Friday, April 13, 2007

It's official...and please stop laughing

Maybe you saw a Troy Republican with a big grin on their face today. Heard some festive music coming out of county GOP headquarters. That’s because the rumors are true. Open your gift, GOP:

Jim Conroy is running for mayor of Troy.

When last seen, Jim Conroy was leaving City Hall, after failing to scrap term limits. After embarrassing the administration with the HUD scandal, serious questions about a huge payment by the city to Salerni and Boyd and failing to explain how a city employee could walk off with several hundred thousand dollars. Taxpayer dollars that were gambled away by the employee and will probably never be recovered. The Jim Conroy who directed the firing of Bobby Mirch as DPW chief, leading to years of dirty, broken streets, uncollected trash, vacant, decaying buildings and ineffective snow-plowing. The Jim Conroy who had the second-highest city job in Troy, all while living in the City of Schenectady.

That Jim Conroy is running for mayor. Only now, city Dem Chairman Frank LaPosta calls him “Jimmy”. The best image makeover they can do for the coming Conroy calamity. Nobody is fooled by the “Jimmy”isms. Least of all the Dems running for City Council like Bill Dunne who know Conroy will be a huge negative on their ticket. And Dunne has probably the safest council district for Dems in the city, so what does that tell you?

Conroy wanted to run for mayor in ’03, but the nod went to LaPosta, who ran a lackluster campaign and lost easily to Mayor Tutunjian. No one was thinking of Conroy for ’07, but when Joe Riley decided he wanted no part of running as a Dem candidate this year, they were desperate. And that desperation has brought the party to today’s announcement.

We heard Conroy came out with guns blazing when he announced his candidacy today. Just one bit of advice for Jimmy: People who live in HUD houses shouldn’t throw stones.