Leave it to Lou Desso to unite at least some of the often-fractious political world in North Greenbush.
Desso completed the political equivalent of winning the Triple Crown Thursday evening, capturing the Democratic caucus and winning the party's nomination for Town Board. The win in the Democratic caucus came after Desso had already received the Republican, Independence and Conservative nominations.
Quite a feat, and Desso is probably the only politician in Rensselaer County to win four party endorsements. In fact, the caucus victory Thursday marks the second time Desso has won the backing of the four parties, also doing so in 2007. But the 2010 victory is even more impressive when you consider Desso won the Democratic caucus by a 2-1 margin.
The Desso win is a stunning repudiation of the negative tactics of supposed NGB Democratic bosses Dan Ashley and CB Smith. Thursday night, Ashley and Smith were playing on the home court, by their own rules and in THEIR OWN PARTY. And Desso beat them big time.
Ashley and Smith are now left to complain that Desso's win does not leave voters with much of a choice. Nonsense. Party members have every right to decide their party's nominations and have done so in granting Desso the GOP, Democratic, Independence and Conservative endorsements. Those decisions count.
Any complaints by Ashley and Smith about voters not having a "choice" are made even more ridiculous when you consider they helped engineer a lawsuit several months ago that removed Desso from the Town Board after Desso won election to County Legislature in 2009. The lawsuit ignored the fact that Democrat after Democrat after Democrat held dual county-town offices, along with conveniently using the courts to undo the will of the people.
That Chicago-style liberal heavy-handedness, of using Democratic judges to overturn the results of an election, is apparently being undone by the people of North Greenbush, who are speaking loudly and clearly that they want Lou Desso to represent them. Desso's win shows he a real political force to be reckoned with, just as it shows that Ashley and Smith are way out of step with members of their own party in their own town.
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