The Hayseeds blog, No. 223 for the week starting September 23, 2007.
September 9, 2007
Hayseeds No. 222
September 23, 2007
Hayseeds No. 223
September 30, 2007
Hayseeds No. 223
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Apparently a new tourist destination in Minneapolis is the airport bathroom where Senator Craig was arrested.
Now tourists are asking about a new destination in the Twin Cities, says Karen Evans, information specialist at the information counter at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
A common request is, "Excuse me, can you please tell me where the Larry Craig bathroom is?"
Evans was just 15 minutes into her shift Friday afternoon and already had heard the request four times...
"...It's by the Lottery shop, right next to the shoeshine shop," he said without blinking. Gee Butler and Royal Zino work at the Royal Zino Shoeshine shop. Zino, the owner's grandson, said the shop has been in the same location for 45 years. Some of the shop's famous clients include James Brown and Muhammed Ali. And Sen. Craig?
Probably not, Zino said, although he thinks he might have been witness to the senator's June 11 arrest. "I might've actually been here. Me and my buddy were watching them doing a sting," he said.
Why am I not surpised?
Stealing the idea from Massachusetts, she would basically mandate that everybody carry health insurance, and that most businesses carry it. For those who do not get insurance from work, they could buy into the government's Medicaid program.
It sounds like an interesting idea. It's certainly better then the Republican proposals so far, and similar to what many of the other Democrats are proposing. It should be very interesting to see what kind analysis we hear over the next few days, and what the pros and cons of the plan will be.
Brian Unger's satire of Osma Bin Laden's New Darker Beard is strongly recommended listening for this Monday, if you haven't heard it yet.
It looks like the big time power broker union in the Albany region, PEF is going to back Hillary in her bid for President.
At least if your a well-connected Republican who happens to need to travel somewhere in style.
The Times Union in an article on Saturday did a nice run-down of some of Mike Conner's accomplishments:
"I have kept faith with my oath of office, and the people of Albany County," Conners said. "I've been an effective leader of the team of people in my office, and I provide checks and balances that government needs in a one-party county."
He said his independence is validated by "the number of county employees who have come to me to expose wrongdoing, fraud, waste and abuse in county government."
Conners said among his accomplishments is oversight of the nursing home. Others are the Albany International Airport expansion and improvement, where he worked to save $34.8 million on bonding, and the county's Medicaid prescription drug audit that found "we were overcharged several million dollars a year."
He convinced the county attorney to join a multi-state lawsuit to recover six years of overcharges, which could add up to as much as $20 million. And, he prides himself as a watchdog over OTB.
They didn't mention his work auditing big oil companies at the port and ensuring fair prices are being charged at local gas stations. It's not only helped gas station owners, many of them struggling small businesses, but also people paying at the pump.
Or his work on developing renewable energy resources in our county. He's working on bringing a celusotic ethanol plant to our county. He also some exciting proposals that he is working on with Sandy Gordon, David Weiss, Jim Hamilton, and several other people to make renewable energy a reality in our county. It's not something far out—and Conners is getting us results.
Mike Conners clearly is our best hope for our county (the paper endorsed neither candidate). Please get out and vote.
So it's an important to get out and vote today. The polls are open from noon to 9 PM.
Ultimately I hope this election comes down to issues and whoever wins will work to improve our communities. What people advocate for is far more important then who they know or their labels.
Listen carefully to both-sides. Think. Don't play the Breslin or O'Connell candidate game. Both sides have excellent candidates, but often in very different races. Issues matter more then who you know—I can't stress this enough.
Pat Slavick has been complaining about the how the Comptroller's Office refused to get her the Freedom of Information Act request.
It turns out Pat Slavick repeatly ignored e-mail and paper notification that the FOIL was avaliable, and has not reimbursed the county for the cost of copying the massive request of 128 audits of county agencies.
