Thursday, October 27, 2011

The Obligatory Hit Piece . . .

Per the OD: Mayoral candidate Sanita runs campaign with own money, ideas.

Digging into Mr. Sanita's past, the newspaper uncovered operation of an x-rated theater at age 21, a "proposed" bar featuring nude dancers, a 1995 plea to a felony for which he received probation, alleged code violations, and owing $730 in back taxes.

ONLY $730 in back taxes? From an owner of multiple properties?

The City should be so lucky with some of its property owners.While the felony plea is a bit disconcerting, the rest seems more like a tempest in a teapot . . . stirring up the sludge to dirty a candidate just days before an election.  Mr. Sanita announced his candidacy months ago.  Why bring this up now?

We saw this type of hit piece before, mere days before the Utica School Board was to vote on a new superintendent.  It was obviously aimed at knocking out a very well qualified candidate in favor of the locally-connected one -- who did not receive similar scrutiny in the press. 

At this point in time, lets focus on the candidates' visions for Utica's future rather than on their past.


If Mr. Sanita warrants the "obligatory hit-piece," then the "powers that be" in Greater Utica must consider him a threat to the status quo.  

That is a good thing. 

[9PM Update:
After hearing the 5 candidates "debate" tonight on the radio, I now understand why the "hit piece" was written.]

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ummm....care to share why you think that was? I wasn't able to catch the debate.

Strikeslip said...

Overall impression...It was an extremely boring debate...except when Sanita kept hammering at Cerminaro's failure to respond to Sanita's FOIL request on the ambulance. There was never an adequate response...and to this day the public still has no idea on what the ambulance service costs when overtime, amortized acquisition costs, consequential pension costs etc. are broken out because they have not been broken out. For a comptroller not to be able to give such basic information than any business person or investor would ask for is inexcusable.

Additionally, all the candidates except Mr Sanita saw some value in the Master plan...(I'm sick of hearing that it provides a "direction" because it does not) He is not cow towing to the local conventional wisdom, and is like the child saying that the Emperor has no clothes. THAT is a threat to the status quo.