Hugh Reynolds: He said what?

Steve Noble. (Photo: Phyllis McCabe)

On the political side, DiMicco is counting on dissent in Democratic ranks to split the vote and perhaps propel him through the gap. That Democrats were bitterly divided four years ago and remain so was confirmed in the announcement by city environmental coordinator Steve Noble last month that he would contest incumbent Shayne Gallo for the party’s nomination. Even hoary old political writers do not remember the last time a sitting Kingston mayor was challenged by someone from his own party.

Not to get ahead of ourselves, but smart money (among them, party hacks, newsroom denizens and a few bartenders) say Noble will prevail at convention but is at best even odds in a primary against the incumbent mayor.

Latest speculation has Gallo, nobody’s idea of a quitter, campaigning forward to November on the Independence Party and Conservative lines if he loses the Democratic primary to Noble. For this outcome, DiMicco can only fervently pray, though he should be careful about what he prays for. History suggests that a split vote tends to favor the incumbent since he or she then has only to poll about 40 percent of those who vote, rather than 50 percent in a one-on-one contest. In short, a split vote splits the opposition.

Gallo’s adversaries are further encouraged by the fact that he didn’t exactly tear up the pea patch in his first election four years ago in polling just 52 percent of the vote against an incumbent Republican alderman, Ron Polacco. Polacco’s less than rallying claim to fame was that he never voted for a city budget during his four years in office.

There’s another stat which party pros will no doubt ponder: votes cast at election vs. party enrollment. There, Polacco, though hopelessly outgunned, fared far better than Gallo who polled only 52 percent of Democratic enrollment (after a primary he won by a hairbreadth seven votes) compared to Polacco’s 96 percent of Republican enrollees.

On such statistics candidates rise and it is after all, spring.

Meanwhile, GOP Chairman Tony Sinagra says he hasn’t made his mind up on a mayoral candidate, but is hoping to avoid a divisive primary, as in 2011.  If history repeats, Sinagra will have candidates coming out of the woodwork by mid-May.

The aforementioned Polacco has indicated he’s serious about a comeback. Not me, says primary loser Andi Turco-Levin, who many believed had the best chance, however slight, of beating a Democrat four years ago. She lost her primary to Polacco by a mere 10 votes. Turco-Levin, a former disc jockey and record company exec, is busy selling real estate these days and doing local talk radio.

Here and there

It was announced at Monday’s meeting of the legislature’s Law Enforcement Committee that the county was in the process of installing 16 security cameras in the county office building on Fair Street. The announcement by committee chair T.J. Briggs of Ellenville, apparently took some attendees, including the sheriff, by surprise.

“The last time I heard anything about this was about five years ago when we did a walkthrough in the building,” said Sheriff Paul VanBlarcum. Holy need to know basis, Batman! Sheriff’s personnel will be responsible for monitoring security cameras off a flat screen in the lobby of the building.

Legislative attorney Cappy Weiner also expressed surprise that a project that had been in the talking stage for years was in fact under way. “It was only last week that we [legislative leaders] were talking about drafting a policy regarding cameras, and now it’s started,” he told the committee. “I wonder if it was just a coincidence.” Was that the hint of a suggestion that the executive branch was again jumping the gun on the legislature?

In any case, the county office building is somewhat late to this parade, as many buildings in municipalities are equipped with security cameras, nearly 15 years down the road from 9/11.

Mid-Hudson News.com reports the Hein administration is putting the old county jail on Golden Hill on the market. Exec Mike Hein, in published reports, says he hopes to have a buyer later this year.

The jail, which the county abandoned in 2007 for new digs off Route 32 in Kingston, was built in the early 1970s. Any number of schemes have been advanced for its reuse, up to and including demolition, but as of yet to no avail.

While Hein was adept at buying and selling residential rental real estate before entering public service in 2006 as county administrator, his efforts at disposing county property have been disappointing. The vacant county office building on Flatbush Avenue and the Persen House on Crown Street provide but two examples.

Speaking of property transfers, it appears the state Senate will give final approval to convert the vacant Rosendale Elementary into town-hall space for Rosendale, Marbletown and Rochester.

The proposal, one of those makes-sense facility-sharing ideas, flew through the assembly last year but stalled in the senate. Former Democratic state senator Cecilia Tkaczyk blamed the Republican majority for playing politics. Could be, but all’s well that ends well, they say. (Except for CeCe.)

That isn’t a Florida suntan we’re seeing lately, just egg on the face of former legislature chairman Dave Donaldson. Recall how Donaldson took the Hein administration to task recently for allegedly sandbagging the Catskill Mountain Railroad’s tourist train promotions late last year. Donaldson, in a memo to the administration signed by several other legislators, claimed the executive did nothing to promote what became two of last year’s major tourist attractions in the county.

In truth, Hein didn’t do much to promote his once and future adversary, but it was more than nothing. The trains got a one-liner in the county’s annual tourism promotion publication and passing mention on its Facebook page. Obviously, Donaldson read neither before blasting off.

Kudos to Donaldson for an abject apology and to the administration for not doing a victory dance on his egg-stained face. Donaldson, incidentally, will be running for a 10th term from his Midtown Kingston district in November. Based on “experience,” I presume.