BY CHAD MARLOW | I am not a bit surprised the County Committee selected Alice Cancel to fill the 65th Assembly District seat of disgraced former Speaker Sheldon Silver. Truth be told, I am more surprised that anyone is surprised by how the election operated or what its results were.
While people may justly criticize the process for being less than democratic (with a small “D” — it was very much Democratic with a big “D”), that is the process we have chosen for filling such vacancies. If people are truly offended, I suggest trying to change the process for the next time, starting now. It is very hard to achieve change in the midst of an election, where supporting or opposing change inevitably feels political.
So let’s talk about Alice Cancel. Although I know very little about her, it seems this much is clear: Alice is a good person, a dedicated government employee who works for a Democratic elected official, and has served as a district leader for decades. (Parenthetically, I can’t believe this position still even exists, since it really hasn’t meant much since the days of Carmine DeSapio). This is exactly the type of person County Committees tend to elect.
While the wives of Shelly Silver and William Rapfogel may have voted for Alice — which was certainly poor form — in the end, that’s really much ado about nothing.
Nevertheless, if I were Alice, I wouldn’t sign a long-term lease in Albany just yet. The last time one of our local County Committees followed this pattern, it chose Sylvia Friedman, a good person, a dedicated government employee who worked for a Democratic elected official, and served as a district leader (sound familiar?), to fill the Assembly seat vacated by Steve Sanders.
Friedman held the position for just seven months before she was defeated in the 2006 Democratic primary by current Assemblyperson Brian Kavanagh. This is not to say I am predicting defeat for Alice in the September primary — I am merely pointing out that a far more important and decisive election is around the corner.
All that said, should we even care about what happened at County Committee on Feb. 7? The answer, albeit on a different level, is yes. While I do not live or vote in the 65th Assembly District, I have a daughter who attends public school on the Lower East Side and I serve on Community Board 3, which covers that area, so I very much consider myself a member of that community. I also understand a bit of history, so I know that the Lower East Siders have benefitted from having two of the most powerful and influential members in the history of the state Assembly representing them in Albany: Shelly Silver and, before him, Al Smith.
The voters of the Lower East Side — including those who vote on the County Committee — need to accept a very unfortunate fact; namely, that whoever they send to represent them in Albany will not have nearly the influence that Silver or Smith had. They may have it several decades from now or, more likely, never will again. This will have a direct and profoundly negative impact upon the community.
So, is there anything the 65th Assembly District can do about this unfortunate state of affairs? Yes, there is. The voters of the district can do everything in their power to elect a new assemblyperson with the intellect, leadership abilities, accomplishments and gravitas to command the respect of his or her new colleagues in Albany — or at least as much as a freshman legislator can hope to muster. Over time, perhaps such an impressive person will rise in the ranks, like Smith and Silver did.
This leads me to an unavoidable fact voters in the 65th Assembly District need to accept: a person who has been a district leader and government employee for decades is not going to be that person. No offense to Alice Cancel, but she is exactly the type of obvious, uninspiring selection that will garner a collective yawn in Albany. I am not certain any of the candidates who presented themselves for election before the County Committee fit the bill, but Alice surely does not.
Of the other candidates who presented themselves on Feb. 7, one was a young woman who seems to have garnered support based on identity politics, and not her paper-thin accomplishments. Two of the other candidates have been dogged by ethical controversies over the years and, as such — be those allegations fair or unfair — would be a particularly bad choice to succeed Silver.
A lot of positive things can be said about the Lower East Side and 65th Assembly District, and here is one of them: The community is a hotbed of highly progressive, highly talented, highly accomplished individuals, many of whom are also highly ethical. If the community’s residents want to recover from the severe damage Shelly Silver inflicted upon them, they must join together and identify a candidate to elect in November 2016 that will cause Albany to collectively stand up and say, “Wow! The Lower East Side may just have sent us another assemblyperson for the ages.”
The people of the Lower East Side and 65th Assembly District, if they truly search their consciences, will know that type of person when they see him or her, and they should accept that such a person may not be active in local politics. Giants of the private, public and nonprofit sectors live in your midst. Go out, find that person, and send him or her to Albany to begin repairing the damage that has been done and restoring our community’s unrivaled Albany legacy.
Marlow is a member, Community Board 3
