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SCHENECTADY
Council leader McCarthy thrives on challenge
Democrat cut political teeth on election thrashings in ’70s
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

    Gary McCarthy didn’t intend to go into politics.
    The first three campaigns he worked on were miserable losses.
    Which is why, of course, he was inspired to throw himself wholeheartedly into the blood sport of local politics. He spent much of his adult life as city and county Democratic chairman and has now returned to political leadership as president of the City Council.
    “I think it’s part of his DNA,” said county Clerk John Woodward, who worked with McCarthy as a young Democrat in the 1970s.
    McCarthy bounced back from the first losses in 1976, in which he tried to get others elected, and decided to run his own campaign. At the age of 21 in 1977, he tried to get onto the Schenectady Democratic Committee. That went as well as his earlier campaigns.
    “I was knocked on my rear end,” he said.
    Two years later, he got onto the committee. Then he took a powerful job in the District Attorney’s Office, working as an investigator.
    And by the time he turned 30, he was elected county Democratic Committee chairman, in charge of every campaign in Schenectady County.
    Only McCarthy could be so fired up by his early losses that he was inspired to take over the Democratic Committee, colleagues said. They laughed, but they weren’t quite joking. McCarthy is scarily serious about politics, they said, because he never treats it as a game.
    “He played hardball, but he did it for the right reasons,” Woodward said.
    When he took over, Republican voters outnumbered Democrats 2 to 1. In some parts of the county, it was 3 to 1. When he stepped down a decade later in 1996, Democrats dominated.
GROUND FLOOR
    His first focus was the party’s terrible record of primaries.
    “Historically, whoever the Democratic Party endorsed, those candidates would lose,” he said.
    His solution: make the party so powerful, so effective, that its campaigns would be the winning ones.
    “We were one of the first ones that were computerized,” McCarthy said. “We became more sophisticated in direct mail. Things that are considered standard today, we were doing 20 years ago.”
    Richard Stearn, then Niskayuna Democratic chairman, developed databases that allowed the Demo- crats to send out mailings with pinpoint accuracy to those who could be persuaded by the messages.
    McCarthy prepared candidates for years before throwing them into a countywide race. He mentored Woodward, advising him to attend as many functions as possible throughout the county, two years before backing Woodward for county clerk.
    Without McCarthy, Woodward said, he would never have won the seat.
    “It was a little bit of a risk for him to support me,” Woodward said, noting that City Council President Tom Isabella, a well-known Democrat, also wanted the seat. He would have been the safer political choice, Woodward said.
    But even if Isabella had a better chance of winning, McCarthy felt Woodward would be the better clerk, Woodward said.
    “Gary, in his own way, is very idealistic. He wants to stand fi rm on principle,” Woodward said. “He wanted to have people who don’t want to hold public office, they want to do something.”
    Woodward won the primary, and then beat the Republican for the seat.
    It was the beginning of a surge. Under McCarthy, the Democrats won every single countywide race they entered.
    With those successes, McCarthy became known as the Party Boss — a name that conjures up images of back room dealing and hardball politics.
    The reputation dogged him for years, hurting him when he gave up the post in 1996 and returned to politics as a city councilman.
    In 1999, after four years on the City Council, he ran for mayor against Al Jurczynski. A poll found that voters knew McCarthy all too well.
    “There was no swing group,” he said. “People either loved me or hated me. Obviously more of them hated me.”
    He lost the race, which left him without any political position. The City Council sent him to the Industrial Development Agency, where he worked to repair the bankrupt agency rather than vanishing to lick his wounds.
    He suspects the “party boss” label is part of the reason why he lost — and Republicans think so too.
    “There is no question Gary was considered by a lot of Republicans to be the incarnation of evil,” said Republican Brad Lewis, who now works with McCarthy on the Metroplex Development Authority board.
    “Pulling all the strings, always had a hidden agenda, very hardnosed — that was a good part of the image then,” Lewis said.
GETTING IT DONE
    Several Republicans on the Metroplex board were prepared for trouble when the City Council appointed McCarthy to the board in 2003. They were in for a surprise.
    “I have not experienced any of the original caricature,” Lewis said.
    Not that McCarthy was easy to work with.
    Metroplex Chairman Ray Gillen said McCarthy’s real strengths are his willingness to openly discuss problems and take the lead on solving them. In other words — he doesn’t hold back if criticism is warranted.
    “He’s willing to publicly criticize things,” Gillen said. “He gave us a really hard time.”
    His willingness to raise issues publicly directly contradicted his public image, in which he was expected to bring up problems secretly. “He really is the antithesis of that back-room guy,” Gillen said.
    McCarthy pushed for more detailed resolutions at Metroplex meetings, objecting to vague language and arguing for more measurement of results. The issue was also raised in a state comptroller’s audit of the agency.
    “He’s a watchdog, really,” Gillen said. “A fiscal watchdog in the best sense of the word, a constructive, collaborative way.”
    McCarthy is still on the Metroplex board. He ran for City Council in 2005 and became its leader this year. The position can be powerful, if the president tries to be a true leader. But some presidents have served as ceremonial leaders while letting council members set their own agendas.
    McCarthy said he doesn’t plan to let the council go in seven different directions.
    Colleague Sharon Jordan, now director of operations at City Hall, said McCarthy has for decades followed a strict system for leading boards to decisions.
    He makes the problem clear. He listens while everyone else debates solutions. Then he writes up a compromise and calls for a vote.
    “We wouldn’t go on for days and days,” she said. “He usually had a resolution — you have to have structure or it will go out of control.”
    She didn’t object to his strong leadership. “You want someone who’s really going to be able to rally the troops. He was able to bring everybody together and get a consensus.” ...................>>>>....................>>>>................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01700&AppName=1

“Gary, in his own way, is very idealistic. He wants to stand fi rm on principle,” Woodward said. “He wanted to have people who don’t want to hold public office, they want to do something.”
    Woodward won the primary, and then beat the Republican for the seat.


which republican? last i knew he ran unopposed and should walk right in again- (2006 election)



hey gazette! YOU SUCK!!

Gary McCarthy-fiscal conservative? lol-only in Schenectady. Next to the rubber stamps on City Council he does look better.

    Little Sal JW did have both a CONS {Tom Isabella} and REP opponent {Nick Barber} the first time he ran. Last time, no opponent. What else is new?

    Maybe Gary is looking at State Senate or Assembly-given this hilarious puff piece. He would fit in over there. Since Mark B is moving up {to City Court}-maybe it's time for Gary?

any opponent this year?