Citizens for Roger Hull

See you at the Open Door Bookstore on Saturday

As noted in the Gazette today, I feel the Gazette is jeopardizing its role as an outside critic. We are poorly served by this partisan approach. Most people would tell you there are three branches of government the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches. Within and between them are the requisite checks and balances envisioned by our Founding Fathers. To many, though, the press has long been a fourth branch. Through the protections set forth in the First Amendment to ...the Constitution, the press has often provided the checks and balances when the official three branches have failed to do so. In Schenectady recently, the press The Daily Gazette has shed its role as a critic and has joined forces with the local executive and legislative branches. Some may welcome the change; I, for one, do not. Now, as anyone who has taken on the press knows, the challenge is generally a losing battle. As Mark Twain said: Never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel. Although the computer key has long since replaced the barrel of ink, the same principle applies. Still, some fights are worth taking on, even if they are losing ones. The newly espoused role of The Daily Gazette is one such battle. Under The Daily Gazette, I read during my first 25 years in Schenectady, we had a dispassionate, non-cheerleading role. Editors Art Clayman, Joe Slomka and Carl Strock took their shots at the city and those of us trying to get things done. (I know; I received my share of attacks.) Even when I disagreed with their viewpoints, I had no problem with them because they had no dog in the fight. This past fall, we learned The Gazette was an investor with the casino owner and developer in a housing project to improve further the College Park neighborhood. While the project is a good one, the question that remains unanswered is whether a newspaper can remain objective when it is partnering with those advancing a particular agenda. Now we learn the publisher of The Gazette is a member of the task force the mayor created on making Schenectady a Smart City. In and of itself, the task force is a good idea, and, I am sure, it will make important recommendations. Again, though, the unanswered question is how The Gazette can objectively assess what the task force recommends if its publisher is a member of the task force. The fourth branch of government the press has long served us well. It serves us far less well when it joins officially with the Executive and Legislative branches and abandons its role as critic. See more

For those of you who celebrated Hanukah, a belated Happy Hanukah; for those of you who celebrate Christmas, a Merry Christmas; and for all of you the very best for 2016! Let's continue the fight in the new year to end one-party rule in Schenectady and improve our city.

Now that the dust has (barely) settled, I want to thank those of you who supported my candidacy. Losing at anything is never fun; however, I can honestly say that, although I obviously lost the election, I did not lose because I met so many incredibly decent and hardworking people from Javier to Kathy to Nick to George to Mohamed to Romeo to Dawn and Phil to David to Tom to so many others. As I said repeatedly throughout the campaign, my run for mayor was neither made for career nor financial reasons but public service, nothing more and nothing less. The voters chose not to have me serve them. For that I am sorry, since I truly wanted to serve; and for those who worked with me, I am even more sorry, since we will not be working closely together as we have for these past months.