Being the mayor of a big city means your bound to be a controversial person. You have to make the choices that will effect a great number of people for a long period of time, and ultimately effect the natural environment around you. It also means your personal flaws are exposed, and the methods you use to keep and expand power can be pretty ruthless.

Albany City Mayor Gerald Jennings is no exception. He's the man whose been chosen to lead not only a city, but also his party and the remnants of the Democratic machine which still demonstrates a massive amount of party by working the same old coalitions that for decades have been it's strengthens. The mayor works enormously hard to keep his party together, and to continue to elect Democratic officials, despite his ignorance to the many real problems that all Upstate cities face as they lose population and their physical and social infrastructure is in decline.

The Mayor once was a reformer who wanted to upstage the ineptness of the city during his predecessor Michael Whalen's days, and he continues to hawken back to those glory days of the early 1990s. Yet, it's no longer 1993 nor are the problems facing the city the same as they once where. He wants to reform education, but he's come up empty handed. He's been pursuing alternatives to expand his garbage dump in the Pine Bush, but similarly can do nothing but expand once again into the Pine Bush. He passionate, but inept at what he does.

You may wonder who Mayor Jennings represents these days. It seems that he takes a lot of his support for granted, focusing largely on talking to conservative whites who live in the more wealthy suburban parts of the city. Today's reality is that minority population lives in the vast majority of the city and has become vastly more important as the city has lost population.

Even his support of the Democratic Party and Democratic virtues has to be questioned. He's been known to regularly support far right Republicans over Democrats, all in the name of either political expediency or doing what he claims is in the best interest of the city. His plans to expand the landfill into the most precious part of the Pine Bush seems contrary to all the environmental goals pursued by our party. His egotistical persona and unwillingness to accept other ideas seems contrary to the openness that we as a party seek to have.

Yet, for now he's our mayor and our leader of the Democratic Party. We must support him in the short run, and embrace the support he gives to us and the many good causes we represent. He's publicly suggested that his rein over Albany is coming to an end, possibly with him taking a good paying patronage job with Governor Spitzer. We will have to wait and see.