Democracy In Albany

Notes like these:

Our taxes and energy costs are the highest in the nation.

The special interests who fund Boss Bruno's campaign committees, and his personal checking account, have done well.

The rest of us, not so well.

We need lobbying, ethics and campaign finance reform, all of which have been stymied by Boss Bruno, who profits from the current corrupt system.

State government is broken and dysfunctional, and Boss Bruno will do nothing to change that, since he's a big part of the problem, and has profited mightily from dysfunction.

Etc.

Boss Bruno has crushed the rare challenger by arguing that he brings home the bacon, and by using hundreds of thousands from those who profit from that bacon, and by his shameful abuse of full-color taxpayer-paid mailings, which he sends out every month or so.

Premo clearly has his work cut out for him.

But he has some things going for him.

Obama will carry the state handily, and probably the district, though less handily.

Popular Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand, who defeated a former Boss Bruno hack in a deep-red district in 2006, will easily win re-election over a self-funding Pataki hack.    

And, most important, Boss Bruno's pork-providing days are over next year, whether or not he's indicted (as he certainly should be by then) or wins his re-election bid.

Because the Democrats will take over the Senate in November.

And, as Premo should point out, all that porky "development" by Boss Bruno's contractor buddies has done nothing to keep local taxes from going through the roof, since those "developments" generally get sweet tax breaks not available to long-suffering homeowners and local business owners.

So, even considering possible future pork, the people of Rensselaer and Saratoga counties will be better served next year by Brian Premo than former Boss Bruno and his gang.

P.S., the Times Union story about Premo announcing was remarkably awful.

Since when does a candidate announcement story contain essentially the same amount of quote from a taxpayer-paid flack for the incumbent as from the candidate.

Boss Bruno bashes the TU every chance he gets.

His intimidation campaign must be working.

The Troy Record story is little better, finding a way to quote, directly or indirectly, two Boss Bruno hacks.