Tuesday represents another mile-marker for citywide races in Albany: June 6th, when candidates begin building their petitions. Among those gathering signatures - the incumbent mayor and her latest challenger.
"Knocking on doors, getting signatures, feet on the street, telling positive stories. And I'm so grateful to all of you for your willingness to continue to fight, to continue to move us forward and to continue to make Albany the greatest city anywhere," said Mayor Kathy Sheehan, who rallied with supporters Sunday afternoon at her Madison Avenue campaign headquarters - chit-chatting and serving slices of pizza as she gears up her run for a second four-year term. "If you look at a map of the city of Albany, we are at the center of it, and it's accessible by buses, it's also the scene of the revitalization that's occurring because of the bike infrastructure that's happening. You know, that was just a plan when I took office, and we still didn't have the funding in place. It wasn't clear whether it was going to happen, and we made sure that we delivered on that. So, it's gonna be a bit of a construction zone this summer, which will make things interesting, but, I think that it sends a message that we are right here, in the center of a diverse city that is growing and that has seen a lot of exciting things happen over the last three and a half years."
On Friday, Margaret Trowe, a member of the Socialist Workers Party, announced her candidacy for mayor. Trowe says her campaign will be a voice for the working class. "My supporters and I are part of fighting the employers’ attacks, like the recent Honeywell lockout and the Momentive contract concessions that drove the workers out on strike. We support the Momentive workers in their current fight to get the last worker fired during the strike back to work. We salute the 175,000 workers who struck in Quebec, the construction workers there, until they were legislated back to work. The Socialist Workers Party fights deportations. We call for amnesty now for millions of fellow-workers forced to live in the shadows for the so-called crime of trying to support their families while lacking immigration papers acceptable to the government."
Trowe will hit the streets along with Sheehan and the other candidates: Common Council President Carolyn McLaughlin and Councilor Frank Commisso Jr., who are also running in the Democratic primary. Community activist Marlon Anderson, Conservative Joe Sullivan and the Green Party’s Dan Plaat have also tossed their hats into the ring.
Meantime, Sheehan places her focus on neighborhoods. "When you have leadership in government that listens to the residents and that ensures that we are doing what our neighborhoods want, what our neighborhood associations what, that's how you build a strong city and that's how you build strong neighborhoods, so we want to continue that work and continue moving that forward."
Tonight Sheehan's "City Hall on the Road" tour stops off 5:30 at Mater Christi Church on Hurst Avenue. According to mayoral candidate Joe Sullivan -- 5th ward Common Councilman Mark Robinson, who will face-off in September’s Democratic primary against Sheehan-backed Corey Ellis and County Legislator Chris Higgins, has already accepted the conservative line.
