There has been a lot of fighting these past few months by Democrats, much having to do with the D.A.'s race. Many friendships lost or severely damaged but, the past is the past. It's time to move forward, there is a lot of work to do. We as Democrats need to unite as one. That is one thing we have always been good at...we can fight like cats and dogs but when it comes to election season we put are differences aside for the good of the party. This year will be our true test in the County Legislature...we have a great group of candidates running, there are a lot of town races up that also have put fourth a great group of candidates to run. Kingston is no different with almost a full slate of qualified candidates and our Mayor running on a record of accomplishment. We can win these races handedly, if we work together in a progressive manner.
However, if we stray from our core values and beliefs or if we chose to half support any of our candidates we will lose. That is something that none of us want to happen and quite frankly it doesn't have to happen. I know at the end of the day we will all unite as one. That day was yesterday.
I certainly take part of the blame for the divide in the party and I take full responsibility for my part. I would like to take this opportunity to publicly apologize to Chairman John Parete ( I already have personally), for accusing him of being anything less then genuine. He is a true leader and I know that under his leadership and the leadership of Assemblyman Kevin Cahill and the top of our ticket Jonathan R. Sennett we will be very successful come this November.
- JKB
32 comments:
I disagree Jeremy. Parete has done more over the past six months to damage the Ulster County democratic Party than anyone in my memory.
He has been sneaky, unethical, vindictive, manipulative and downright dishonest. He doesn't deserve an apology.
For the people here who try to tout his "accomplishments," your attempts at spin are pathetic. The Ulster County legislature was going Democratic whether he was there or not. In fact, the margin probably would have been greater if not for Parete secretly working against a few Legislative candidates.
And he tried in vain to push Kevin Cahill's cousin, another non-Democrat, for Family Court Judge and failed miserably then, too.
Now he has recruited Democrats to primary incumbents that he doesn't like.
This whole Bradley fiasco was his last hurrah...and good riddance to bad rubbish.
We will unite Jeremy, but not behind a "leader" who lies and cheats for his own personal aggrandizement.
You are on the right track Jeremy. Here is some more of the same taken from the UCDC website:
"No matter whom we designate, or who our candidate is (if there is a primary election), I am confident that he will be the best qualified and the most able to face the significant challenges that confront the DA’s office."
John Parete, Chair
Ulster County Democratic Committee
I agree with Chairman Parete! And now let's all get behind that "best qualified" candidate and put a Democratic candidate in the Ulster County DA's Office.
Jeremy, You post 2 derisive videos at midnight, then at 1:00 AM you post a "we are the world" letter. Do you drink a lot? You better get your shit together. You are losing it.
What does Clint Brown have to say about this issue?
Who got to you, Jeremy!?!
I understand that everyone wants peace and unity within the Party.
But I fundamentally disagree that the way to accomplish this is to line up like sheep behind Party leaders who take actions to put us at odds against each another, manipulate the rules to serve their personal agendas and, in the process, sully our Party's reputation in the local press.
Wake up people, the credibility of our Party has been compromised by this public display of inner turmoil, ugliness and infighting. We deserve better, and so do Democrats at large.
The only way to get behind Parete is when we unite to show him the door by electing a responsible, effective and principled leader.
These anti-parete people are a joke. Without Parete the dems would not even be close to where they are now. There is no one in this county other than John who could have accomplished what he has. If Parete didn't fight the republicans on the districts their would still only be a handful of democrats on the legislature. How many people can go into towns that have not elected a democrat in years and get winners? The Paretes have done very well for the party and unfortunately unemployed people(zimet,mcquian,hector,) resent it. Zimet was kicked out as supervisor of new paltz of all towns. Everything she touches fails, she should just go away.
John Parete fought for and won, more competitive Legislative distircts. The same districts that people Like Zimet and Hector would not have won otherwise. Before John won the court case, they were Republican. Parete was the force behind the push for single member districts, another win. Smaller legislature 33 to 23? John Parete again. How about the County Charter? John Parete.
So for all you ungrateful,selfish, wannabes with short memories, think about that for awhile.
John Parete has to go? I don't think so.
