Most students don’t get involved in Broome County politics, but one recent graduate is shining brightly.
Elected just weeks ago and representing District 13 (Binghamton’s West Side and First Ward), BU alumnus Karl Bernhardsen (‘14) stepped up to the plate as one of 15 county legislators. Determined to provide the city he loves with better constituent communication, improve blighted properties and increase public safety, the 24-year-old Republican shared his campaign experience and his thoughts on how individuals can get more involved with local politics.
The first step to becoming a political candidate is collecting 200 signatures for a petition to get on the ballot. It took Bernhardsen about a month of going door-to-door.
“It seems easy,” he said. “But you have to go to their house, they have to be willing to talk to you, and much of the time they’ll be reluctant to sign anything.”
Bernhardsen campaigned mostly by himself with the help of a few close friends. More established candidates usually have teams of people who comb the county for signatures, securing their spot in the race fairly quickly. He started seriously going door-to-door at the start of September.
For Bernhardsen, going door-to-door was not just about gaining the required signatures, but also about meeting voters, introducing himself to the people he wished to serve and understanding their collective concerns. Even after receiving the letter in the mail officially confirming his spot on the ballot, he continued to go door-to-door to speak with potential constituents, spending a few hours almost every day moving down his list of registered voters. Sometimes such visits went well, and sometimes they didn’t. One afternoon, he was bitten by a dog while on his door to-door route.
Fortunately for Bernhardsen, all of the hard work paid off on Nov. 4 when he took approximately 58 percent of the vote to defeat the Democratic incumbent, Tony Fiala Jr. On Oct. 10, Fiala pleaded guilty in Binghamton City Court to a misdemeanor charge of driving while intoxicated after a hit-and-run incident involving a bicyclist. While unfortunate, the charge against Fiala may have given Bernhardsen the extra support he needed.
Bernhardson credits his extracurricular activities at the University for having fostered his managerial and communication skills.
“I was pretty heavily involved in the Student Association,” he said. “I guess that’s where I got my first real taste for politics.”
Bernhardsen served on the Student Assembly (now Student Congress) from his freshman to junior year, and was elected as the vice president for finance for the 2011 to 2012 academic year.
“Through that, I learned a lot about running a large organization,” Bernhardsen said. “When I was in that position, my main focus was helping out student groups and students as best I could and because of that kind of work, I feel like I already have a lot of practice in constituent services. The issues are different but the skills are the same.”
Bernhardsen also served as the director of OCCT, BU’s off-campus transportation. He attended many city council and county legislature meetings in order to have a better understanding of the community in which his bus system was operating. He believes his experience in these positions helped him to develop the skills he needed to get elected and serve Broome County as an effective legislator.
For college students, Bernhardsen recommends pursuing available positions in clubs and extracurricular activities in order to improve interpersonal and leadership skills. For the more politically inclined and for those interested in improving their community, Bernhardsen encourages students to work as volunteers and to do everything possible to observe what’s happening in local government.
“If you want to get involved on any level, the best thing you can do is start showing up to meetings,” he said. “If you have any interest in getting involved in local politics, you’ll probably be able to find a website with a calendar and list of meeting times open to the public. That’s what I did. I just started showing up and talking to people.”
Beginning his two-year term on Jan. 1, Bernhardsen is excited to start serving Broome County to the best of his ability. Though many students have plans to move away from Binghamton after concluding their studies, the well-being of the city means a lot to citizens like Bernhardsen.
“This is my home,” he said. “I’ve lived in Broome County the majority of my life, and I really do care about it.”