The columnist Reynolds.
In a county charter-dictated document filed with the county clerk and clerk of the legislature in November 2012, Hein designated as number one his ever-loyal chief of staff, right arm and frequent companion, driver, cheerleader and copious campaign contributor, Chief of Staff and Deputy Executive Adele Reiter. No surprise there. In designating Reiter, an attorney, as his heir apparent, Hein all but assured that upon his departure his legacy would be protected, burnished and preserved.
This represents more than mere honorarium. Under the charter, if Hein leaves office on or before June 1 a special election will be held within 90 days to complete his four-year term.
Assuming Reiter is interested in running for county executive — she wasn’t available for comment — being Hein’s designated successor would be a huge advantage. That and a fast-track process that discourages potential challengers until almost the last moment should serve to depress what is already a shallow pool. This almost sounds like a plan.
If Hein is the Democratic congressional candidate, the demands of campaigning in a district the size of Connecticut will require somebody to take on the day-to-day duties of executive. That somebody would be his top designee.
Hein says he will ponder a run for Congress over the holidays. I suspect his decision, what with some ducks obviously in place, has already been made.
Possibilities
Democratic leaders seem willing to render their candidate for Congress a process of anointment. It’s hard to believe nobody will challenge Hein’s designee for executive, even under the perverse circumstances the process dictates.
County Comptroller Elliott Auerbach, like Hein, has won election three times and would be near the top of anybody’s short list to move up to the sixth floor. (Did somebody say the elevator doesn’t go there any more?)
Former legislature chairman Dave Donaldson believes himself qualified for any executive office, as witnessed by his self-description as the “last executive chairman.” He’ll make noises.
Soon-to-be-former New Paltz Town Supervisor Suzan Zimet once entertained hopes of running for county exec, but withdrew after a less than exuberant reception. Assuming Zimet is still a county resident in 2017, she could be fodder.
Democrat Legislator Rich Parete from Accord, after handily winning re-election as a Republican last month, could declare himself a man for all seasons, and seek higher office.
County Attorney Bea Havranek, a former Rosendale supervisor, wasn’t listed among Hein’s list of designees, which some find curious, Havranek being Hein’s go-to lawyer. Havranek is almost as close to the throne as the chief of staff.
Minority Leader Ken Ronk turned 30 in September, which means he can now run for United States Senate. His path might more likely lead from the county legislature to the county executive to the state legislature, or so the tea leaves suggest.
There may be a dark horse or two out there, but mostly, as Louie said in Casablanca, it’s about rounding up the usual suspects.
Up the GOP
I know it’s only rock and roll, meaning a bit early and out of season, but the three main candidates for the Republican nomination for Congress are already sniping at each other.
John Faso, the former Assembly minority leader, accuses Andrew Heaney of donating to Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, a cardinal sin on the right. Heaney, while accusing Faso of ethics violations, says he did it to stop Hillary Clinton. At the same time Heaney, a Millbrook businessman, welcomed Assemblyman Pete Lopez to the joust, knowing full well that Lopez will split the Catskill vote with Faso. Lopez, a former Faso staffer, accuses his old boss of being out to lunch making big money as a lobbyist for the past decade while he, Lopez, dealt with the various issues impacting the district, including hurricanes, floods and Democratic governors.
I can hardly wait until January.
If Cahill is going to stick with loyalty to a crook versus loyalty to the people of his district, he needs to go. Let’s bring in someone who is not tied to Silver’s apron strings!
re: Hein’s successor, ‘Let it Bea, Let it Bea, Let it Bea, Let it Bea….’
‘There will be an answer, Let it Bea, Let it Bea’
So Kevin Cahill is a Silver loyalist to the end. How must he feel about pedophile priests, then?
This reminds me of a story the “effervescent” Father Bobby Saccoman told in religion class once:”I was in NYC last weekend, and a prostitute came up to me and propositioned me. I said to her, “But— I’m a PRIEST!!” She replied, “Oh that’s okay, Father, I’ll help you take your collar off!!”
Power corrupts. Perhaps we should be looking at our own Assemblyman and his dealings here in Kingston more closely. Loyalty creates strange bedfellows. Silver was out to enrich himself, not his constituents.
Susan, Outside income is public record and reported annually. If you took the time to look at Assembly member Cahill’s outside income disclosures before you made your unfounded accusations, you will see he has had a grand total of $0.00 dollars of outside income while he has served.
Silver reported them too.
$0.00 is still $0.00 so I am not sure what you are talking about. If you have a specific accusation I encourage you to bring it to light instead making false accusations in the shadows.
You cannot call The Kingston Times “the shadows”, Brian!! That would be a false accusation!!
On a more serious note–well, look at her first post,where the implication is that all Assembly members are out to enrich themselves(as opposed to “enriching their constituents”–an assertion which would make for an interesting discussion right there–eg, which is worse–enriching yourself or enriching your constituents as an elected official? Discussion over such “ethics” is always lively and interesting…)
I doubt we’d find the corruption found in Silver or Skelos in Kevin Cahill, even if we dug for the next forty years. Let’s confine our observations to throwing temper tantrums on the radio when someone who calls in fails to offer a glowing review of him, considering some constituents persona non grata after calling out the more common political corruptions in this state, and using more or less the same women in campaign ads time after time. In the vein of the latter example, perhaps Kevin could invite Susan to have her photo taken in the next one–and see if she could gain access as a result at least higher than the personas non grata(without, of course, being enriched or seeing Kevin enriched, apart from the obvious enrichment of making a new friend).
Let there be peace on earth..and let it being with Kevin. Yes– today is a slow newsday…..LOL
There is no end to the arrogance and entitlement mentality of elected officials.
We are “governed” by feckless elected officials that consider themselves entitled to pocket whatever loose change comes their way.
Any politician that has been in office for more than one term should be considered suspect.