More appropriately Paul Newell was in the New York Sun today, being profiled as one of the candidates that is seeking to oust one of the three men in a room up in Albany, the infamous Sheldon Silver. Silver has been Assemblyman of District 64 for decades now and does so by bringing in the pork to some of parts of his district (like Wall Street) but he is a thorn in the side of the reform efforts that our state government so desperately needs. Paul Newell is one of two men looking to change the process and he was given the once over by the New York Sun.
From The NY Sun:
Blaming Speaker Sheldon Silver for thwarting an overhaul of the Rockefeller drug sentencing laws — "possibly the most destructive piece of legislation on the books," Mr. Newell said — he had looked forward to voting against the speaker.
His polling station, however, was closed because Mr. Silver, as usual, had no opponents. "I was thinking that somebody ought to challenge this guy," Mr. Newell said. Two election cycles later, Mr. Newell has quit his job as an AIDS awareness organizer for a South African NGO and is campaigning full-time against Mr. Silver, who represents a diverse district that encompasses the Lower East Side, Chinatown, and Wall Street.
"I need to get a few thousand people to vote for me," he said. "Sheldon Silver is a very powerful man in Albany. He's not that powerful downtown."
Mr. Newell is running on two issues: accountability and "affordable" housing, both of which, he said, Mr. Silver is against.
He accuses the speaker of "blocking development of 'affordable' housing in downtown for 20 years" and also blames him for "killing" congestion pricing, an issue, he said, that is "the perfect demonstration of Sheldon Silver's contempt for the democratic process and the concerns for Lower Manhattanites."
The article goes on to more mundane points such as where Paul went to high school, what he has done with his life since and his political experience campaigning for the once powerful Speaker of the House Tom Foley. However he is no Washington insider and certainly no Albany insider. Along with Luke Henry, either are much more able to change the status quo in our state capitol, because Shelly Silver is the epitome of the status quo.
|