Mr. Byrne lost by a narrow 96 vote margin according to the Watertown Daily Times. That is a pretty slim margin when you consider the size of the district he was running in.
One might consider that with that small margin that any number of things might have changed the results.
It makes me wonder...where was Mr. Byrne's political mentor Urban Hirschey, under which Byrne has served on the Cape Vincent Town Board with Hirschey as supervisor?
Byrne was also mentored by Hirschey when Hirschey was president of the Wind Power Ethics Group, which Bryne later took over as president.
In addition Byrne and Hirschey have been partners on two Rep. political tickets in CV, and Byrne serving on the CV board has done virtually everything Hirschey wanted.
Now as I was thinking back on the Byrne campaign I can't recall seeing or hearing any "public support" for Byrne from Hirschey in major media venues. Maybe I am wrong on thatand missed something, but I don't remember anything. I was in NY till after the election and saw the final push of Byrne ads repeated on TV. Don't recall Hirschey, or even a letter from him in the WDT in support.
So where was Hirschey for Byrne? Missing in action?
Hirschey is very well connected politically in Jefferson County and well beyond. And when I say "beyond" remember that NYS invested in Hirschey's company Climax paper for their green investment portfolio for the NY retirement fund. And Hirschey has powerful Republican friends like former NYS Sen. James Wright now head of DANC.
Seems with this clout that more public efforts from Hirschey on behalf of Byrne might have easily closed that 96 vote gap that gave incumbent Assemblywoman Russell the very narrow victory.
I give credit to Byrne for coming as close as he did against an entrenched incumbent, but maybe he should consider who his real friends are before he runs another campaign.
STOP, The regional wind energy industrialization of one of New York State's most beautiful and environmentally sensitive areas, the 1000 Islands of the St. Lawrence River and the Golden Crescent of Eastern Lake Ontario. If you don't think you are seeing the most recent posts click on the current month in the archives to the right.
Thursday, January 22, 2015
NYS Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver Arrested On Corruption Charges
You can read the story at this link.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/23/nyregion/speaker-of-new-york-assembly-sheldon-silver-is-arrested-in-corruption-case.html
Not to mention that Cuomo pulled the plug on the Moreland Commission that was investigating NYS corruption. Maybe it was getting a little too close to his Democratic buddy Silver!
Next question is...where the hell is NYAG Schneiderman in all this? Hiding under his desk?????
He should feel like and idiot watching this happen on his watch on his turf.
It took a federal investigation to get to this point with Silver.
Now that reminds me of something. Back when the Cape Vincent wind issue was raging and there were serious questions about the ethics of some of the CV govt officials at that time, we contacted the FBI, and had an interview with a special agent. We did this because we didn't seem to be able to get anywhere with Como as AG.
When we explained the situation I distinctly remember the agent saying that the situation in CV looked like low hanging fruit for the NYAG's office to deal with and do something about.
But he also indicated he was getting stonewalled when he tried to talk to the NYAG's office (Cuomo)about the situation. Sound familiar?
Cuomo a couple years later started an investigation of CV officials in 2010 on the wind ethics matters...but it miraculously evaporated and was never heard from again. Probably getting too close to Darrel Aubertine and his involvement in the CV wind ethics mess.
Of course when Aubertine was booted from office by NNY voters, and Cuomo was elected Gov. he was quick to sweep Aubertine up into a nice job as the state Ag. Commissioner.
What a freakin circus!!!
And finally...does it make you all warm and fuzzy that the CV Hirschey govt was so willing to roll over and play ball with these guys and the NYS cesspool of corruption with Cuomo's bullshit Art X process for citing wind energy and other electric generation?
If BP had stayed in CV or we get another wind developer, the Art X process is still in place, and the Hirschey bunch wrote a zoning law that actually may allow some wind development to try to appease Cuomo and the state govt. which appears to be more of an ethics cesspool every time we turn around.
Yeah what the hell. that should work out well!!!
