Schenectady Mayor Gary McCarthy speaks during a recent City Hall ceremony. The mayor is likely to see more of his agenda realized with no Republicans on Schenectady ballots this year.

Schenectady was one of the few remaining New York cities where Republican candidates could run a competitive race and maybe even win an election. Those days appear to be over.

The city’s Republican Party has displayed what can only be described as ineptitude by failing to get its three announced council candidates on the ballot. That news came Monday, when election officials tossed about three dozen petition signatures for Republicans Ed Varno, Sara Ibrahim and Jacob Dobbs, essentially eliminating the GOP slate.

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To his credit, Schenectady Republican Committee Chair Tom Kennedy accepted blame for the failure, though it would have been easier, if less honest, to blame politics or Democrat scheming or some other conspiracy beyond his control.

Well, actually, Kennedy did also point to the weather, noting that New York’s decision to move its primaries from September to June has made collecting signatures a vastly more miserable task. That’s a complaint you’ll hear across upstate this spring.

“But the mistake ultimately falls back to me, and I accept it completely,” Kennedy told me. “I hate making excuses. The facts are........

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