Rarely does a candidate not yet nominated put out expensive mailings before being formally endorsed at party convention. And Amedore, a two-term assemblyman from Montgomery County, has no announced opponent in either party, apparently.
The brochures, the slick, expensive kind, are produced and mailed by the state Senate Republican Campaign Committee. Depicted is Amedore as a builder, which he is, and in these versions one exceedingly generous with his company’s manpower and resources.
One panel shows the candidate interacting with patients from McDonald House at Albany Medical Center, which Amedore Building renovated, while another shows a company crew “building a home that could rebuild a life for a family in need.” Amedore Builders (the family business) participated in a 2007 Extreme Makeover TV show in Colonie. In both cases, the candidate said his company paid all expenses.
Amedore’s ads suggest he’s just the ticket to help rebuildNew Yorkas a state senator. It’s fair to say he’s off to a good start.
Meanwhile, Democrats have gone mum on their would-be candidate, if any, for what on paper should be a highly competitive Democrat-leaning state Senate district. The new district, which runs up the Hudson from Kingston to Amsterdam, has a small Democratic edge in enrollment.
It could be Democrats have somebody primed to burst from the woodwork when they convene on May 30 at Hillside Manor Restaurant in Kingston. Politicians love surprises.
Amedore’s pre-convention blitz is designed to discourage any such opposition. Should Democrats hand this open seat to Republicans, they will rue this lost opportunity for at least the next decade.
Republicans will convene at the Hillside at 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 24.
Here and there
County Exec Mike Hein’s latest consolidation project will merge the Real Property Tax Services Agency with the Department of Finance, saving, the exec says, some $90,000 a year. This time he didn’t have to fire anybody. Real Property Director Dorothy Martin, a popular figure in county government for more than 25 years, will retire from her $73,171-a-year job next month. Were the rubberstamp legislature to ask, they might question why a deputy finance officer (as planned) has enough time to run an entirely separate six-person department, which is to say, is Finance presently overstaffed? Fortunately for the executive, the legislature rarely asks questions of management.
County Clerk Nina Postupack packed them in last week at a fund-raiser at the Lazy Swan golf club in Saugerties. The campaign goal, I was told, was 400 tickets sold at $75 each. The two-term Republican county clerk is up for election next year.
Long ago there was a weekly newspaper in Arizona that published a front page that said, “No News This Week.” The modern version looks something like the Ulster County Legislature session, which, in terms of meaningful content, was the pits. Take away the ceremonials, the presentations of plaques, readings of birthdays and death notices, and the legislature legislated for all of 10 minutes on what barely reached the level of routine business. For this, they turned on the lights? On the other hand, when it comes to this legislature, maybe no news is good news.
Who is this guy Julian?
A bland republican lite, that’s who – a republican lite that worked for the CIA – the organisation that was tapping people’s phones and is currently breaking US and international law escalating drone warfare all around the world.
Did I mention that the CIA tortured people?
Joel Tyner has been fighting for regular people like you and me. Fighting for clean water and an end to fracking, fighting for tax fairness, fighting for holding the financial banksters accountable for the economic mess they created.
Joel Tyner may be underfunded … but that is what insurgent campaigns are all about.
Make no mistake, there is a choice here. A choice between a do nothing top down candidate and the effective, progressive powerhouse Joel Tyner.
It ain’t about the money honey, its about the heart and passion. Joel Tyner is the man for our times.
I think Hugh doesn’t really care who wins… he just likes to call the race. That’s not interesting except to other people who make their living on betting. There is the whole field of 1) who would be better for the district, the country and 2) doing a little something to help that along.
Nina’s neo-smile is too big and unequivocal. She needs to capitalize on her Mona Lisa-like appearance of old, I think.
Or, perhaps put a huge big smile of her on the 18th hole at some local miniature golf place, whence the golf ball enters between her upper teeth and lower teeth a recording in her own voice yells, “Thank you for keeping DMV dollars in Ulster County!”
Rhetorical excess seems to have stunted Mr. Reynold’s ability to do basic math here. Tyner is a young man… and Congressional elections happen every two years. 2 x 5 = 10 years, which would not put Tyner in his late 90s.