105TH ASSEMBLY DISTRICT — For six years, attorney Mark Blanchfield served on the Schenectady City Council and worked for the law firm of Hiscock & Barclay in Albany without issue.

He believed the status quo would remain when he decided to run as a Democrat in the 105th state Assembly District against Republican incumbent George Amedore Jr. He was wrong. Blanchfield said the law firm told him in May he either had to quit the race or resign his position. He resigned in June.

Blanchfield and his Democratic supporters link the law firm’s ultimatum to the influence of Republican forces, including Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, R-Schenectady. Amedore is Tedisco’s chosen candidate and he and state Republicans have much prestige riding on the assemblyman’s re-election campaign.

Republicans deny they played a role in the matter. Hiscock & Barclay Managing Director Thomas J. O’Connor said, “as a general rule, our employees can’t have outside employment without seeking permission.”

O’Connor said Blanchfield is welcome back any time, calling him a good lawyer and close friend.

Blanchfield said, however, “No one has ever explained to me adequately what the principle was as to why I could not run. It clearly has nothing to do with the quality of my work or my ethics.”

Blanchfield had been with Hiscock & Barclay since 2003. He was first elected to City Council in 2001 and ran for re-election in 2005 without objection from the law firm, he said.

When Blanchfield told the firm in March he planned to run for Assembly, he said the response from Managing Partner John P. Langan was that it appeared to be OK. In May he learned otherwise, but by then it was too late to withdraw from the race, he said.

“I had already taken steps to secure the party’s nomination. I decided to keep my commitment to the party and to the people who supported me to run for this position,” Blanchfield said.

Blanchfield, 41, who defends people in civil suits, is trying to build his own law practice. “I am a just a hard-working lawyer trying to support my family and serve my community at same time,” he said. He is married, lives in Schenectady and has two children. He served for three years as City Council president and is currently chairman of the council’s finance committee.

He said, however, he viewed the firm’s outside-employment rule as inconsistent, especially considering that two other attorneys with the firm, Neil Breslin and William Barclay, hold public office. Breslin is a Democratic state senator from Albany and Barclay is a Republican assemblyman in the 124th District in central New York. Both are seeking re-election this year. The law firm has approximately 200 lawyers and offices throughout the state. Barclay also unsuccessfully sought, with the firm’s approval, the 48th Senate district seat earlier this year. He lost in the special election in February.

O’Connor said Blanchfield’s application went before the law firm’s management committee and was not approved. He said Barclay is not a member of the committee, even though he is a partner in the firm, and that the policy applies equally to all employees, even Barclay.

Barclay also serves as co-chairman of the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee. RACC is a political committee that supports Republican candidates for Assembly. It ran Amedore’s campaign last year and will fully support his campaign this year, said Josh Fitzpatrick, RACC spokesman.

Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, R-Schenectady, appointed Barclay to chair RACC. Tedisco also recruited Amedore to run for Assembly when Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, retired in 2006.

Brian Quail, chairman of the Schenectady County Democratic Committee, said he sees more than coincidence between Blanchfield being forced to decide between his job and a run for Assembly and the connection involving Amedore, Barclay and Tedisco. “I think people can connect the dots,” he said.

But Tedisco and Amedore said there was no conspiracy to use Barclay’s connections in the firm to try to get Blanchfield off the ballot.

“I think that’s a very large leap,” Tedisco said Wednesday. “One guy in a law firm can make that decision? Don’t you think that’s a large leap? We have nothing to do with it, and I have nothing to do with that law firm.”

He said Democrats are raising the controversy to avoid debating issues during the campaign.

“They’re running away from a very bad record,” Tedisco said.

Amedore said that he has no objection to Blanchfield running for the Assembly seat.

“Listen, this is a democracy. We can have Blanchfield or whoever,” he said. “Last time it was [Ed] Kosiur. If I win this time, in two years it will be someone else. This is the way our system works.”

He added that he knew nothing about Blanchfield’s resignation from Hiscock & Barclay.

“This is the first time I’m hearing about it,” he said. “To ‘connect the dots’ or what have you, I think it’s ridiculous. I can’t speak for the firm, but I know one thing of the firm. It’s a huge firm.”

Barclay referred comments to the law firm.

Republicans want to keep the seat Amedore won last July in a special election, while Democrats want to recapture it. The seat in the heavily Democratic district was represented by Paul Tonko for more than 20 years, and Democrats were surprised to lose it.