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Mayoral Candidates Support 'Clean Campaign'

The candidates in one upstate mayoral challenge have agreed to run a “clean, positive” race.

Shawn Morse, the chairman of the Albany County Legislature, is a candidate for mayor of Cohoes, a city of about 16,000 north of Albany.

The nephew of soon-to-retire Mayor George Primeau is also a firefighter and local labor leader who has won the city Democratic Committee's endorsement over candidate Councilwoman Dianne Nolin, who announced she would not seek the party nod because "pressure" had been placed on committee members by Morse's supporters. Morse dismisses that contention.    "Nobody ever contacted me, nobody called me to say 'Gee Shawn, we have a concern from the other side' or anything - and I've spoken to many of the committee people over the last couple of weeks. I spoke to the chairman of the committee several times. Nobody ever mentioned any any such 'pressure' - from day one I have promised the cleanest of campaigns. We both live in this community, we have families deeply rooted in this community, we have children that live in this community, and this is really about what's best for Cohoes. And you can't think you'd be best for Cohoes if you used tactics that are considered dirty and hurtful and aimed at hurtin' the person personally rather than talking about the issues or the record of their years in public service."

Morse then challenged Nolin to sign a pledge to run a "clean, positive, and honest campaign."    "Let's meet. Let's sign this promise to all the people. We'll all be held accountable once we sign it. And we'll stand on that and we'll run our campaigns on the fact that you've been a councilperson for eight years; I've been a legislator and chairman of the legislature for 12 years, and people can judge us based on that."

Nolin has agreed to sign the document.    "Certainly for the fair campaign pledge, I would most certainly go ahead and sign that as I have in the past."  Nolin has signed similar pledges for her last two successful runs for the Common Council, but isn't backing down from her allegation committee members were feeling stressed.   "I was aware of a lot of pressure being placed on people, and a lot of 'thank-you's' when I decided to not seek the endorsement based on that."

Nolin would not elaborate.   "I'd really rather not cite specifics because I was trying to leave the individuals out of any uncomfortable feelings."

Morse and Nolin will face off in the Democratic primary for mayor.  Although Morse was unanimously endorsed last Tuesday night by the committee, Nolin doesn't believe that automatically sets him up for victory on September 10.   "In the entire picture, I think it's actually the citizens, the residents that have the vote. I don't know if the party endorsement weighs as much as it used to in the past."

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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