No Tea Party – A Capitol Idea?

“The Capitol is no place for a Tea Party,” reads the invitation to a Jack McEneny event according to a post by Jimmy Vielkind on the Times Union’s Capitol Confidential blog.

Darn right!

I probably wouldn’t hold another Tea Party rally at the Capitol if you paid me.

Of course, Assemblyman McEneny wasn’t making a statement about Tea Party rallies.  Instead, his invitation was a jab at his opponent Deborah Busch and her Tea Party supporters.  It’s a rather snide comment, and one that ignores the legitimate concerns of many of his constituents.  Still, it’s not a huge surprise.  It’s politics.

But since this is my blog, let me take some artistic license and tell you about the second of the two Tea Party rallies that I coordinated.  It took place on June 16, 2009, was called the “March on Albany,” and brought hundreds of folks into Albany from across the state.  Planning it was miserable.  Awful.  Sucktastic.

When we planned the Albany Tax Day Tea Party, it only took a few e-mails, a couple phone calls, and one brief meeting with the City Clerk, the Albany Police Department and Albany’s Department of General Services.  Just like that, we had a permit for the rally that took place on April 15, 2009 at Albany’s Corning Preserve.

The March on Albany, on the other hand, was held at the state’s Capitol building, on state property.  That meant we had to get permits from the Office of General Services (OGS).  It took at least three meetings.  I cannot recall how many phone calls and e-mails were required.  We were run through the wringer.  How ’bout some examples:

• The meetings with OGS, NY State Police and other folks were entirely humorless, if not downright hostile on occasion.
• We were initially told that we needed to rent portable toilets. Fortunately, we found out at the last minute that it wasn’t a requirement.
• OGS gave us a tough time over providing water and selling t-shirts at the event.
• On the day of the event, OGS actually moved the media away from the rally site.
• Participants were not allowed to have signs on sticks.  Ok, that was annoying, but it wasn’t a huge deal.  Safety and all.
• Participants weren’t allowed to bring their flags on flagpoles.  That was a BIG deal to participants.  We actually had to argue to get the OK for a color guard to use flag poles to display the US and NY state flags.

Almost seemed like we weren’t very welcome at the Capitol…

Fortunately, it was a good event.  I learned quite a bit during the planning process, and I was pleased to see it attract hundreds from across the state. Here’s a link to some news coverage of the March on Albany by YNN.

You can also check out this video created by one of the attendees of the event.  It provides a flavor for the rally.

It was a good event, but I have no desire to return for a rally at the Capitol.

For the record, I have talked to a number of folks recently about Assemblyman McEneny.  Almost all of them spoke kindly of him as a person.  McEneny recently spoke with me at length in relation to a story I’m working on for my journalism class.  I certainly appreciated his candor. And check out this blog post on Albany Citizen One.  Despite some of our differences in political opinion, she’s one of my favorite bloggers.  This Friday she is hosting a fundraiser for Deb Busch.  Yet she speaks very highly of McEneny.  He really does seem like a nice guy.

But he’s way off base when it comes to his perceptions of the Tea Party.

Oh yeah, one last thought.  Take a look at the picture of the invite.  Does the Mad Hatter remind you of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver? Hmmmmm….

Door-to-door for Deb Busch

Going door-to-door.  For a political candidate no less.  I first did that last summer.  I played a small role in gathering signatures to get a “No New Tax Party” line established on the ballot for the 2009 town board elections in Rotterdam, NY.  A year ago, I’ll admit that I viewed it with trepidation. What if someone yelled at me?  What if someone slammed the door in my face?  But it was the next logical step in my new-found political activism. Turns out that it wasn’t so bad.  Matter of fact, I even enjoyed it.

Unfortunately I have not been able to dedicate much time to knocking on doors this year.  Until today.  Today I collected signatures for Deborah Busch.  She’s running for New York’s 104th District Assembly seat.  I spent five hours going door-to-door in Guilderland, NY.  I know that the 28 signatures that I collected are going to help a great candidate.  It’s not much, but every signature counts.

I have been impressed by Busch on those occasions where I have seen her speak.  She is intelligent, energetic, and passionate about fixing dysfunctional New York State.  She is new to the political arena.  Last year she garnered 44% of the vote in an election for Albany County Coroner. With minimal help, Busch went door-to-door and shocked the political pundits with the electoral results.  I am impressed that Busch stepped up her 2010 campaign to the state level.

As I told the people I met today, merely electing Busch will save New York State upwards of $90,000 a year.  You see, her incumbent opponent, John J. McEneny, is “double dipping.”  McEneny was able to retire from his legislative “job” at age 65.  He has continued in his current postion, all the while collecting a regular paycheck and a hefty pension.  It is perfectly legal, but I question the ethics of the practice.  For more details check out this 2009 article from the New York Times.

Furthermore, McEneny has served in his current position for about 17 years.  Prior to that he spent much of his career in other public service positions.  In my view, it’s time for McEneny to truly retire.  Who better to replace him than Busch?

You might ask why any of this matters?  After all, most of this blog’s readers do not live in NY’s 104th Assembly District.  In my view it provides examples of how the Ordinary Citizen can make a difference:

1. Ordinary Citizens, like Busch, can challenge long-time incumbents.
2. Other Ordinary Citizens can help with the campaigns and truly make a difference.

How are you making a difference politically?  I’d love to hear about it!