At a time when Democrats and Republicans are failing to find ways to cooperate at the local, regional and national levels of government, a rural community is experiencing a surge of bi-partisanship.
Joe Giebelhaus never thought he would be involved in politics, but that changed when three of the five all-Republican Berne town board members resigned last year – crippling the town’s local government.
“I had no intention of getting into government at all,” Giebelhaus said.
Giebelhaus - a Berne resident – served as the City of Albany’s Deputy Commissioner of the Department of General Services before retiring in January.
“One day, about six weeks into my retirement, I turned on the news and I saw Town of Berne suing Kathy Hochul, and I said what’s going on what’s going on in my little town here, I had no thoughts whatsoever, I wasn’t even paying attention, wasn’t paying attention to the world,” Giebelhaus said.
To find out more, Giebelhaus says he went to Maple on the Lake – a bar in Berne where “everyone knows everyone else” to find out more.
Giebelhaus says he asked Albany County Legislator Chris Smith, who works at the bar, why the town was suing Governor Kathy Hochul.
“And he said, he told me the story about how the town had shut down because three councilmembers had quit and the town was suing the governor’s office in order to make the appointment so we can get the town up and running again, and so immediately, I immediately volunteered just out of good citizenship, I volunteered to be on the town board,” Giebelhaus said.
The Democrat, who has now been a member of the Berne Town Board for about six months, is running for Town Supervisor in the upcoming November elections.
And in a rare display of bipartisanship, Giebelhaus has been endorsed by the Berne Democratic and Republican Committees. Two other local candidates – Highway Superintendent Candidate Allen Stempel and Town Board Candidate Scott Duncan – also carry endorsements by both parties.
While the locals races also feature several candidates who only have single-party backing, Berne Democratic Committee Chair and tax collector candidate, James Kaufman, says his party had no problem cross-endorsing candidates.
“Both parties realized that we need to fix things, and there is no sense in playing political favorites when you know you got people out there that can do the job and are willing to do the job and are willing to be cross-endorsed,” Kaufman said.
Kaufman, Giebelhaus and the town’s Republican Committee Chair, Joe Martin, say the town’s fiscal position is one of the biggest issues facing the town.
Martin was one of the three board members that resigned last year.
“The issues that we had in town and have today, there not a political affiliation issue it’s a people issue, with a very very small part of our community that wants to continue to go to war for self-serving reasons in my opinion. So, our town was in financial trouble, still is slowly digging itself out of a hole,” Martin said.
The party chairs also contend that the three cross-endorsed candidates are the best people for the job.
“I’ve got full faith in everybody on our ticket,” Kaufman said.
Giebelhaus is hoping to continue working in a bipartisan fashion if he wins in November. He says some of his priorities would be to change the way the budget is developed and bring more government business into the town by way of contracts.
As for the bipartisanship, Giebelhaus has some advice for those looking to work with colleagues across the aisle.
“Remember that once you’ve taken that oath who you are working for, you’re no longer working for the party, you’re no longer working for your own personal agenda whatever that might be, you’re working for everyone, all the taxpayers,” Giebelhaus said.
