GARDINER – In 2006, the Gardiner Democrats were riding high, having taken control of the town board. Three years later they were out, losing close elections in November 2009 to Republican Carmine Mele and a non-aligned candidate, Rich Koenig.

This happened despite the fact that the Democrats are the party with the biggest numbers in Gardiner, with 37 percent of registered voters. Republicans have 27 percent and No-Official-Party voters are at 26 percent, while Independent Party voters are 4 percent and Conservatives are 2 percent.

There were several issues that appear to have boosted the Republican vote. Most important was the matter of taxes.

"The town at one time had close to $1 million in the bank," says Rich Koenig. "This was in the early 2000s. It was the opinion of the Democrats who were elected that this money should be spent. They said the state comptroller had told them it shouldn't be kept in the bank like that.

"So, for two years they used $350,000 to keep down the tax bill."

"The Republicans were criticized for having so much money in the Contingency Fund," says Patty Jacobsen, Chair of the Gardiner Republican Committee. "So the Democrats spent it down, and then in 2008, the economy turned bad. There wasn't income coming in from development, so the tax levy went up."

"There was a 68 percent tax levy increase in 2008," says Rich Koenig. "That wasn't because of the budget going up, either."

Undoubtedly that tax increase shocked the town's residents, but other issues played their part. However, Jacobsen cautions against making easy judgments on how they played out. "There are issues, like the cell tower, but a lot of these actually cut across the party lines. They're not Democratic or Republican issues. NIMBY [Not In My Back Yard] is always there with something like a cell tower. I can understand it, but coverage in parts of Gardiner is terrible, so I support the cell tower."

As it happened, the cell tower proposal was defeated in court, because the judge hearing the case felt the town had ignored its own law.

Rich Koenig has another take on this issue. "The town should put up a tower that conforms to their law or they should change the law to allow what's needed. The fact that they exempted themselves from the law didn't seem right, and the court agreed."

Koenig notes that although there are tower designs that minimize its visual aspect, the so-called monopoles. "At 160 feet in Gardiner, I believe, it would need a safety light on top." More pertinent, perhaps, was the issue of the sidewalks in the center of town.

"Some people," says Koenig, "are upset that the previous board didn't create a sidewalk district. That would have raised part of the cost of adding sidewalks from the property owners in the sidewalk district. As it is the cost is borne by the whole town."

Koenig also points out another result of the sidewalk project. "When the sidewalks are completed, the number of parking spaces in the town center will go from 25 to 11."

More parking is already planned, but those numbers demonstrate the power of unintended consequences.

Yet another issue is the Open Space requirement for development.

"We have to see how the new zoning plays out," says Rich Koenig. "The town has changed to five-acre zoning, except on the ridge, where it is 20-acre. With Open Space requirements, you have to put half the property into Open Space, and then you have two-acre zoning on the rest. You still have the issue of price for those lots. It comes down to affordability for people who have grown up in Gardiner and want their kids to be able to live here."

"What you have to remember," says Patty Jacobsen, "is that Open Space passed in referendum by one vote. And at that time there were a lot of people who didn't even know or understand what it was about."

Jacobsen says the election in 2009 also reflected "The quality of our two candidates. Rich Koenig isn't a Republican, but he's raised six kids here, and been here 30 years. He was a perfect choice. And Carmine Mele, who is a Republican, is a lawyer who grew up here. It was about trust from local people for local people."

Koenig says, "We worked hard to get the vote out. In 2009 there was a mood to 'throw the bums out,' and that helped, but it was basically about getting the vote out. I got 847 votes, Carmine got 830, the Democrats, Finger and Kern, got 797 and 766. When you look back at 2008, Democrats had 1,600 or so voters come out to the Republicans' 1066. So, what happened to those 800 other Democratic voters from the year before?"

That question is one for Democratic Party leaders to answer. For now, though, the Republican majority on the town board is getting on with the business of running the town in difficult economic times.