A Street Crime Attack Team

Kudos to our new Police Chief. He has decided to create a street crime team in response to the crime problem in the City of Kingston.

Several people have contacted me reminding me of my proposal for "SCAT", a "street crime attack team", highlighted during the recent campaign.

My answer has been that I am not interested in getting credit of any kind. I am just glad that crime is being addressed, and I hope that street crime team has the desired results.

Gallo Elected Mayor

I wish to offer congratulations to Shayne Gallo. He was elected Mayor of the City of Kingston earlier tonight. I stopped by his victory party and shook his hand. He worked hard and deserved to win.

As for me, I walk away with my head held high. I feel I ran an honorable campaign. I did very well in the debates. I wish I could have gotten a one on one race because I know it would have been much closer. Shayne might still have won, but it would have been much much closer.

Nevertheless, Shayne deserved to win. He worked hard and he earned it. I wish him nothing but success.

Election Day

The polls will close in just over 1 hour. However the results go, I just want to thank the people of Kingston for begin so kind to me on the campaign trail. I enjoyed meeting so many people.

Kingston has many problems, but I remain confident that we, as Kingstonians, can solve them.

The Final Debate

Today was the final debate of the campaign. It took place at the Daily Freeman. It was an excellent debate, though I still think Mr. Ladin should have been invited.




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KURA "Meet the Candidates"

Rather than have candidates appear and give oral answers, the Kingston Uptown Residents' Alliance (KURA) sent questionnaires to all 4 candidates for Mayor, the 2 Alderman-at-Large candidates, and all of the Alderman candidates.

Sadly, most candidates did not respond. In the Mayor's race, 3 of the 4 responded. The answers have been posted. Click here to see them.

I apologize for the length of my answers, but they requested specifics.

A Clip From the City Hall Debate

I have not found an entire recording, but here is a clip from the debate posted on YouTube.

Freeman Will Not Allow Ladin to Debate

The Daily Freeman has decided not to allow Steve Ladin to join the November 3rd debate. Below are the e-mails confirming this fact.

E-mail #1 was sent from Steve Ladin to Paul Kirby, a reporter of the Daily Freeman (not his decision to exclude Ladin or me originally).

From: Stephen Ladin [mailto:steveladinformayor@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2011 12:46 PM
To: Paul Kirby
Subject: Re: Profile

Hi Paul - Rich Cahill tells me that neither he nor I have been invited to the next debate that the Kingston freeman is conducting. Please correct this oversight (have you forgotten what happened to the so called front runners in the primary?). And in case you're not paying attention: I believe Rich Cahill will gather more votes than Ron Polacco. Thanks--


E-Mail #2 is the response from Tony Adamis of the Daily Freeman


Steve:
Paul Kirby forwarded your note to me.
Cahill has been invited to the Freeman debate.
You are not being invited to our debate because we don't believe your candidacy is likely to affect the outcome.
Sincerely,
Tony Adamis
Managing Editor, Kingston Daily Freeman

************************

First, I thank Steve for his very kind words about me.

Second, I think Steve Ladin should be permitted to be in the debate. He collected more signatures than any other candidate to get on the ballot. While he may not have a major party line, he is still a candidate for the office of Mayor and is entitled to a level of respect.

I can understand not inviting all candidates running for President or New York State Governor since there are usually 9 to 12 candidates on the ballot. That would be unruly. In this election, however, there are only 4 candidates. Allowing Steve to be present would cause no significant difficulty. Additionally, he is a very nice guy and I enjoy hearing him speak. I cannot say I agree with him on the issues, but I respect his willingness to step up to the plate and debate three experienced politicos, two of whom are trained attorneys.

It is of course entirely up to the Freeman since they are hosting the debate. I would hope that they would reconsider and allow Steve to participate in the debate.

If not, then perhaps Steve should follow the debate online and give written answers to the questions asked. He can then post them on the comments section of the Freeman article so people can see them.