Democrats fuming over renegade officials

By TOM RUE
MONTICELLO - Democrats continued wrangling this week after a November 5th election swept judge-elect Frank LaBuda and other Democrats to victory. Hard feelings arose within the party when some Thompson Democrats -- including town supervisor Anthony Cellini -- banded together to publicly endorse LaBuda's opponent, incumbent gubernatorial appointee Burton Ledina.

LaBuda won by slightly more than 2000 votes.

Sullivan County Democratic Party chairman Robert Krutman was quoted here last week blasting Democratic officials who publicly came out for Ledina -- giving special mention to Cellini and county legislator Robert Kunis (D-8).

"When you have a legislator that puts up signs for Ledina on his beer store [Kunis], and you have the supervisor of the largest town in the county [Cellini] who campaigns for him, it's time to run against them in primaries," Krutman told a crowd of cheering Democrats at Bernie's Restaurant in Rock Hill on Election Night.

Neither Cellini nor Kunis were present for Krutman's remarks. Kunis telephoned The River Reporter office on November 8 to deny he ever publicly supported Ledina. He attended a portion the event, but left early.

Krutman confirmed The River Reporter's account of his remark, stating Kunis had "a giant sign, 4-foot by 8-foot, facing traffic -- the best location in the world," in his beer store on Mill St., Liberty. A small poster for LaBuda was visible inside, he claimed.

Kunis did not return two phone calls from this reporter. A man identifying himself as Kunis's son asked if the calls were about "the Bernie's incident." Kunis's beer store, Catskill Beverages, Inc., donated $100 to Ledina. One source said Kunis gave an equal amount to LaBuda. Donations of $100 or more are public record.

"That's being neutral. He [Kunis] didn't run on the independent party line. He ran on the Democratic line," Krutman said of the reported dual gifts.

"Democratic office-holders who run under the banner of the Democratic party can vote for whomever they want, like anyone else. But as Democratic office-holders, they should at least have enough common sense not to donate money to the Republican, not to put up signs for the Republican, and not to publicly come out for the Republican candidate. And by the way, that works both ways," he said.

Krutman said he spoke with Cellini on November 8 about his role in producing a flyer under the name "Democrats for Ledina," sent just before Election Day.

Some observers blamed Ledina's defeat on wide negative publicity surrounding the response by popular NYS Assemblyman Jacob Gunther (D-98), two days before Election Day, accusing the Democrats for Ledina of "fraud" for implying in the flyer that Gunther backed Ledina; as well as on the fact that LaBuda was backed by the 950-member Sullivan County Conservative Party. Ledina had a second ballot line under the Freedom Party.

Krutman described his talk with Cellini. "Tony's a feisty guy. He's an independent guy. But in this case, I think he's wrong. I think he will admit maybe he shouldn't have done it," Krutman predicted.

But when told of Krutman's statement, Cellini would not admit erring in betraying the party which put him in office. "I didn't say that [I'm sorry]. Did I? No comment," was Cellini's reply. Two other newspapers identified him as a spokesman for the group.

Krutman guessed that Democratic office-holders might support Republican candidates in "trying to establish their power-base."

Cellini is expected to seek re-election in November 1997. It remains unclear if he will do so under a Democratic banner or oppose recently announced candidate Jose Salado in a Republican primary. A former Republican himself, Cellini is said to have worked behind the scenes for the election of Republican candidates who took the Monticello village elections last spring. Cellini could also run as an independent.