Just like the holiday music and ads on TV, it appears that the 2013 campaign has begun much too early in Albany. Just yesterday, in a stunning announcement in front of Moses in Washington Park, Kathy Sheehan proclaimed in the presence of hoards of supporters that she was seeking the office of Mayor of Albany. But let it be known folks, according to Sheehan: ”I am not running against anyone. I’m running for mayor.” I hope current mayor Jerry Jennings was somewhere in the audience in disguise laughing his ass off. Jerry — who is the longest sitting mayor in the city since Democratic icon Erastus Corning ripped off 41 years (Daily Take fun fact: it is widely reported the there were only three mayors in Albany since 1942, when there were actually four. Frank Harris was acting mayor during Corning’s military service for one year) — hasn’t said if he’ll run or not, but may have to deal with as many as three other candidates in the primary. I loved how the story was presented in our newspaperopoly, the Times Union, apparently beginning an assault on the Mayor. (Oh, an aside to whether or not Jerry will run again: The paper reported that he had knee replacement surgery last year in preparation for a long grueling campaign, not because maybe his knee was shot.) The photo on the front page of the Local section was framed to show Kathy surrounded by campaign signs as if she had just stepped off a whistle stop train to a greeting by a throng of supporters. In the crowd off over 100 supporters — many kids were included — were members of the Common Council and state legislators. That would be one almost legislator, and one Common Council member. As usual were the ”I’m gonna fix this, I’m gonna fix that” statements with no basis on how that would be accomplished. Now I’m not at all in favor of machine politics, but I do think that Jennings has done well for this city. But here is my take on how things will run out: Sheehan will surround herself with all the ”progressive Democrats” that have been secretly meeting behind closed doors, one of the items on their agenda so far is the creating of their own redistricting lines that will most likely make the final cut as far as ward lines are concerned for the next ten years. With Sheenan running for mayor, there will be an opening for someone to fill her Treasurers spot. A possible successor could be Frank Commisso Jr., who ran unsuccessfully for the assembly seat that went to Fahy. Jennings backed Junior in the primary, and Commisso kind of shot some kudos towards the mayor for his stance on the cop’s new contract settlement. Jerry is going to need the old school Democrats to win. The inclusion of Corey Ellis and maybe Dan Egan could only make for an outright interesting primary. You’d better not lag behind Jerry. Today, Kathy attended the opening of a cheese store, because new cheese stores are the way to get the local economy going.……….Can someone please tell me why gasoline at the Mobil station on Western Avenue by my house is $3.79/gal, and a few miles away across the bridge into Glenmont it’s $3.66/gal? That’s $0.13 difference. Hmmm.
And that is “The Daily Take”