TUPPER LAKE — After a mass exodus of local party leaders, the Tupper Lake Democrats do not have much leadership or direction; and are considering a reorganizing process with assistance from Franklin County.

Several members of the Franklin County and Tupper Lake Democratic parties were spoken to for this article, and none seemed to have a concrete plan of what was happening. Many did not know that key figures in the leadership had changed their party affiliations.

Most said others were working on reorganizing, but when asked, these other people said others were leading the effort.

Former Democrats had similar reasons for departing. They said the national party no longer represents their views, and has become too “extreme.”

“The Democratic party has been hijacked by a bunch of nutcases, pretty much,” village board Trustee and incumbent Republican candidate Hollingsworth said. “They don’t represent anything that I agree with anymore.”

Dean Lefebvre, who was the head of the Tupper Lake Democratic party, is now a conservative. He said the Democratic party used to be a blue collar, “working man’s” party, but that it is no longer.

“We’re going crazy in America,” Lefebvre said. “We’ve got a small minority of the population now in control of the entire country. That’s not how we’re meant to work.”

He said with talks in the Democratic party of defunding the police, he wonders if its members are on “some kind of juice.”

Rick Dattola, a leader of the Conservative party in Tupper Lake, said that of his party’s 30-or-so members in town around a third of them joined when they changed parties in the past year, most coming from the Democratic party.

Dattola himself is a former Democrat, who joined the Conservatives last year. He said he made the change because of local issues. He believes the local Democrats do not share his belief in small government, and that the party has gotten away from its early goal of keeping taxes down.

He said he found the Conservative’s goal to be simple and believes he can do more as a third-party member than a Republican or a Democrat.

Though it’s grown, the local Conservative party has yet to run many candidates. A few town council candidates last year ran on the line. This year, Dattola said they did not have a caucus, because no one wanted to run.