Now that the primary elections are over, we take a look at what happened last Thursday. The fact that there were any primaries in the first place are uncharted waters for these parts. Who were the winners and the losers? The biggest winner was Pat Fahy, who just annihilated Junior Commisso and the rest of the field for the assembly seat in the 109th Assembly District. Beware however, Ms. Fahy. Your seat is good for the next two years. If you stray from the promises you made, the voters will have you out in a heartbeat. Commisso Jr. is not going to go away. You can expect him to come after you again in 2014, with two years to mature, and probably still with the favor of the machine Democrat’s. Another winner was incumbent DA David Soares. He too just steamrolled challenger Lee Kindlon. That was one I don’t think anyone expected to be that one-sided. Both of the above races featured a fair amount of mudslinging, mostly on the part of the losers. I don’t think anyone except Shawn Morse expected him to beat Neil Breslin. In the race for the assembly seat in the 108th, Carolyn McLaughlin put up a nice fight against John McDonald III. You must also give kudos to Guilderland Independence Party’s Ted Danz. He defeated Fahy on that line, and now faces the uphill battle in November. Now we look at the losers. In my mind the biggest loser was Albany mayor Jerry Jennings. He stuck his head out, clinging to the old time machine in his endorsement of Junior Commisso. Now, I know that Jerry doesn’t like Junior, and I believe his underlying reason was that he didn’t want to piss-off his dad, Frank Sr; along with his desire to be in his good grace in time for next years election (if indeed he decides to run.) Jerry also needs to keep in his sights Kathy Sheehan, who backed Fahy, and probably can rely on that electorate if she decides to run against the mayor. Also, potentially on the loser side was Albany County Democratic Chairman Matt Clyne. Although he backed Fahy, Soares, and Breslin, he now has to look over his shoulder at retiring Assemblyman Jack McEneny, who has been approached by several factions to take away Clyne’s leadership position in the county. Not to mention all the turmoil created in his own Town of Bethlehem, by the Reform Democrats. We also must put Albany County Executive Dan McCoy in the loser column. His backing of his pal Morse, vs. Breslin didn’t put him into the favor of a lot of people. You can bet he will be in a primary when he’s up for reelection. We can rethink these races a little later on, and now let’s look forward to non-stop electioneering on the national level.
And that is “A Weekend Take”