Schenectady's three mayoral candidates met in a debate Thursday night.
Three-term Democratic Schenectady Mayor Gary McCarthy faced off against Republican challenger Matt Nelligan and Working Families Party candidate Ed Varno at SUNY Schenectady's Carl B. Taylor auditorium. The debate was co-sponsored by the school and the Daily Gazette.
Varno, a retired Schenectady firefighter, defeated City Council President Marion Porterfield in the Working Families Primary. Porterfield also lost the Democratic Primary to McCarthy. Varno vowed to be a leader who would be accessible, responsive and enforce city laws.
”I want abandoned properties addressed and maintained. So they aren't neighborhood eyesores. I want to invest in workable streets. I want a government that empowers all residents,” said Varno.
McCarthy touted various accomplishments during his tenure, among them waterfront development that he says bloomed under his watch... "...which brought $54 million to Schenectady taxpayers and created over 1.000 jobs at Rivers Casino alone, new housing, more jobs continued development downtown, and importantly in our neighborhoods."
Nelligan, a former teacher who became chair of the city’s revived GOP committee in February, challenged McCarthy on nearly every point, saying this race for mayor is one of the most important in decades.
"Gary is fond of saying he's running on his record, and I'm fond of saying I'm running on his record as well," Nelligan said. "Our city is now and has been for some time on the wrong track. No one disputes that downtown is better off than it was 30 years ago. But Gary doesn't deserve the credit for that."
Nelligan credited Republicans with the siting of the Casino and the formation of the city’s economic development agency Metroplex.
The two locked horns when McCarthy responded to Nelligan’s criticism of Schenectady schools.
"Mr. Nelligan left his teaching career under at best cloudy circumstances in Guilderland," McCarthy said."
In 2008 Nelligan resigned after a decade in the Guilderland School District after being transferred from Guilderland High School to Farnsworth Middle School. He claimed his criticism of the teachers’ union and conservative viewpoint were behind the transfer.
Nelligan replied "The mayor should be careful talking about cloudy circumstances given his own record. This is somebody who chased a young girl down the street when he had a questionable amount of alcohol in his blood.”
Nelligan there citing aMay 2016 incident in which McCarthy was accused of following a woman to the police station while intoxicated, which he denied. A special prosecutor did not charge the mayor.
Varno, at times, struggled to make his point. A panelist asked the candidates how they would address an epic flood of the Mohawk River. McCarthy answered he dealt with an epic flood during Irene and Lee in 2011, prompting him to make infrastructure improvements "...to make sure that we're sustainable, that we're efficient in it and that we can use it to attract businesses and residents back to this community," said McCarthy.
Moderator: "Thank you very much. Mr. Varno:"
"Well could have the question again?"
"Climate disasters around the rise what would you do..."
"I think the river need needs to be worked on further upstream to stop the blockage in the city where blocks and floods causes the floods," said Varno, who later chalked up his hesitancies to nervousness, telling the Gazette this was his first political debate.
Nelligan, in a rare moment where he didn't clash with McCarthy, responded "the city actually did a pretty good job on hardening infrastructure."
Near the end of the spirited debate, during a "lightning round" of questioning, a panelist asked the candidates if they preferred "New Schenectady" or "Electric City." McCarthy stood alone embracing the updated moniker.
Election Day is November 7th.