Oh and the other thing. Over on the Wiley's JLL blog there is a lot of whining about the fact that seasonal voters may not have voted in CV as before and this allowed Marty Mason to be elected over Michelle Oswald.
Well in my view the Hirschey crew, WPEG and supporters, and blogs like Wiley and Pandora, were in such a tizzy when BP left to portray it as Hirschey and crew and their involvement in Art X as the reason for defeating BP.
Pure bullshit.
This probably gave many seasonal people the wrong impression that we had won and the threat was over, and they chose to vote elsewhere as a result.
BP wasn't defeated, they simply walked away due to financial conditions surrounding their company and industrial wind. And Art X judge Agresta was bending over backwards to give BP a chance to sell to another wind developer to rape CV.
The Hirschey crowd in desperation was patting themselves so hard on the back promoting a fallacy of beating BP and Art X was the proper venue to do it that they probably knocked a lot of critical votes right out of CV!
Smart move! Suck it up and stop blaming the seasonal people for your defeats!
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/23/nyregion/speaker-of-new-york-assembly-sheldon-silver-is-arrested-in-corruption-case.html
Not to mention that Cuomo pulled the plug on the Moreland Commission that was investigating NYS corruption. Maybe it was getting a little too close to his Democratic buddy Silver!
Next question is...where the hell is NYAG Schneiderman in all this? Hiding under his desk?????
He should feel like and idiot watching this happen on his watch on his turf.
It took a federal investigation to get to this point with Silver.
Now that reminds me of something. Back when the Cape Vincent wind issue was raging and there were serious questions about the ethics of some of the CV govt officials at that time, we contacted the FBI, and had an interview with a special agent. We did this because we didn't seem to be able to get anywhere with Como as AG.
When we explained the situation I distinctly remember the agent saying that the situation in CV looked like low hanging fruit for the NYAG's office to deal with and do something about.
But he also indicated he was getting stonewalled when he tried to talk to the NYAG's office (Cuomo)about the situation. Sound familiar?
Cuomo a couple years later started an investigation of CV officials in 2010 on the wind ethics matters...but it miraculously evaporated and was never heard from again. Probably getting too close to Darrel Aubertine and his involvement in the CV wind ethics mess.
Of course when Aubertine was booted from office by NNY voters, and Cuomo was elected Gov. he was quick to sweep Aubertine up into a nice job as the state Ag. Commissioner.
What a freakin circus!!!
And finally...does it make you all warm and fuzzy that the CV Hirschey govt was so willing to roll over and play ball with these guys and the NYS cesspool of corruption with Cuomo's bullshit Art X process for citing wind energy and other electric generation?
If BP had stayed in CV or we get another wind developer, the Art X process is still in place, and the Hirschey bunch wrote a zoning law that actually may allow some wind development to try to appease Cuomo and the state govt. which appears to be more of an ethics cesspool every time we turn around.
Yeah what the hell. that should work out well!!!
Oh and the other thing. Over on the Wiley's JLL blog there is a lot of whining about the fact that seasonal voters may not have voted in CV as before and this allowed Marty Mason to be elected over Michelle Oswald.
Well in my view the Hirschey crew, WPEG and supporters, and blogs like Wiley and Pandora, were in such a tizzy when BP left to portray it as Hirschey and crew and their involvement in Art X as the reason for defeating BP.
Pure bullshit.
This probably gave many seasonal people the wrong impression that we had won and the threat was over, and they chose to vote elsewhere as a result.
BP wasn't defeated, they simply walked away due to financial conditions surrounding their company and industrial wind. And Art X judge Agresta was bending over backwards to give BP a chance to sell to another wind developer to rape CV.
The Hirschey crowd in desperation was patting themselves so hard on the back promoting a fallacy of beating BP and Art X was the proper venue to do it that they probably knocked a lot of critical votes right out of CV!
Smart move! Suck it up and stop blaming the seasonal people for your defeats!