicious activity was filed against Blumin by the PPD, after an incident where his agitated behavior towards a city employee led them to fear for their safety. The PPD notes that “Mr. Blumin has a long history of acting in a hostile manner towards city employees.”

Blumin’s reputation and impact on members of the Pittsfield community is also referenced in a January 2022 report by the PPD on a complaint he lodged against an officer over an incident at a polling location in the previous November’s election:

“It should be noted that Mr. Blumin has a history of this type of behavior at the voting post. His actions on this day were similar to that of the previous election. Volunteer staff at Morningside School have been there consistently over the years and have become familiar with Mr. Blumin and his aggressive behavior, and have indicated that they become nervous and apprehensive upon his arrival.”

In 2022, Blumin repeated a popular far-right talking point by claiming that billionaire George Soros was behind the city’s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, claiming that Soros’s objective is “a Global Community without any Religion with United Nations as a government and USA as a Military Police Force dominating all Over the World--very similar to Soviet Union Communist Party Main Objectives of 1930s as they created World International Communist Union--this is its Resurrection in USA and All Over Europe!”

WAMC reached out to Blumin for comment on this story Thursday. Before suggesting he will sue, the candidate offered some explanations — like how he feels about the LGBTQIA+ community given his statements in the emails.

“I support the quality and I respect LGBTQ community, I completely support them," Blumin said. "Next question.”

WAMC also asked Blumin to clarify if he is indeed related to Bernie Sanders.

“It was my Ukrainian humor," he said. "It is true about 5% to 10%. But I cannot disclose complete relationship. It was a little bit truth with humor.”

But the goodwill wore off soon enough, and the agitated Blumin so often seen in his emails to Pittsfield officials emerged.

“I'm going to win, you can do nothing," he said. "I am going to win. I have support of local people, OK? You cannot even try to do anything because I'm winning campaign, winning completely, OK? And you can do nothing to demolish me.”

Blumin, who was supplied copies of the emails WAMC sought comment on, proceeded to directly call WAMC to reiterate threats of an expensive lawsuit should this article be published.

Despite being offered the opportunity to further comment on the story, the candidate did not.

The election is November 7th.

Josh Landes has been WAMC's Berkshire Bureau Chief since February 2018, following stints at WBGO Newark and WFMU East Orange. A passionate advocate for Western Massachusetts, Landes was raised in Pittsfield and attended Hampshire College in Amherst, receiving his bachelor's in Ethnomusicology and Radio Production. His free time is spent with his cat Harry, experimental electronic music, and exploring the woods.
Related Content