Four years ago I endorsed Ellis to beat Jennings in the democratic primary. I did not have a blog then but Democracy In Albany did and there is a post to prove it. BTW, DIA was a shill for Ellis even though he claimed to be "impartial".
My argument then was simple, he is not ready to run a grocery store BUT maybe the people pulling his strings were capable. It was the George W. Bush argument, remember? "Duh he is an idiot but the people he'll appoint will be smart"
Well, Ellis lost.
Now we have Kathy Sheehan, a corporate lawyer who has the professional maturity to run something larger than a grocery store.
As a VP for Intermagnetics, a truly local success story, she oversaw a company that brought in $100s of millions in revenues. And she did it as a woman which, even in this day and age, is impressive as hell.
What puzzles me is why isn't she the republican candidate? She has the right profile, corporate, rich, white. What puzzles me more is why the hell are progressives backing her? You know, since she is corporate, rich, white.
I have often referred to progressives as hypogressives. Why? Because they do stuff like this. They bash people who come from corporate America but then back others. It's amazing the crap they are willing to compromise for the sake of some demographic accolade "First woman blah blah blah" or "first African-American blah blah blah"
But I don't hold her being corporate, rich, white against her. She has to run a city which Jennings has left in fiscal disarray and I'm sorry my brotha, a community organizer ain't doing it.
The TU and Metroland have also "endorsed" her. Both fish wraps have actually stated that she not only is intentionally not being specific about how to close the $20M hole the Tanfather has left us, but she is also not being forthcoming with real ideas. With friends like these who needs enemies?
If they felt that way they should have passed on endorsing anyone but to give up a historical opportunity to endorse the first female mayor..........Hell no!
In her defense she cannot be specific. People are not gonna want to hear how the financial sausage is going to get made. People don't want to hear that cuts are inevitable, that another loan from the state is necessary and that unions are gonna have a hell of a time when it is time to renew their contracts.
People are not gonna want to hear that taxes may need to be raised and that services may need to be scaled back.
People are not gonna want to see her take all the bits and pieces of low quality meat as she throws it in the fiscal grinder and pushes it into the the casing of municipal directives and policies. That's not the kind of sausage the people want. (Cardona's on Delaware has great sausages BTW)
She's smart.
Corey knows this too. Maybe not as well as Sheehan but I don't think he knows where to locate the meat grinder.
Ellis had a great opportunity to lead the rage of urban complacency in this city. Instead, he chose to suck his thumb. That pisses me off.
He disappears for four years, comes back expecting the fight to be where he left it in 2009. Well, the fight is still there but the lower wards want a different general. Sorry Ellis, the hood don't roll like that.
Ellis does seem to be better this time around. Better presentation, better articulation of his positions, a better debater. All jokes aside, he is politically young and should run for something. Assembly, state senate, county legislator, something. But don't disappear and for the love of God grow up and stop couch surfing from ward to ward.
Sheehan is not from this area. And that's great! She has no generational roots here. She has actually seen places outside of Albany and like me, looks at things differently. I'm from Brooklyn and I think Albany is great. She's from Ohio and probably sees a future Columbus or Cincinnati. I've been to those cities and they are great places to visit and live. Well, don't get yourself profiled while being African American in Cincy but you get what I mean.
Being born and raised in the same place shows that you have no outside perspective more than it shows unique local ties. And this city could use a lot of outside perspective to show us where it can go.
"A lot of people in our industry haven't had very diverse experiences. So they don't have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one's understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have."
Steve Jobs
