Joseph Comella never had any desire to run for the Albany County Legislature, but after he read the book “If Not Now, When? If not me, Who?,” a book about a man who was awarded congressional honor, he decided it was time for him to effect some change.
“We need to effect some change,” Comella, a resident of Colonie, said. “I decided to take it upon myself and be more active and effect change.”
Comella, a Republican, is vying for a seat that is currently being vacated by Democrat Ryan Horstmyer in the 25th Legislative District and is running against Democrat Joe O’Brien. He doesn’t see it as having a single opponent, though, but sees the entire county legislature as his opponent.
It is upsetting to see the lack of legislators that are running unopposed, Comella said, as 26 of the 39 are currently uncontested. This is something that Comella said makes him a bit disgusted.
“I think what we have down there is a bunch of people who have a club to themselves,” he said. “These people don’t have to do what I’m doing, which is going door to door and making phone calls to raise money to win. Are we getting out of people what they deserve?”
He understands that it is not all just democrats in the legislature, as there are some republicans, but he feels there is not enough debate or another side to the arguments. The republicans generally do not have enough time to research most resolutions, he said, as many don’t see until the day of or even the night of the note.
“In order to have a democracy, we need opposition,” he said. “There needs to be debate.”
He said the legislature is ineffective and isn’t working to its full potential. There isn’t enough being done to crack down on Medicaid and Medicare providers in fraud cases, he said. Also, he believes Albany County Comptroller Mike Conners should have subpoena powers to go after those committing fraud.
“If we can pursue that and catch those people, we would be getting millions of dollars back to the taxpayers,” he said.
Comella also believes that there is nothing wrong with having a nursing home run by the county, but he said it is managed in an inefficient way. He said he would like to be a part of an organization that would look to run the nursing home more efficiently.
The county is in need of more labor intensive jobs, Comella said. Even though it is nice to have all of these new high-tech jobs moving into the area, he understands that not everyone will be capable of doing that work.
“We need to bring in more manufacturing businesses that give people a purpose,” he said. “I think that is important to life… There are still a lot of little factories in NYC, but it costs less to do business up here.”
Comella is involved in a lot of community work. He considers himself a social liberal and an activist in some ways. He is currently a member of the Board of the Center for Organ Donation and Transplant; he is on the executive board at the Pruyn House Historical site, is a former president of the Latham rotary club and was also on the Parent Teach Association in the North Colonie Central School District.
“I’ve always been an activist and I have always been involved,” he said.
A lot of his experience comes from his time in the 27th Armored Division, where he learned about what it takes to be a leader, and also being a Licensed Financial Advisor, which he said lends him his financial expertise. He wants to implement a plan for Albany County, but he wants to make sure that it goes through.
“A failure to plan is a plan to fail,” he said. “It’s important and should apply to not only our lives but to the government as well.”