It’s interesting that Amedore was again nominated by Ulster County Clerk Nina Postupack, who led the local Amedore campaign team that tanked in Ulster two years ago. Postupack remains as popular as ever in Ulster, but, as Hillary Clinton used to say, it takes a village. Team Amedore will have to get off their duffs this time.
Amedore, apparently an emotional man, proclaimed that Postupack’s rousing nomination “actually brought a tear to my eye.” Perhaps Amedore went all John Boehner in realizing this was the same team that lost Ulster for him two years ago. The wonder is that he wasn’t sobbing like a baby.
George Amedore. (Photo by Dan Barton)
In the same vein, he also revealed that “16 months ago my heart was broken” (not to mention his chops) by an opposition that labeled him a lockstep-conservative Republican.
On the mend now, Amedore put out the kind of self-defeating class warfare that got Mitt Romney in trouble two years ago.
“Democrats want to tell us how to live, to take the American dream away from us,” he declared to GOP nods. “They want to tell us where to work, or better yet, where to stand in line for social services.” Memo to candidate Amedore: Beware of that 48 percent.
Other convention notes
Twelve-term state Sen. Bill Larkin looked spry and proved feisty as ever at 85. After a typical rambling acceptance speech, New York’s senior senator surveyed the crowd with a bulldog gaze, perhaps with the age issue in mind. “Some people say I’m using a cane now,” he said. “Well, you’d be using a cane too if you had half your toe cut off this morning!” What a trouper.
GOP Election Commissioner Tom Turco, in a burst of enthusiasm after being nominated for an eighth two-year term, referred to the state legislature’s upper house as “our Senate.” Note to the commissioner. It’s not your Senate now. Democrats hold a 32-30 majority, but Republicans, after conniving with the five-member Independent Democratic Caucus, control the majority of votes.
Sen. Jim Seward, a canny politico, made his biannual visit to Ulster County. He got backslaps and handshakes from people who hardly knew his name. Seward’s 51st District covers the towns of Shandaken, Olive, Rochester and Hardenburgh. His district office is in Oneonta. Former legislature chairwoman Terry Bernardo of Rochester escorted the uplander around the sparsely attended convention.
Independence Party Chairman Len Bernardo, hanging out with former GOP county chairman Mario Catalano near the buffet at the back of the hall, confirmed that the state committee had endorsed Kevin Cahill for re-election. A shameless opportunist, Bernardo endorses every stripe of politician. But this one may be another example of “my enemy’s enemy is my friend.” Cahill’s arch-enemy these days is County Executive Mike Hein, who helped derail Terry Bernardo’s political career last year. Three years ago, opportunist Len Bernardo supported Hein for re-election, a decision he would come bitterly to regret.
I, Claudia
Although we haven’t seen much of her since she was gerrymandered into four towns in Ulster County two years ago, we may not have seen the last of assemblywoman-congressional candidate Claudia Tenney of New Hartford. Election law allows the two-term GOP assemblywoman to run for state legislature should she lose the June 24 Republican primary against three-term moderate Congressman Richard Hanna. Nominating petitions are not due until early July.
“I’m not sure how they could do it, maybe through a committee on vacancies,” mused county Legislator Ken Ronk Jr., who only a few months ago had aspirations to fill Tenney’s seat. Ronk did not offer his name in nomination at last week’s Republican convention, meaning he figures Tenney will lose the primary and that she has already set in motion plans to keep her Assembly seat. Tenney represents the towns of Shawangunk, Wawarsing, Denning and Hardenburgh in Ulster County, about 30 percent of her solid Republican Assembly district.
She was not available for comment, but I would speculate that at this juncture the response would be something like, “I’m in it [the race for Congress] to win it.”
Ronk, the minority leader of the legislature, hails from Shawangunk. While Tenney’s selection adversely impacts his own ambitions, Ronk has ample reason to assume Tenney’s quest will be in vain. Sitting members of Congress with million-dollar war chests like Hanna are historically extremely difficult to beat, though upstate New York does seem in a radical state of mind these days. Tenney’s far-right, anti-abortion, pro-gun campaign, combined with minimal turnout, just might make June 24 a night to remember.
In case Tenney does win her primary, Republicans nominated former Wawarsing supervisor Scott Carlson for the Assembly seat.
