Albany New York Today Brian Scavo called on Margret Walsh to make a decision on what judgeship race she is running for since she is running for both family court and supreme court and endorsed by the democratic party for her family court race and the supreme court race which the Democratic party endorsed Legislator Justin Corcoran .DONATE HERE
Scavo went on to say" How can Margret Walsh run for two judge ship's at once and then criticize Albany county democratic chairman Matt Clyne by saying it's a closed system when she was endorsed for her family court run by Matt Clyne, it's just insane and hypercritical and for Kathy Sheehan to read book on Dan O'Connell and call for Matt Clyne's ouster in my opinion is politically unwise and i would strongly recommend to Kathy Sheehan is to focus on the 16.5 million deficit which the city of Albany is facing , which by the way Sheehan turned over the budget decision to the state of New York which will make the recommended cuts in the Albany budget and Kathy Sheehan should stay out of the judge ship race.
Sheehan having lost two casino deals and dropped the exclusive endorsement deal with the Hard Rock Cafe all at the expense of Albany taxpayers.DONATE HERE
Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan on Thursday became the highest-ranking elected official to publicly call for Clyne's ouster as Albany County Democratic chairman.
Sheehan's comments — in which she compared Clyne to legendary party boss Dan O'Connelland took aim at the Democratic machine's exclusionary past — came as she endorsed an insurgent slate of judicial delegates challenging the party's pick of County Legislator Justin Corcoran for state Supreme Court justice this year.
The rebel slate on Tuesday's primary ballot is backing Family Court Judge Margaret "Peggy" Walsh.DONATE HERE
Broadly, the pro-Walsh contingent accuses Clyne of presiding over a closed system that has stopped female and minority candidates from rising to the highest ranks of the judiciary.
In that way, the normally obscure delegates race has morphed into a referendum on Clyne's leadership of the party as a true referendum, a vote on his re-election as chairman, looms later this month.
"I just finished reading a book about Dan O'Connell. It was written in 1973 ... and there is really no difference between what I was reading in that book and how the machine selected judges and what happened here in the city of Albany and in this county" this year, Sheehan said.
Asked if she believes Clyne should be replaced, Sheehan said: "I do. I think it's time."
Clyne, who has been chairman since Dan McCoy stepped down in 2011 to run for county executive, shrugged off Sheehan's critique and questioned how his critics would better manage the constantly shifting political alliances and personalities in the roughly 600-member political organization.
"If they think they've got the votes, they should step up to the plate and vote them. It's like everything else, a lot of grousing and grumbling but no actual contest," Clyne said.
"It may be fashionable to trash the party, but the reality is there were no backroom deals and the decision to go with Justin Corcoran was based on his qualifications and the fact that Peg Walsh had already received the designation to run for family court."
He added: "The larger issue is, what are they doing? What have they done to benefit the countyDemocratic organization?"
Clyne is no stranger to uprisings.
In 2012, Clyne narrowly weathered an insurgency that cost him the chairmanship of his hometown Bethlehem Democratic Committee but saw him hold onto his county committee seat by a single vote and retain control of the county party.
And Clyne had been making moves seemingly aimed at pacifying the progressives.
He personally supported Patricia Fahy even as the party itself stayed out of the five-way 2012 primary to succeed Assemblyman Jack McEneny, and he steered the party's endorsement to Sheehan last year when Mayor Jerry Jennings said he would not seek re-election.
But any good will that Clyne gained with those moves seems to have been vaporized by the party's bypassing of Walsh.
Clyne's critics point not just to that but also to his use of his day job as the county's Democratic elections commissioner to try to block much of Walsh's rival slate from the ballot, accusing the family court judge of improperly running for two judgeships at once.
Walsh is also running for re-election to another 10-year term on the family court bench this year — a fact Clyne's allies say underscores the hypocrisy of his critics.
Walsh, they note, won the unanimous endorsement of the Democratic committee for re-election to family court.
Clyne says that's a "ploy" on which Walsh has largely been granted a free pass.
"To me, this is ridiculous to have a person running for two judgeships," he said.
Not surprisingly, several women have been floated as potential challengers to Clyne.
At Thursday's rally, County Legislator Noelle Kinsch DONATE HERE
— the wife of city Treasurer Darius Shahinfar — said she would consider running if there were a "groundswell of support"DONATE HERE
you must know that Noelle Kinsch wanted to run for assembly , county executive, Albany county legislature chairman, now county Democratic chairman , no ground swell there folks.
Sheehan, meanwhile, said nostalgia needs to be tempered by reality.
"When you look at the challenges that we face here in the city of Albany, you can draw a direct line to lack of diversity, the lack of engagement, the disenfranchisement that were all part of the (Democratic) machine," she said.
"So when we talk about the machine and people talk about the good old days and the fact that you could get a job for your cousin and that the party took care of people, you have to tell the whole story. Because there were a whole lot of people that never got taken care of, and those are the challenges that we're dealing with today." DONATE HERE
This is Jordan's back handed slap at Dan McCoy.
editor's note JCE is political activist deep in the Sheehan Shahinfar camp
