Long-time Democratic political activist Andy Fardy, a frequent contributor to OIB, has registered as an unaffiliated voter after 48 years as a registered Democrat. Wednesday afternoon both Fardy, who served for many years as a member of the Democratic Town Committee, and his wife Pat, a former member of the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission, changed their affiliation. For many years Fardy was a key cog of the city’s Democratic political organization from the Upper East Side. He has been a persistent critic of Mayor Bill Finch in particular and the local Democratic Party in general. His statement follows:
I can no longer be part of a party that buys elections, ignores the voters wishes and ignores the charter.
This is the party that allowed a sitting senator’s district to be chopped up while he (Ed Gomes) was in the hospital so that they could get one of their yes men elected. This is a party that allows a person receiving money from the BOE for a pre-K program to sit on the BOE.
This is the most self-centered , egotistical group of people that is now in office. This group fires people for no reason yet hires people for $100+ for a made-up job like liaison with the BOE. This is a group that tries to blackmail an employee with 33 years of service and who is undergoing a kidney transplant. The list goes on and on.
My wife and I do not wish to be members of a party that for all intent and purposes cares nothing about people’s rights and their right to vote. They buy elections and bastardize the absentee ballots process without worrying about being punished significantly.
It’s a shame what this party has turned itself into.
Andy & Pat Fardy
Andy Fardy, we have bumped heads over the years but on this move and your comments I agree with you.
*** You’ll be back come a big political primary; besides you can check out but you can never leave, no? ***
TC, I had you as a Republican all this time!
Andy,
Congratulations to Pat and you on your action. You have dedicated countless hours to a political group whose commitment to “all of the people” has changed over the years. You and I have seen how very personal interest surfaces regularly with our elected (and appointed) fellow citizens. The definitions of ethical behavior have been so weakened by interpretation in this City and by ignorance (in the absence of training for at least four years), goings on that would have real consequences elsewhere, receive merely raised eyebrows if anything in this City.
If a party does not routinely behave in a manner that commands support and pays no attention to your status in a District as a member/voter/community activist, it does not deserve your regular membership. Their loss, it seems to me. Not as if you can’t choose in the future to more easily join a party as an unaffiliated voter to vote in their primary at the last moment, than it is to go from one party to another and then return. Just the way it is.
My wife and I have our registration forms to unaffiliate as Democrats also, though we do not have the considerable time and energy investment in party affairs as you have. Maybe it will catch on. Most of the people in our community are not being heard, are too frequently not allowed to publicly speak, and are not generally served by the ‘special interest’ orientation of many elected representatives who state no goals and no results for the voters to hold them to. Time will tell.
Good luck being a real instrument of change from the outside looking in.
Pick up the phone.