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Updated
August 24, 2009

 

Why are progressives sitting this one out?

by Tom McPheeters
August 23, 2009

As we move into the final three weeks of the campaign for the Democratic nomination for mayor of Albany, it is very apparent that a lot people who one would think would be engaged in a serious, credible campaign to unseat Jerry Jennings have decided to sit on their hands. And their checkbooks.

So what’s the problem? The Corey Ellis campaign has a large core of hard working volunteers, but has so far been unsuccessful in raising enough money to do advertising or all the other necessities of a modern political campaign. The Ellis camp has also been unsuccessful so far in bringing together the leaders of the “progressive” political community — the activists who oppose the Iraq war, got David Soares elected, and worked for Obama.

Tom McPheeters
Tom McPheeters

Quite the contrary. Nothing but grousing is heard from the camp of this year’s unsuccessful mayoral candidate, Shawn Morris. Even the progressives who are running for other citywide offices are steering clear of Ellis. We haven’t even heard from the two black mayoral candidates from four years ago.

For those of us who remember the excitement and tremendous sense of unity during and after the David Soares campaign in 2004, this has to be puzzling. How many of you were there at the Pump House on primary night when the crowd started chanting at Jerry Jennings’ TV image, “You are next! You are next!” Was that just the beer talking?

It could be that people think Corey Ellis doesn’t have a chance. Certainly there is precedent for that. When Archie Goodbee ran four years ago, his lack of organization and overall political expertise led to him being written off early (although people ended up being rather impressed by his vote total in the primary). Even Jack McEneny’s campaign twelve years ago died on the vine for lack of funding and media coverage.

I am an Ellis supporter and thus somewhat biased, but I wish you could hear the reactions volunteers are getting when they canvas registered Democrats. There is a hunger out there for change. You would think that people would at least give Ellis a look considering how Obama changed political campaigns, and considering that Corey made his mark in the Soares campaign and then directed the Obama campaign in the region last year. That’s a pretty strong base.

It could be that there are so many bruised feelings from the contest between Morris and Ellis that her supporters simply won’t come to the table. Comparisons between this and the Obama-Clinton standoff last year are inevitable, down to the racial divide, the battle of the sexes and the strong husband in the background. It wasn’t until the 11th hour and lots of outside persuasion that the Clinton forces swallowed their gall and came over, but when they did they worked hard for Obama (and they still are). Here there seem to be no honest brokers able to bring the two parties together.

Then there are the frictions within the black progressive community. People who seem like natural partners, people who worked closely together in the past, now seem to find reasons not to talk.

It could be burnout. After the all-hands-on-deck rush of Obama’s campaign and victory, and now the battle over health care reform, are people just too tired to take on one more cause? It does seem that national health care reform is generating more Internet chatter than our local mayoral contest.

It could be that people are afraid. Albany is a small town and there is hardly anybody without a stake in working with City Hall. The present mayor has cultivated a reputation for revenge — who wants to brush up against that if the Ellis thing doesn’t work out?

These are all good reasons. There is one more reason that I find less honorable. One has to wonder if there are not some so-called progressives for whom the status quo is a little too comfortable. It’s always more comfortable to criticize from the outside than to roll up our sleeves and get dirty. This is a political town with such an interrelationship between local politics and state service that it is sometimes difficult for an outsider to know who is on whose side.

So those are all reasons or excuses I am hearing when I talk to people about this campaign. But consider this:

There is only one local political office in Albany that is worth having, and that is the first floor office of the mayor, looking up State Street at the Capital. Our 400-year-old city charter, backed by decades of precedents and practice, give us the strongest mayor of any city our size. The three mayors who have run this city for the last 67 years with the backing of a powerful party apparatus have made it their business to hold that power closely. Clearly, business interests in Albany support the strong mayor form of government because it makes it easy to know who to do business with.

Our city council has no powers of any consequence, as any city council member will tell you. They can’t even control the budget or expenditures. Sure, it was the city council that pushed the parking meter scandal as far as it could go, but what will come out of that if the present mayor remains in power? Nothing — no new policies, no one punished, no accountability. There are good reasons for running for a seat on the council if you want to serve your neighborhood, but saying you want to change the way the city runs from that vantage point is delusional.

It goes without saying that the position of city council president is a figurehead, good only when the incumbent mayor drops dead. I am a fan of Carolyn McLaughlin and wish her well in her campaign, but I can’t help wishing she had stayed in the Second Ward, especially if there is no other change at City Hall. So why is she still sitting on the fence?

Supporting a progressive for the new post of city auditor is farcical, and the campaign literature of the two novices make one want to weep for their naiveté. Jennings hounded out the last two comptrollers by denying them the information they needed to do their job. Then the position was abolished and this new, poorly defined post was created as a sop to the good government types.  And these people think they can come waltzing into City Hall and actually get cooperation to do department and program audits? Give me a break.

Now, it would be a treat to have a competent and responsive treasurer, so that’s a race worth paying attention to. The treasurer handles the money and has to know something of what is going on across the hall.

Every progressive in Albany knows the reality of politics in this city. Giving up on the candidacy of Corey Ellis for any of the reasons I listed above may make some sense politically, but it sure doesn’t make sense if you are serious about change.

Does anybody believe that Albany’s population decline will reverse itself if we give Mayor Jennings another term? Does anybody believe the inner city neighborhoods will become desirable places to live? That violent crimes will be stopped at the edges of Pine Hills? That Albany’s tax base will suddenly start growing again and taxes will decrease? That the structural budget deficit will go away? That our landfill will magically expand to take all our trash for decades and continue to be a cash cow with no environmental downside? That our police force will reconnect with neighborhood residents and that the high command will make itself accountable?

Without change at the top, Albany will continue to promote itself as a playground for visitors and a safe place for commuters. City resources will go to shiny new buildings downtown, more parking garages for commuters and more beer and entertainment for the masses.

That is what at stake here. There are real consequences for inaction, and after September 15 it will be too late to lament or to complain. I hope that those people who are sitting on their hands and their pocket books take another look at the consequences of their actions. Corey Ellis may not be your perfect candidate, but he’s the one out there trying to make real change happen.

There are only two sides. Which side are you on?

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