TROY – Republican mayoral candidate Tom Reale said Rensselaer County GOP leaders – led by County Executive Steve McLaughlin – verbally abused him and threatened to not carry petitions for the party's state Senate candidates if he didn’t quit the mayoral race earlier this month.

“There were some overt threats made that the county party would refuse to carry petitions for Senate candidates,” said Reale, who works for the state Senate GOP.

Reale said the candidates who were mostly likely to be affected by the threat would be Sen. Daphne Jordan, R-Halfmoon, and whichever Republican the party picks to run next year against Sen. Neil Breslin, D-Bethlehem. They are the only senators whose districts include part of the county.

Reale made the allegation as he returned to a race he said McLaughlin, Republican operative Richard Crist, and former city councilman Jim Gordon pressured him to leave in early October.

He quit the race after he met with the men and former U.S. Rep. John Sweeney Oct. 7 at the county's GOP headquarters. He described them as “bullies.”

“The pressure put on me was intense,” Reale said.

The verbal abuse “was a combination of mockery, gaslighting, threats,” Reale said.

The three GOP leaders wanted him to drop out of the race hours before the Troy 100 Forum mayor’s debate that night, Reale said. They wanted him to endorse Rodney Wiltshire, the Green and Independence candidate for mayor over incumbent Mayor Patrick Madden, the Democrat and Working Families Party candidate, Reale said. Reale made no endorsements.

“They chose to get me out of the race for someone they could control by threatening to withhold support from me and (telling me) that I have no support,” Reale said.

Reale participated in the debate, then suspended his campaign days later. Reale said his Senate job was not directly threatened. Reale changed his mind and reactivated his dormant campaign at a press conference at Monument Square Tuesday morning.

“I choose today to stand against the entrenched party bosses and the petty politics they offer and re-enter this race to fight for the people of the city of Troy,” said Reale with his wife, Grace, by his side.

“I am saying no to the rule by bullies that’s becoming the norm at every level of government,” Reale said.

McLaughlin and Crist did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday after the press conference. Crist is the county director of operations.

Jordan's senate office also did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Reale said after the June 25 primary party leaders were no longer accepting his calls. By the end of the summer Reale and his wife were running his mayoral campaign without any party assistance. Republican council candidates had begun carrying Wiltshire campaign materials and aligning themselves with him.

Wiltshire, an enrolled Democrat, lost the Democratic primary to Madden. He’s been actively wooing Republican and Conservative voters, stepping up this effort after Reale suspended his campaign. Crist and Gordon, who ran unsuccessfully as the Republican candidate for Troy mayor in 2016 and is the county director of purchasing, attended a Wiltshire fundraiser three days after the meeting at party headquarters.

A political newcomer, Reale had pursued the Republican nomination for Troy’s 3rd City Council district seat. The Republican leadership instead asked him to run for mayor and promised support, he said.

While Reale ended active campaigning, his name remains on the November ballot as the Republican and Conservative candidate. Republican operatives have projected Reale would receive at least 1,000 votes by just being on the ballot.

Reale said he’s back in the race to push his platform of restoring the delivery of city services.

“To my supporters, I deeply regret my absence has let you down. I was under intense pressure to leave this campaign by powerful people who took advantage of my honest nature and my lack of experience of playing their games,” Reale said.

Reale will appear with Madden and Wiltshire at the Spectrum News debate Wednesday. The debate will be taped Wednesday afternoon and aired later that evening.