Don't give John Parete too much credit - he capitulated on the single-member districts - that's why we still have legislators that run at-large. We won't have single-member districts for another 3 or 4 years, even though the committee had secured enough signatures to put the issue on the ballot. Instead, he brought his freshman legislator son to the meeting, and they caved. And, Parete had the jail and George Bush to thank for the legislature finally becoming a Democratic majority. Don't forget that for the first time ever in UC history, Dems now outnumber republicans. Just about anyone could've given the county a Democratic majority. However, John's success and power has clearly gone to his head, as is evidenced by his shameless last-minute appointments to the executive committee. Fortunately, the committee has intelligent people who think for themselves; they're not like the republicans who blindly followed their leader into obsolesence. John has worn out his welcome, and unless he's a complete idiot, he must realize that he's fallen out of favor with at least 2/3 of the committee. It'll take a lot to regain their confidence in him, but I'm sure he knows what it takes to accomplish it.
12:06am poster has no clue about how the petition drive worked for single member districts. The petitions said nothing about single member districts, only whether the public supported the current multi member districts. If voted down, the legislature would have to redraw (republican super majority at the time) so we would have gotten another multi member district, then the petition drive started over again and so on and on. I will not be coming back to this blog after this post, but it is really scary to know there are some incredibly stupid people out there. They all seem to be Sennett supporters, that does not bode well for him because the public can see the manipulative people they are and will be turned off by John Sennett's campaign. Parete has done a great job for democrats, anything said otherwise is nonsense. We'll see in November how much the Sennett people know about winning elections. My money is against them.
Who ever wrote that John caved on single member districts clearly is new to the game or just flat out lying. The single member districts were decided by a referendum. John orchestrated the petition drive that eventually led to the referendum being placed on the ballot. He never, not once "capitulated" on single member districts. Where that comes from I have no idea. John persevered through many obstacles and finally got it on the ballot, while the Democrats were still the Minority I might add. I am tired of this revisionist recall by people who have had it out for John long before Vince Bradley or John Sennett ever decided to run for office. Could John could have handled the Bradley situation better? Yes, there is no doubt he could have. Should he be ridiculed and drummed out of office for that? No way. If you think that 2/3 of the Democrats are against John based on the Bradley vote, think again. We know who got us here, and it wasn't the nut jobs from New Paltz or the UCDW! Some of us have been around longer then 3 or 4 years.
The time has come for John Parete to pass the baton to new leadership. Although he has some accomplishments to his credit, his judgements have been poor. He was never as open and ethical a leader as Democrats deserve. Parete too easily compromised his behavior to achieve his personal political objectives. If Parete is reluctant to move on, Democrats should give him a push out the door.
And while we conduct a post-mortem of the body politic here, Kevin Cahill should take the blame for Parete's shortcomings and failures. Beware the Assemblyman's forthcoming effort to install a new puppet leader and regime for the Democrats. Has Cahill accomplished anything at all? Why can't we elect an assemblyman of the caliber of Maurice Hinchey again?
And Parete also screwed Gary Bischoff, his own minority leader. To make matters worse when he cut the deal he had his son in there with him and not Bischoff. I guess that loyalty went out the window when it counted....
McQuain (or one of her Charles Manson like followers) are transparent in the total misunderstanding of the history of Ulster County Politics prior to 2006. Repeating "facts" about single member districts that they "heard" somewhere that just happen to reflect bad on Parete. All bullshit, and all destructive to the Party. Gee,I wonder where they originated? Maybe New Paltz?
Bischoff was never the Minority leader.
More crap from the Johnny come lately Democrats. All lies, all the time.
Well, you're all partly wrong and partly right. There was a referendum on single-member districts, but the petition drive was intended for it to take effect at the next election; instead, Parete, et al allowed it to wait until the next census, along with the reduction, until 2012.
Dear "These Anti- People are a joke"
And you sir or madam, are even more of a joke than them.
Parete is like a little school girl who can't find herself. He tells everyone what they want to hear, and then goes into a little room and does whatever he wants to anyway.
Hes two faced, and has a real problem choosing sides and what he stands for. You can't just be a neutral party if your affiliated with one already, and you can't play both sides... I hate to tell you.
He is only concerned about how he looks on TV and the local news... he has no real stand point on anything, he just follows the crowd, or the people who he "looks up to" again, as a child would.
He's blatetly lied about several things, and thinks it's ok.. when it's not.
I am SORRY Jonathan Sennett has been the candidate since June, and Parete should have stepped up to the plate and delt with it... HISSSSSSSSSSSS people voted, and THIS IS WHAT HE GOT... so you better grin and bear it if you don't like it... IF you are going to publically say you support Sennett, stop trying to screw him behind closed doors, that makes Parete a Coward. If he has something to say he should say it instead of smiling for pictures and shaking hands so he looks like he's doing something good.
