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Meet Albany Mayoral Candidate, Common Councilor Frank Commisso Jr.

Albany Common Council member Frank Commisso Jr. recently tossed his hat in the ring in a bid to capture the Democratic Party’s mayoral nomination. The son of the County Legislature’s majority leader, Commisso joins a field already featuring Common Council President Carolyn McLaughlin and Green Party hopeful Dan Plaat. First-term Democratic incumbent Kathy Sheehan has not yet announced a reelection bid. Commisso sat down Wednesday with WAMC's Capital Region Bureau Chief Dave Lucas.

The following questions and answers have been excerpted from the lengthy interview with Commisso. The text quotes are from his recent official announcement that he is running for Mayor.

BONUS AUDIO #1 Commisso on the City Charter :  "We need to have a new city charter, and that's something I'd love to do by 2020, is to get a new city charter on the ballot in the general election in November, when there's a presidential election. A lot of people turn out."

albany_city_charter.mp3

BONUS AUDIO #2 Commisso addresses the annual city budget shortfall :  "First you're going to need a city budget that people know is a budget that is an honest document, without gimmicks, and is a budget that reflects our values in the city of Albany. In addition to that, we're going to need a growing economy going forward. So over the next three, five, seven years we need an economy that can grow, and that's not happening right now either when you look at taxable property. So that combination there, has really led to a case where we have this tremendous budget deficit, and it seems that the folks in city hall are just totally incapable of addressing."

albany_annual_budget_deficit.mp3

  BONUS AUDIO #3 Commisso on Albany as a Democratic Party stronghold

albany_democratic_sttronghold.mp3

  BONUS AUDIO #4 Commisso on the direction of the Albany Democratic Party

albany_democratic_party_direction.mp3

Dave Lucas is WAMC’s Capital Region Bureau Chief. Born and raised in Albany, he’s been involved in nearly every aspect of local radio since 1981. Before joining WAMC, Dave was a reporter and anchor at WGY in Schenectady. Prior to that he hosted talk shows on WYJB and WROW, including the 1999 series of overnight radio broadcasts tracking the JonBenet Ramsey murder case with a cast of callers and characters from all over the world via the internet. In 2012, Dave received a Communicator Award of Distinction for his WAMC news story "Fail: The NYS Flood Panel," which explores whether the damage from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee could have been prevented or at least curbed. Dave began his radio career as a “morning personality” at WABY in Albany.
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