Wednesday, April 14, 2010

We Need A Primary . . .

GOP primary planned for 115th Assembly seat

Thank goodness!

The anointing of Mr. Joseph as the Republican candidate would not bode well for the voters or this area's future. He is one of the party insiders who have controlled things for too long. Look around you and you see the results of their work. Given the lack of a strong Democrat challenger, Mr. Joseph's candidacy would ensure that the incompetent incumbent leadership shown in the "rubber-stamp" Oneida County legislature would be extended to include incompetent representation in Albany. He must be stopped.

How can I say this when I do not know Mr. Joseph personally? Check out this post from August 2008 on the process to find an FBO for Griffiss: How Bad Can It Get? . . .

While the video interview is no longer available, enough of Mr. Joseph's responses were recorded to enable one to understand his thought processes.

If the region's problems are ever going to be solved, we need people willing to respectfully consider opposing viewpoints and seriously account for opposing data. The "team" mentality must give way to thoughtful debate. After all . . .

Managing our region's future isn't a game.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is agreed that a primary would be healthy on several levels. However, one must be honest about expectations whomever may ultimately be elected to the seat. An Assembly member from our area is virtually meaningless given the overwhelming downstate make-up of the body and the power of the Speaker. A Republican is even more irrelevant. At the same time, rewarding incompetence and promoting failure would be an excercise in stupidity. That should disqualify Mr.Joseph given his abissmal record as a county legislator and county chairman. The most we can hope to accomplish is to elect someone with a bit of feisty, independence who can at least articulate issues and put up the good fight. The only candidate mentioned thus far who comes close to that is Tenney. I think it also interesting that Strikeslip uses the phrase,"team mentality". You have no idea how truly damaging to the area that mentality has been over the decades.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Joseph just recently stepped down as County Republican Committee Chair. Anyone who sat on the committee during his tenure is well aware, or at least should be, of his inadequacies. He is a far cry from any type of leader. For them to give him the endorsement does indicate a continuing effort by current elected leaders to keep the Arcuri-Destito-Griffo-Picente status quo. Here's hoping the other Republicans of the county (those who are registered but not on the committee) will come out in full force during the primary and the general election to ensure we don't send this buffoon to Albany.

Greens and Beans said...

This is why we need political campaign reform here in New York. The campaign laws are too convoluted for the common Joe/Jane to deal with. Many believe that the intent of these complicated campaign laws are to keep the political field artificially narrowed to the political elite. One example is that if only one signature is wrong on a candidate’s petition, that it will negate all of the signatures on that petition form. This is where the political machine, with its army of quasi-professional hacks, proliferates. These signature collecting political hacks know the campaign laws as if it were a life or death matter. In return, they expect to be rewarded with very lucrative public patronage jobs. This needs to end now. The already strapped taxpayers can no longer afford these political patronage leaches on our society.

Anonymous said...

Committeemen collect signitures and dispense party endorsements. That is why so many are on the public payrolls enjoying patronage jobs, on us! That is also why there is no political change here.