Dawn Is Me

Not much to be said that hasn’t already been said about Tuesday’s elections. While I’m recovering from exhaustion (that’ll teach me to get active in local politics), make free with my favorite post-election interview of them all.

Let’s hear it for a party chairman who doesn’t take himself too seriously!

Politicians: It’s nice when they listen.

Sue Zimet is running on the Democratic ticket in the NY State Senate, 42nd District. There’s a lot about Sue that I like (in addition to the fact that she’s a Democrat) and, the first time I met her back in March, we had a very nice but too brief conversation about economic development in the district. I even gave her a copy of my economic development plan for Sidney, NY.

Fast forward to June — in response to a recent NYT article lamenting the flight of young people from upstate villages, towns and small cities, Sue is quoted in a press statement as follows:

“I believe it makes more sense to encourage the development of hundreds of small and vibrant businesses, rather than to rely on one or two large corporations without regional ties to solve our economic problems. The key is to identify and build on the particular strengths of each community.”

That’s almost word-for-word what we said to each other during that conversation last March. I probably shouldn’t take it personally, Sue was thinking along those lines anyway, but I find it gratifying.

Maybe, if she gets elected, we’ll have somebody in Albany who will actually do something helpful.

As for me …

This week, I was elected to chair our town’s Democratic Committee. I have a feeling that a lot of people wouldn’t want the job because (a) it involves a lot of herding cats and (b) in an area that is perceived as heavily Republican, there are a bunch of folks up here who lean progressive but are afraid to admit it.

We’re about 50/50 up here, but our local Republicans are just noisy. I figure I can make some noise, too.

More than that, my real agenda is to make a real push for economic development up here. Nobody is doing anything about that in this community and we’ve been watching the village die a slow and painful death ever since we got here. I’m not interested in running for office but I can work to light a fire under the people who do. And maybe I can help to implement policies that will return some prosperity to the area and give the kids who grow up here a reason to stay here.

Hey, I can dream.