Ugliness erupts when liberal Albany Democrats clash – Albany Times Union

Albany Common Council member Judd Krasher (Times Union archive)

Albany Common Council member Judd Krasher (Times Union archive)

Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan (Will Waldron/Times Union)

Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan (Will Waldron/Times Union)

Frank Commisso Jr., an Albany Common Council member who is running in the Democratic mayoral primary (Will Waldron / Times Union)

Frank Commisso Jr., an Albany Common Council member who is running in the Democratic mayoral primary (Will Waldron / Times Union)

Albany City Council President Carolyn McLaughlin who is running in the Democratic mayoral primary(Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Albany City Council President Carolyn McLaughlin who is running in the Democratic mayoral primary(Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Ugliness erupts when liberal Albany Democrats clash

If you need more evidence that the nastiness of national politics exists locally, look no further than the Facebook vitriol Maureen O'Brien threw at Judd Krasher.

For those of you who don't follow Albany politics and are no doubt happier for it O'Brien is co-chair of the supposedly progressive RFK Club and secretary of the Albany County Democratic Committee.

Krasher, meanwhile, is a sitting member of the Common Council. He's also gay and has made no secret of his decision to participate in "conversion therapy," which claims to make gay men straight, when he was 18 and growing up in Berne.

That was the basis for the attack by O'Brien, who is apparently upset that Krasher isn't backing several female council candidates.

O'Brien wrote: "Judd Krasher. We know your family is ashamed of you. Don't take it out on good people."

That's ugly, but O'Brien wasn't done. In a series of subsequent comments, she went on to call Krasher "a sorry little sad sack" and "a narcissistic little whiney man" before somehow finding it within herself to type this (the typos are hers):

"Poor baby forgets what it's like to be a minority whose family sent him to therapy to 'fix him.' But I a syspect it's a different fixing he needs."

As you can imagine, all this was plenty upsetting to Krasher, and his mother, Bonnie Krasher, was even more outraged. She saw O'Brien's words as an attack on the whole family, which, to be clear, was not involved in Krasher's choice to seek conversion therapy.

"We don't want to be portrayed like that," Bonnie Krasher told me. "We never turned on him because he was gay. We are the furthest thing from ashamed of Judd."

Krasher and O'Brien are both very liberal. But Krasher believes he's being attacked because he has refused to toe the progressive line. Most notably, he's supporting Commisso over Sheehan.

"It's part of this ongoing pattern of behavior from these self-professed progressives who are unbelievably intolerant of dissenting opinion," Krasher said. "They will say anything to silence dissenting views."

O'Brien did not respond to a request for comment.

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Is anybody else surprised that the Albany mayoral race has been so quiet?

That may change as the contest we're talking about the Democrat primary enters its final stretch before the Sept. 12 vote.

Of course, incumbents always have a huge advantage in Albany, where a sitting mayor hasn't been toppled since James Henry Blessing defeated Thomas Van Alstyne in that shocker 118 years ago.

But the seeming serenity thus far would seem to be an added advantage for Mayor Kathy Sheehan, whose two primary opponents, Frank Commisso Jr. and Carolyn McLaughlin, have struggled to find issues that resonate with voters.

I'm not sure that most Albany residents feel that the city is better than four years ago, but I haven't seen either Commisso or McLaughlin give voters a compelling reason to turn against the sitting mayor.

There's still time.

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If you're one of those people who insist there's no diversity in suburbia, I'd suggest a visit to Zaitoon Kitchen. The halal eatery sits on a stretch of Route 2 in Latham that is emerging as a small hub for great food.

Like many Colonie businesses, Zaitoon is tapping into the growing diversity of the town.

According to census data, 10.3 percent of Colonie's population is foreign-born, with more than half of the immigrants from Asia. By comparison, 11.5 percent of residents of Albany were born outside the country.

Yes, the city is more diverse overall, but the stereotype claiming that suburbia is whiter than Wonder Bread is badly outdated.

cchurchill@timesunion.com 518-454-5442 @chris_churchill

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Ugliness erupts when liberal Albany Democrats clash - Albany Times Union