Slavick's campaign claims they got neither notification, although they have failed to file an appeal to their FOIL request in a timely fashion. Most people who are serious about FOILing an agency file an appeal on the day the response is due, and also do a follow up call to the agency responsible for the agency.
At any rate, Pat Slavick never was serious about the FOIL request or increadibly inept at the FOIL process. You want her to be comptroller, when she can't do a simple FOIL request properly?
Ironically though it would appear that Pat Slavick won the Independence Party the same night. On the Independence line, Slavick won 294 to Conners 279.
| Albany County Comptroller Democratic Party | ||
| Mike Conners | 9227 | 55% |
| Pat Slavick | 7600 | 45% |
In some ways this victory is surpising. Pat Slavick with the help of the Breslin family and County Party co-chair Dave Bosworth lead a good fight, unifying many progressives who where upset with Conner's brief stint as a Republican to run against Senator Neil Breslin.
Mike Conners on the other hand is a very astute politician, regardless of what you think of his Senate run. He took Joe Bruno for a hell of a ride, spending his money on a lavish Vermont vacation/training session for his staff on his Senate campaign. He also bought a ton of generic signs that he re-used this year for his campaign. Not to mention all that money he didn't spend on the Senate bid went to fund his Democratic Primary race.
He also ran on ideas about renewable energy and his work on fighting big oil. This helped him out with a certain constiuency, particularly those who might have otherwise opposed him. He also ran on a record that showed many accomplishments on the office, and a long list of friends and contacts in the community, especially compared to Guilderland Town Board member Pat Slavick.
When the final numbers are in broken down by Election District and Ward it should very interesting to analyze exactly where both Conners and Slavick's support came in. My guess is the vast majority of Conners' support was from Menands, Waterviliet, Colonie, and the "middle belt" of Albany between Lark Street to around Brevator Street—particularly Albany's 13th and 14th Wards near Saint Peter's Hosptital.
There is some discussion that Slavick will make a fool out of herself and try to continue on without the Democratic-line, much like Kevin Crosier did in Berne several years back.
Slavick has the Working Families line (Row "E") and Independence line (Row "C"), so if she were not to conceed she could stay in the race. She would be running against Mike Conners on the Democratic line (Row "A") and Conservative line (Row "D"). The Republican line (Row "B") is not in play as Peter Kermani (who ?), the current county Republican chair, chose not to designate anybody for the GOP line and it's too late now.
The ballot will look like this in November for Comptroller:
Row A - Democrat - Mike Conners
Row B - Republican - (None)
Row C - Independence - Patricia Slavick
Row D - Conservative - Mike Conners
Row E - Working Families - Patricia Slavick
So she could stay in the race and not conceed. But that would look very bad on her part, coming across as much as a jerk as Ed Kosiur at the end of his race to George Amedore, where he lost badly but refused to conceed. It would clearly destroy Slavick's career if she would be so ignorant, and cause more headaches to a lot of people then would be neccessary.
It looks like Sandy Gordon is safe in the 39th Legislative District that spans nearly 40 miles from one end to another, and encompasses all of Berne, Knox, and Renselearville.
| Albany County 39th Legislative District Democratic Primary | ||
| Sandy Gordon | 575 | 69% |
| Kevin Crosier | 255 | 31% |
A correction sent to me...
Some of the info on your blog is incorrect (see info pasted below). We do not have a primary for town level races in Berne, we have a caucus. Kevin ran as a Republican in 2001 when he challenged incumbent Alan Zuk. He did not seek endorsement from the Democratic party nor did anyone nominate him from the floor at the caucus. In 2005, as the incumbent, he attended the caucus and former town council member, Mark Huth (D) nominated him from the floor. Kevin declined the nomination and chose to run again on the Republican ticket. As far as we know he never officially changed his enrollment. He was listed in the BOE roles as a Dem in 2005. The fact that he did not change to a Rep angered many local Republicans who say he told them he would change.
It looks like many of Sandy's people where a bit too worried about Crosier's well funded (by the Breslins) campaign for the 39th District. People looked at Sandy's record and his accomplishments, and felt the hilltowns would continue to be best represented by Sandy.
