Mediaboss Marketing

RENSSELAER, N.Y. >> Three candidates will be running in the primary election to become the next mayor of Rensselaer.

Incumbent Democrat Daniel Dwyer will be running to keep the part-time position that he has had since being elected in 2006. However, Dwyer will have at least two Republican candidates trying to take his seat in November: Republican Carl Gottstein Jr. and the Republican Committee endorsed candidate is Jim Konstantakis.

Gottstein, 52, recently said that he wanted to run for mayor this year because he feels that the city has been in auto-pilot for many years, while Dwyer, 82, recently that he wanted to run again, so that he can finish things up that his administration has been working on.

Konstantakis, 67, said he officially announced that he was going to run as the endorsed Republican candidate after speaking to some people in the Republican Committee earlier in the year because he feels there are a lot of issues that need to be addressed in the city.

Advertisement

I wanted to help restore the citys image; police are without a contract, ambulance services stopped, we used to have five or six fire companies in the city and I think we have two now, he said. These are the people who serve and protect us and risk their lives for us every day. We have to look into getting them a fair and equitable contract in a more timely fashion. They have families to feed, too.

Konstantakis admitted that he has never run for any elected office position before. Before retiring Konstantakis said that he was in the newspaper business as a journalist and copy editor for about 30 years in Albany, Virginia and in the southern tier of New York. He is a native of Rensselaer and lived in the city for 33 years; he then left for 19 years before returning.

Even though Konstantakis knows that he has no real experience being a politician, he said that he gained enough experience about government and politics from his career as a journalist.

If youre in the newspaper business, you get to learn about education, politics, sports, the arts or whatever your job entails in the newspaper business and I worked in all departments, so I have an idea how government works, explained Konstantakis.

GOP Committee co-chair, Ernie Dambrose, said in a news release that the committee believes Konstantakis is the right person to lead the city into the future for many different reasons.

Jim is the perfect candidate for us. His honesty and integrity are surpassed by no one. He wont tell you what you want to hear, said Dambrose in the news release. Because of his professional experience, hell give you the facts from all angles and expects the same respect in return. Hes sincerely a candidate for the people, not the party.

Konstantakis said he is also concerned about steep increases in water and sewer rates in the city that have negatively affected residents and rate-payers. He said those increases reduce investment in the city.

I realize that our taxes havent gone up recently, in fact it just went up for the first time in a few years this past year, but our trash fees have gone up and our water fees have gone up, said Konstantakis. Yeah, our taxes are good right now, but all our fees are going up and people still end up paying more out of pocket

Konstantakis admitted that Dwyer has been doing an all right job during his tenure as mayor of the city, but he still feels like more could be done to better benefit the city.

Mayor Dwyer has done a fine job of running the City of Rensselaer for several terms now, but its time for a more progressive and aggressive approach to move the city forward in a more expedient way, Konstantakis said. The city needs to see energy at the top. Residents of Rensselaer have always been, and remain, proud of the citys heritage. Unfortunately, the citys image has been somewhat tarnished in recent years and we need to fix that. Im kinda tired of people calling us Rentlr.

Konstantakis also served for about five years on the Board of Directors of the Boys and Girls Club and said that another goal of his if elected would be to utilize his experience in athletics to boost youth programs in the city and create more family oriented programs.

In addition to playing baseball in a competitive mens league locally as well as national tournaments in Arizona and Florida, Konstantakis has been a member of the International Association of Approved Basketball Officials since 2002.

In 2015-16, he was also the assistant boys basketball coach for Rensselaer High Schools modified program and this year was the head coach of the JV baseball team at LaSalle Institute in Troy.

We need many more opportunities and community leadership for our youth, he said. Our future, our community and our country depend on it. I do not know what I would have done without our kind and generous neighbors, the Rensselaer Boys Club (now the Boys and Girls Club) and Little League to kick start my life.

See the original post here:
Republican candidates emerge in Rensselaer mayoral race - Troy Record