BALLSTON — Town Supervisor Patti Southworth left the Democratic Party today and registered with the Independence Party.

She said the timing of the switch had little to do with her husband Patrick's failed attempt to unseat Shawn Thompson as a state Democratic Committee representative in Tuesday's primary election.

Thompson is also first vice chairman of the Saratoga County Democratic Committee. The two men waged a highly unusual, and bitter, public battle for the state committee seat.

Patti Southworth said she had been considering changing party affiliations for several months and the campaigns leading up to Tuesday's election cinched the decision.

"I was a lifelong Democrat. I don't know how I'll break the news to my mother that I've switched," Southworth said this afternoon. "But I've been unhappy with the leadership of the county party for quite a while. They don't represent the values I believe in."

She said the county committee has not been open to discussion or compromise under the leadership of Larry Bulman. But Bulman said it is Patrick Southworth who has caused a split in the party by aligning himself with former Saratoga Springs Public Works Commissioner Thomas McTygue, a vocal opponent of Thompson, a former Saratoga Springs party chairman.

Bulman said the Southworths are incorrect when they state that the Saratoga County Democratic Committee is not open to all ideas.

"We probably have the most open committee in upstate New York," Bulman said. "I hold at least five meetings a year, and we have 70 to 90 people attend. Other counties hold one meeting a year and they have small attendance."