BETTER THAN HEARSAY - Democratic Dilemma (Part 2) - Greene Democrats Rassle with Resignation and Recusal

GREENE COUNTY  - There is nothing that legally says the Greene County Democratic Party had to allow the press into their sensitive executive committee meeting on the night of April 23 (too late for this edition).

There is nothing on the books stopping them from letting the pests in either, and before anyone suggests the Democrats are being picked on, the same would be said about any other Party if that was the case.

So now the Fourth Estate has to rely on secondhand accounts to cover a political story that has Democrats deeply divided and tangled in intrigue.

Be that as it may, Party leadership has said, “as the primary purpose of this month's meeting is to discuss strategies for the coming election cycles as well as the service history of a particular member, we have made the decision to not open the meeting to non-committee members.”

That came on April 21 via email from Party co-chairman Marc Czermerys who also stated, “we do commit to getting you an official statement…in regards to the letters you are in receipt of, [by] this weekend.”

The “service history of a particular member” is apparently referring to 40-year former county legislator Larry Gardner who has been asked by the town of Windham Democratic Committee to resign from his spot on the town of Hunter Democratic committee.

Or it could be referencing Lori Torgersen, a 3-year former county legislator and current co-chairman of the Party who has been asked by Gardner to recuse herself from anything to do with the request for his resignation.

And when Czermerys mentioned, “the letters you are in receipt of,” he probably meant the exchanges between Windham Democrats, the executive committee and Gardner secured by this newspaper.

All of that was described in depth in this column, last week, and will be continued, next week, as things become clearer or more muddled.

Meanwhile, everything may be moot - or riled up moreso - since Gardner, on April 20, submitted his unconditional resignation in the second of two long and explicit letters to the executive committee.

The resignation still remained to be accepted - or not - by the executive committee at the April 23 closed session where Torgerson may have or may not have recused herself from the controversy that began last fall.

The chain of events have unfolded thusly:

—In the autumn of 2025, in the days leading up to the election for town supervisor in Windham, Gardner sent a letter-to-the-editor to two area newspapers in support of the Republican Party candidate over the Democratic nominee.

—On November 18, 2025, two weeks after the vote, Windham Democrats sent a letter to Hunter Democrats, Czermerys and Torgersen seeking Gardner’s resignation.

“The core issue is the manner in which Mr. Gardner chose to act,” the letter states. “At no point did he approach the Windham Democratic Committee to raise concerns, offer advice, or seek dialogue.

“Rather than communicating as a fellow Democrat, Mr. Gardner bypassed the committee entirely and publicly supported the Republican candidate,” the letter states. 

“This blindsided our team, contradicted our work, and damaged our credibility at a critical moment,” the Windham committee letter states.

—In a followup letter from Windham Democratic committee chairperson Kathy Stone to the executive committee, the request was repeated.

“Mr. Gardner used his standing as a Democrat to lend credibility to a Republican campaign while our committee was in the field fighting for our nominee,” the Stone correspondence states.

“That is a betrayal of every volunteer, donor, and voter who trusted that our party would stand behind its own candidates,” Stone stated.

“Mr. Gardner's continued membership in the Hunter Democratic Committee sends a troubling message, that there are no consequences for actively working against Democratic candidates,” Stone stated.

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Stone, in her followup correspondence further wrote, “we are now entering the 2026 campaign season” [readying for another vote for Windham town supervisor, this November, a two-year term].

“We ask the Executive Committee to review Mr. Gardner's membership and take firm action to make clear that Democratic committee members are expected to support Democratic candidates,” Stone wrote.

Gardner, for many years, served as the Windham town attorney and maintained a law firm in Windham. He has retired from practice.

No action was taken by Hunter Democrats or the executive committee and nothing was heard publicly about the matter until Gardner, on April 13, 2026, sent his first letter to the executive committee.

Gardner, in that letter, acknowledged supporting the Republican candidate, saying he did so because, “the facts and circumstances surrounding the writing of my letter were far from normal.

“My [letter-to-the-editor] was not an aberration from my consistently loyal conduct,” Gardner continued, “but was rather my reaction as a loyal Democrat,” noting it was motivated by a “mindless choice.”

“In a nutshell, the mindless choice was to run an Anarcho-Syndicalist as a Democratic candidate for Supervisor,” Gardner wrote.

Gardner told Party leaders his letter-to-the-editor was a response to, “the inexplicable decision of the Town of Windham Democratic Committee to run a candidate on the Democratic line whose publicly self-professed political philosophy is to the left of Stalin, Lenin, Trotsky and Marx.”

Gardner, subsequently explaining his rationale for demanding Torgersen’s recusal, noted multiple interactions between Torgersen and him, dating back to 2015 and their three years shared in the county legislature.

During Torgersen’s tenure, there was an intense in-house battle over the construction of a new county jail which was ultimately approved.

Gardner writes that, “in the summer of 2018, Lori announced her candidacy for re-election to the Greene County Legislature. She circulated and filed her petition to be the Democratic nominee,” in the November, 2018 vote. 

Gardner wrote that, “in October, 2018 she announced that she was ending her campaign…depriving another Democrat from running…handing a premature victory to her Republican opponent. 

“In her October, 2018 campaign renouncing letter, Lori fired a broadside at all of the members of the Greene County Legislature, both all Republicans and, besides herself, all 4 other Democrats,” Gardner wrote.

Torgersen’s letter was “distributed widely by email and provided to all local news media, accusing all other legislators, including me [and other legislative Democrats], of "nefarious motives,” "lacking integrity" and having lost our "ethical way.” Need I say any more about her inability to be impartial regarding me?” Gardner wrote.

Gardner also detailed events involving his 2018 run for re-election to the county legislature as the Democratic Party’s nominee, and the sudden emergence of a write-in challenger.

Gardner stated that Torgersen and other Windham Democrats organized by Torgersen, “didn’t merely support [the write-in] candidacy against the Democratic candidate, they actually recruited [the write-in candidate] and created [the write-in candidate’s] campaign.”

The write-in candidate, “did not participate in a Democratic Primary…did not gather signatures for an Independent Nominating Petition…and was otherwise not a candidate of any party…” Gardner wrote.

“I also request that the Greene County Democratic Committee inquire of its members as to who among us participated in this, and that they be caused to recuse themselves from this matter,” Gardner wrote.

Gardner, in his April 20 resignation letter, detailed other actions prompting his demand for Torgersen’s recusal and stated, “ I will, on my own terms, not by reason of any demand, but for the benefits enumerated [in part] below, resign from the Democratic Committee:

—“A now much better informed Greene County Democratic Committee is freed of this issue, but not yet of its current leadership.

— “Senator Michelle Hinchey, Congressman Riley and our [eventual] Assembly candidate will get the benefit of an undistracted County Committee to assist in their campaigns.

—“The Town of Windham Democratic Committee will get the benefit of having me totally unfettered, able and anxious to publicly comment on their important work,” Gardner wrote.

Democratic Party officers, apparently including vice-chairpersons Brittany Palmateer and Chris Hanse, Czermerys and Torgersen, met on in the evening of April 20, following the release of Gardner’s resignation.

Torgersen, in an April 20 email, said, a “joint comment” would be issued following the Officer’s meeting, not specifying the subject.

Czermerys, in his April 21 email, stated that joint comment would not be forthcoming at that time, awaiting whatever transpires at the April 24 executive committee session held in Cairo.

The executive committee is comprised of the four officers and chairpersons from the 14 town Democratic Party committees throughout the county.