Monday, July 28, 2008

Consuello the Champ

We checked the New York State Board of Elections websites and various news sites but found no mention about the petitions filed for the Working Families campaign of Chris Consuello in the 43rd Senate District.

Right now, Tom Wade’s hand-picked candidate Brian Premo has the endorsement of the Working Families Party for the race. But Consuello is a force for different reasons. First, he’s a member of the Working Families Party, unlike Premo. Second, he’s won a bunch of primaries in past races, including a blowout of Jim Conroy in the mayor’s race last year.

Consuello has won because the Working Families Party has become little more than an upstate tool for Democrat bosses in New York City. They have yet to endorse their own party members for office, choosing instead to let Democrat bosses like Wade give the endorsement to Democrats. All of which has cleared the way for party loyalists like Consuello to win big when members of the Working Families Party actually get the opportunity to vote.

We hear that Democrats were trash-talking about how Consuello’s petitions were dead on arrival. With the deadline passing and no declaration of victory issued by the Premo forces, the petition is probably still alive. Which means Consuello is probably headed for another victory on Primary Day.

A Conroy Controversy

While we were out on our summer break, Democrats in the County Legislature got caught committing one of the biggest bone-headed blunders in a long time. Legislative Dems made a big stink about their concerns over renewal of a lease for the Raddock Building, which serves as the place where people go for welfare checks or food stamps and other assistance.

According to some of the Pulse of the People and letters to the editor we read, Dems worked to block the Raddock lease. They said they had other properties available for lease as a home for the Raddock operations. And who was the listing agent on half of those properties? None other than Jim Conroy, a Democratic Executive Committee member and last year’s Democrat candidate for Mayor in Troy! All in the Democratic family, we guess! What is absolutely shocking is that Democrats tried to pull this off right out in the open.

Rampant corruption and insider deals were always a hallmark when Democrats were in power in Rensselaer County, and with their party in charge of the governor’s mansion, they must feel like happy days are here again!