Speaking of Africans Americans who are major players and need to behave as if they are major players – would folks please help Aldermanic President Lewis Reed to learn that he is, in fact, president of the Board of Aldermen? That he is president of the Board of Aldermen – and one of only three members of the City’s powerful chief fiscal body, the Board of Estimate and Apportionment – rather than just a parochial, powerless alderman?
A lot of people worked hard on Lewis’ campaign. If he ends up as a one-termer, what a waste. This is a moment of very special opportunity in the black community. And, if Reed doesn’t show some measure of the guts shown by the rest of the black community on the Slay leadership issue, that’s what he will be. A one-termer.
Lewis is a smart man who will find a job if he leaves politics, voluntarily or involuntarily. But if his political legacy is to leave folks shaking their head and saying, “I told you so” about Jim Shrewsbury’s independence from Slay, that would be more than a little embarrassing. It also would be an enormous set-back for black politics in the city.
Anyone whose political star rises or sets based upon Lewis’ success (everyone knows who endorsed him, vouched for him, gave him money) had better step in fast. One-termers have a way of creating more one-termers – and NO-termers!