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Press and Sun Bulletin Editorial July 17, 2001: Cheevers lacks fortune but not a good cause Jack Cheevers has the proverbial snowball's chance in hell of becoming governor of New York, but that doesn't mean he shouldn't run. If he can get the big-money candidates to pay even a little serious attention to systemic problems that plague New York and its beleaguered citizens, he will have performed a valuable public service. That's a mighty big "if," of course. The special interest groups that control politics and politicians aren't interested in systemic change because the system works great for them. They speak very loudly in the form of large campaign contributions, and they expect (and receive) favors in return once the office-seeker becomes an office-holder. Cheevers is the Town of Union Supervisor and president of an Endicott brokerage firm. As a Democrat, he joins a field dominated by state Comptroller H. Carl McCall and former U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo, son of former governor Mario Cuomo. The winner of the Democratic nomination will have to challenge Gov. George Pataki. Cuomo has raised an estimated $4.6 million in five months. Pataki has stockpiled $12 million (50 percent more than he had stashed away at this point four years ago). McCall has an amount somewhere in between -- and there's still another year of fund-raising to go. In 1998, politicians spent more than $40 million on the gubernatorial race. Next year's projection: $92 million. "We won't be able to match them money-wise, but we might surprise some people with what we get," Cheevers said. Chasing money could of course put Cheevers in the same position: a debtor to special interests. He'd be better off running a modest campaign structured on common sense reform, starting with the state budget process. "We've got to have a fundamental change in the way the budget is handled," Cheevers said. He's right, and if he keeps making that point, and a few others about the way Albany doesn't work, he will gain the attention of some of those beleaguered citizens. He might even compel (or shame?) the major candidates into addressing those issues in a meaningful way, rather than giving them the usual lip service. It's a longshot, but one worth taking. It's unlikely anyone else in the governor's race will be able to hear the voices of the citizens. |
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