Stop pretending, suck it up and back your damn candidate.
Otherwise, go join the Conservative party like Vince did.
Last time I was on this blog site you were through with politics and shutting down this terrible one sided excuse for a blog... what happened? the number one back stabber is back and writing his trash in fine form I see, and then you turn around and write that we should all be friends and hold hands and sing koom-by-ya thats rich coming from you Jeremy your a two faced liar who enjoys sttirring up the pot and causing problems from the Mayor to the DA,s all the way down to the Alderman. Yes Jeremy everyone knows you but fewer and fewer respect or like you anymore.
Anonymous 9:26:
It is interesting that you credit Mr. Cahill for his support for Mr. Parete . You seem to be more in the know than I am, but I have always been led to believe that both Mr. Hinchey and Mr. Cahill were the ones that encouraged Mr. Parete to lead the Ulster County Democrats into power. Yet you seem to suggest that Mr. Hinchey is somehow not associated with Mr Parete's successes. I would love to hear your logic on this.
Bishoff lost because he screwed his running mate Joan Feldman when he knocked her out as leader, anyone involved with local politics should know that. There was never ever a referendum on single member districts, only a yes or no on the large districts that the republicans made. The democrats will be in big trouble if they ever get the mcquain, hector,zimet crew as leaders. They are manipulative evil people and when they bring sennets campaign down i'm sure more people will wake up to the dirt bags they are.
Hold on now, You can't say anything bad about Maurice. That is off limits.
Parete,Cahill,Donaldson,Sottile anyone else for that matter. They are all fair game. But for some reason Hinchey does not get criticized. Hinchey is as responsible for Parete being chairman as anyone. He was also backing Bradley, maybe not publicly but he was none the less.
Maybe you need to institute a 30 day policy like C-Span.
Some of the nastiest comments are just repetitive, boooorriiiing.
Anyone that obsessed with Susan Zimet should examine his feelings about her. Sounds like love to me, in a 3rd grade sort of way.
No one is more obsessed with Sue Zimet than herself.
Susan Zimet is generally disinterested in any sentence that she doesn't begin herself with "I."
Hector just wants a government job as somebody's appointee (anybody, please...)
These are completely self-indulgent people.
No question Hinchey supports Parete along with Cahill and Sottile (following in the footsteps of Gallo.) Also no question that Hinchey proclaimed his neutrality on the DA race, but assisted Bradley. Hinchey's chief Dan Ahouse orchestrated the Bradley endorsement from the Hurley Democratic Committee.
The best thing Hinchey could do now is to sponsor some healing and reconcilation among the Democrats, publicly endorse and embrace Sennett, and call for party unity. It would be a leadership moment.
Amen, brother. Hinchey needs to step in and heal the party.
Candidates running on the Conservative Party line, as is the case with Independence Party candidates typically get between 4-5% of the vote. If Bradley breaks the mold and gets, say... 12% of the vote on each of these lines, its only about 1,700 votes of an estimated 7,200 votes cast in the city of Kingston. Figure on between 55,000 - 62,000 votes cast county-wide, and you realize that the city has modest impact (about 11%) on county-wide races. Seems to me that Bradley Junior is not really a spoiler, as he is unlikely to spoil anything. Jonathan Sennett is likely to be our next DA.
Wow 9:17
Sounds like a sensible Rx for some leadership. Didn't know the bit about the Hurley endorsement.
What, are you trying to turn off new comers? I'm new to the scene and find this whole blog rather insular and simple minded.
Let's elevate the discussion. Quit the insults directed at personalities and instead attack the ideas.
I am eager for someone to prove to me that there are more sensible people on here who have a sense of humor and know how to express their ideas and be articulate. If not, I'm tuning out, permanently.
Without jr. in the mix, one could safely predict a final outcome in Nov. of 55% Sennett and 45% Carnright.
Jr. is much more likely to take votes away from Carnright than Bradley, but regardless, he won't end up with more than 10% county-wide.
So, even if jr. takes ALL of that 10% from Jon (not likely) the worst case scenario for Jon is a dead heat.
Keep this prediction around Jeremy:
51% Sennett, 40% Carnright, 9% jr.
"Jr. is much more likely to take votes away from Carnright than Bradley"
Obviously I meant that jr. is much more likely to take votes away from Carnright than from Jonathan Sennett.
Please excuse the mis-statement.
To 10:13 PM -
We don't even know who you are, so why are you worried about a misstatement?
Without names this is all a bunch of rubbish.
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