The Empire Page

John Faso wrote an article in the Times-Union last Sunday, 29 November that struck a chord with me. In plain English, the man who has run for two elected offices, those of governor and state comptroller, clearly spelled out how New York State got itself into such a nasty fiscal mess. He then went on to explain, in detail, six actions New York State needs to take to make the necessary repairs to fix the dilemma.

I have only met John Faso socially on one occasion. He invited me to have dinner with him at the Fort Orange Club back in the summer of 2001 when he was running against Alan Hevesi for State Comptroller. The dinner meeting was arranged by Don Dunn, a former boss of mine while I was the Director of Contracts in the State Comptroller’s Office (OSC) under Ned Regan.

John Faso was doing his due diligence in finding out everything he could about the operations for OSC. Since I had served 29 years with OSC, most of which being in high level, policy making positions, he decided to pick my brain to learn more about OSC. In my positions there I was privy to some very high exposure and controversial issues. I also was aware of where many of the skeletons were hidden if you will.

I gained a measure of respect for him when he never used any of the “dirt” I related to him at that dinner meeting in his campaign. He stayed above the fray and took the high road. In addition, my assessment of him is that he is a very intelligent, articulate and caring person. Other than what I gleaned during the meeting with him I did not know much about John Faso; but I have followed his career and his attempts at winning statewide elected office.

My belief now is that he may have been the best candidate for both of the statewide elected offices for which he ran. First he lost to Alan Hevesi, who resigned in disgrace and is still at the center of a “pay for play” contracts scandal. He next ran against Eliot Spitzer for governor and we all know how that ended. Now try to imagine if John Faso had won the race against the infamous Client Number 9. Based on his article referred to above, New York State would have already been working at fixing its fiscal mess since 2006. We’d have been at it already for over three years now.

Both Hevesi and Spitzer had better name recognition than Faso and I believe that was his ultimate undoing, not that he wasn’t qualified for the offices. John Faso has the credentials. He’s a man who grew up in NYC but has lived in Kinderhook for a couple decades, so he has an appreciation for both the needs of downstate and upstate New Yorkers. He was also the minority leader in the Assembly and ceded that position to run for State Comptroller in 2002. So he has an intimate knowledge of the State Legislature which is crucial.

As voters in New York State, we need to look past the hype when it comes to candidates for our statewide elected offices. Eliot Spitzer was very high profile, but there also is a reason no Attorney General in New York State had ever been elected governor in the history of New York State. Attorney Generals don’t make for good governors. They are law enforcement animals; they don’t play nice in the political sandbox. The governor needs to be a diplomat and a person who knows when to “hold’em and when to fold’em”. Please keep this in mind when we are being hyped to death to elect Andrew Cuomo, the current Attorney General, as our governor.

I will follow up this article with a recap of the article by John Faso with my takes on why I think his six step plan may just be a blueprint for fixing New York’s fiscal mess. In the interim, take a look at the article.

Douglas Boettner

Doug.boettner@gmail.com