I sent this out to everyone that has ever donated to any of my previous activist work. Not sure how much the cash will help at this late date, but DIA is absolutely correct: this race is critical to Albany. Unreal that people still vote for the partying tan-man on the basis of his personna... because god knows, there is no reason to vote for this guy on the merits (unless you are part of the patronage/corruption machine)...
Hey everyone... Mike Stark here. Some of you will remember me as a student. Others will know me as the proprietor of an old blog of mine, CallingAllWingnuts. Still others will recall my work against George Allen, Virgil Goode and scores of other degenerate Republicans. Hopefully most of you saw my most recent work exposing elected Republican birthers on Capitol Hill.
This is the first time I've sent an email of this sort, so please forgive any lack of sophistication. Moreover, I'm writing about a race that will have very little meaning for many of you that receive this mail: the contest for Mayor of Albany, NY.
Some background first... Before I ever tapped out a single word on a blog, I looked at my immediate surroundings and saw that things could be so much better. On December 31, 2003, David Scaringe was walking to his apartment near Lark Street, the epicenter of an eclectic and artsy Albany, NY neighborhood. Several shots rang out; David was hit. He died at the scene. It turns out that all of the shots were fired by policemen in an attempt to capture a drunk driver who had driven off after being stopped. Further investigation revealed that one of the two policeman involved had previously been suspended for suspected police brutality.
I was outraged. David was 24 years old and he was killed, as I saw it, because two policemen wanted to be cowboys in a crowded neighborhood on New Year's Eve. It was appalling.
That week and in the months that followed, I began keeping an eye on the Police Department.
One cop drove to his home drunk, backed into a gas line and burnt his apartment building down. Two students at a nearby university, RPI, lost all of their possessions. The cop walked away scot-free because... well, the arresting officer failed to properly read the drunk his rights.
In another case, Yahoo! received a subpoena from a police department asking for records that would allow them to identify a department critic. It was only after Yahoo! tendered the critical information that it was discovered that the police had forged the subpoena.
Perhaps most shocking of all, it was recently discovered that the police department had ordered military-grade machine guns that only law enforcement were allowed to purchase, and then sold the same guns into the black market.
Nobody has been prosecuted for any of these crimes.
I've barely begun to scratch the surface of corruption in Albany. Without providing a full catalogue (encyclopedia set would be a more fitting descriptor) of the malfeasance, allow me to mention just a few more:
· VIP parking system in which the Mayor's friends never had to pay parking tickets.
· After the Mayor was personally involved in an accident on a weekend evening, the Police Chief was summoned. The Mayor (a known late-night reveler) walked away without ever blowing into a breathalyzer.
· All sorts of favored property tax shenanigans, public works corruption and self-dealing contracts.
In the end, all of this is the Mayor's responsibility, in the truest sense of the word. He's not only created this kind of culture, he's nurtured it. He's a key participant.
I wouldn't be bothering you with any of this - after all, corrupt Mayors are a dime a dozen - if it weren't for two things.
The first is the fate of the innocent folks that don't share in the plundering of the city. Most Mayors will know enough to spread some of their ill-gotten loot around and pay off the disenfranchised. Jerry Jennings - Albany's mayor - is too stupid or too callous to follow the standard model. Instead what we find are certain parts of Albany plagued by gang violence, diminishing neighborhood cohesiveness and, overall, rapidly increasing rates of despair. Mothers are losing their children to violence, prisons or both.
The second reason I'm writing is that for the first time in as long as I can remember, Albany has a chance to change things. Corey Ellis is a leader that has emerged from one of the underserved wards. He got started in Albany politics by defeating one of the Mayor's hand-picked city-councilmen; since then, Corey's not looked back. At every step Ellis has challenged the status-quo and now, he's poised to make history. He's cleared the field of primary challengers and stands alone in opposition to Jerry Jennings.
He's got a legitimate shot at winning this race.
But he does need some help.
He needs to raise some money. That's why I'm writing to you.
Many thousands of people - you are probably one of them - have PayPal'd me donations to sustain or reward my work as an activist through the years. I've kept a list, but never used it.
Until now.
I'm asking you to reach out and send $5, $10, $20, $100 or $1000 to the Ellis campaign. Please donate here.
Look... The banking crisis, the health care fight, the struggle to end the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan... all of these things demonstrate how infernally difficult it is to change the direction of our country by way of Washington DC. In national politics, $50,000 in contributions may not even be noticed. But in a city of 100,000 people, $50,000 can change lives.
Please help me get Corey Ellis elected.
Sincerely,
Mike Stark