I wish Breslin's folks hadn't inserted themselves into the race, just to get another peon on their side in the county legislature. Clearly, this wasn't an issue of ideology—except maybe for the doomed county highway merger proposal that the Breslins had little personal stake in—but one of egos and friendship.
At any rate, Kevin Crosier was seriously rebuffed by sandy Gordon beating him two-to-one. Hopefully it will be a day of reckoning where his failed blind ambition will force him to refocus his priorities both his community and his ownself, much like it was for Mike Conners three years ago when he lost his bid for State Senate as a Republican.
Crosier was in a bad spot politically in 2001 when he lost, as the incumbent, the democratic primary for Town of Berne Supervisor. He probably would have been better off had he conceeded and continued on in the private sector, while continuing building community support by being involved in some kind of appointed position he could have gotten with his connections to the Breslins like a position on the County Soil and Water Board.
Changing parties to Republican to get re-elected to Supervisor then back to Democratic to primary Sandy Gordon, a popular incumbent, probably only made things worst for him. Understandably, he's wants a position with more power and prestidge, and there is limited opporunties in the hilltowns. But to challenge a popular incumbent like that made little sense, when there were other things he could have done and waited for a vacancy to come up.
The long-time community activist in the 8th legislative district last night won the Democratic Primary.
| Albany County 8th Legislative District Democratic Primary | |||
| Doug Bullock | 160 | 41% | |
| Jen Muthig | 122 | 32% | |
| Ken Barnes | 105 | 27% | |
For a three-way race, gaining 41% of the vote is pretty impressive. While we worked very hard for Doug,he was running against deputy ward leader Jen Muthig which had gained the trust and support of reminance of the Albany machine. One would have thought they would have worked harder then we would have.
Doug is an important legislator in many ways. He will fight for our communities, and will be the forefront voice of the environmental community when it comes to protecting the Pine Bush and protesting further very questionable expansion of the City's landfill into this sacred land so they can make another buck.
In South Bethlehem, the 36th Legislative District, Howard Shafer held on to his seat despite a primary challenge to him. He's another great union person, and a former resident of Berne. (I don't know much else about this race, but lot's are passionate about it).
| Howard Shafer | 148 | 73% |
| Leo Dorsey | 55 | 27% |
Chris Higgins defeated incumbent Chris Burke in the 6th Legislative District by Lark Street. While Burke was supported by a lot of liberal and establishment people, Higgins is an amazing politican when you hear him talk. Resin Adams, also was very active in his successful election.
Higgins is a person to watch. He appears a little geeky at first, but he's brilliant and convincing. He comes and talks to you and you want to vote for him even if he's not your legislator. He has as much charisma as Sandy Gordon if not more.
| Chris Higgins | 579 | 63% |
| Chris Burke | 338 | 37% |
In Saratoga, the great progressive mayor Valarie Keehn kept her seat against the more conservative Gordon Boyd that party officials endorsed.
| Valarie Keehn | 1146 | 65% |
| Gordon Boyd | 609 | 35% |
Political operative and fromer Albany County Young Democrats President Ralph Signoracci won the right to be on the general elecion in Ward 6 of Colonie:
| Ralph Signoracci | 260 | 53% |
| Julie Defruscio | 230 | 47% |
Mayor Bob Carlson lost his seat in Waterviliet, despite all the walking he did and talking to voters to try to convience them that the old-style machine politican was better then Mike Manning, who had the firefighters firmly behind him.
| Mike Manning | 1281 | 61% |
| Bob Carlson | 822 | 39% |
Up North, Plattsburgh Councilor Bill Provost badly lost his city council seat. He was notable for his work with DFA and getting the city on the record in opposition to the Iraq War. While I've been down in Albany, I suspect a lot of his problem was his lack of an organization to effectively fight Chris Jackson who appealed more to city voters by promising them to spend more time on quality of community (ie. screw the college students who deteriorate life in the 6th ward).
| Chris Jackson | 67 | 79% |
| Bill Provost | 18 | 21% |
And also up north, one-time candidate for the Assembly, Andy Brockway, attempt to win a seat in the City Council was foiled by Mike Kelly. It's surpising that his district would actually have a primary, as in the past, it has tended to go Republican. Moreover, as the son of the County Democratic Party Chair and former assembly candidate, you would think he would have been able to muster up more support.
| Mike Kelly | 72 | 58% |
| Andy Brockway | 52 | 42% |
You can find out more on these races and many others:
Very Intersting. More discussion will come when get the district-by-district breakdowns.
Yesterday I commented on some of the factors thant ensured Conners' successful re-election bid. Today on Democracy in Albany, hawkny speaks on Conners' brilliant political stragety along with his family's financial history in the insurance business:
Those people who know Connors' history know that he would not have "a lucrative" insurance agency job to go to if he lost his primary race to Ms. Slavick. Likewise, those who do not know him would not know that that option (if one can call it that) even exists. Unlike Slavick, Connors literature emphasized his work as Comptroller, almost exclusively. Slavick, on the other hand, tried to emphasize her credentials and corporate origins, to prove her worthiness for the job. She did so very aggressively, too aggressively IMO.
In politics, perception means a lot and Connors understands that. Slavick just didn't get it, and played into Connors's hand with her approach. He, on the other hand simply did his thing....rode city buses to meet voters face to face, knocked on doors, visited bowling allies, malls etc...to press the flesh with his constituents. He went directly to the people for his votes.
Slavick was perceived early on as a hatchet woman, put up by Neil Breslin, as payback for Connor's run against him, teo years ago, for his cushy Senate job. Breslin won that race handily with the help of his brother Mike's in-house campaign machine of political appointees who owe their jobs to the Breslin administration. Some might see this a being vindictive on Breslin's part. I know I did.
Lastly, a comptroller's job is a bean counter thing...how boring!!! Connors does not fit that mold, no way, no how!! He likes to get on camera and blow the whistle on some wrong doing, whether its simply perceived or really real...he probably doesn't care. He considers his role to be that of a watch dog...not a bean counter. His staff count the beans! He got my vote for that simple reason. I can expect that, in the future, he will tell me (and others) about some in house connivery he has discovered, or some bureaucrat caught with his hand in the till, or whatever. What ever it is, it will be interesting because he is just that kind of guy, unpredictable and interesting.
Fascinating. Mike is an ever fascinating politican, one who can reinvent himself, keep his connections to the old machine, yet do things that keep him loved by the populace. He also is a thinking, progressive person, who is stuck overseeing a rather boring agency that he's trying to re-invent to do good for our community.
Anyone who knows Mike Connors' history knows that his 104 year old insurance agency is a -hand-me-down enterprise previously operated by his father, Dick, during the hey day of the Democratic Machine in Albany.
For 25 years, while Erastus Corning was mayor, Dick Connors was Common Council president, a part time job that required him to have an outside income. Many Democratic insiders steered their insurance needs to Dick to give him a business income. Many did this at Corning's suggestion, as Connors was Cornings' man in the Common Council. Others dealt directly with Corning, who also was in the insurance business, on the side.
Until Jim Travers mentioned Conners' family connection to the insurance industry I didn't know much about it. I'm not all surpised—many of my fellow young Democrats either work in the financial sector or the insurance business. It pays good, and often uses many of the same selling skills that politics requires.
People also respect people for being a businessman, even if much of the non-political jobs people work on actually gotten through patronage connections ("friends in politics") and the steerage of business to their company. I doubt you can find an established political family in the country that doesn't have shell businesses to keep them employeed.
Jim's claim on DIA that Mike's business influences his views on insurance are pretty absurd, particularly as it isn't particularly successful right now. Politicans constantly are saying things that could enrich themselves personally—but that doens't mean they are doing it for their own self interest.
