Harry Wilson has been a standout since he was a student at Johnstown High School: valedictorian, class president and the 1989 graduate voted "most likely to succeed."
Now that he's running for state comptroller, many people in Fulton County are eager to pull the lever for their hometown favorite on Election Day. But Wilson isn't the best choice for the position because he has local roots. He deserves your vote because he is a smart, competent and reform-minded candidate at a time when New York needs leaders with the talent and the will to fix its broken government.
Wilson has the financial expertise and the people skills necessary to make the comptroller position a bully pulpit for fiscal reform. With degrees from Harvard and years of experience on Wall Street, Wilson retired from his private finance career and answered the call to public service. As the only Republican on the team President Obama formed to overhaul the auto industry, Wilson helped restructure General Motors and save it from insolvency and its workers from unemployment. Meanwhile, it should be noted, he opposed the bailout of Chrysler, arguing it was less likely to succeed and thus a poor investment of taxpayer dollars.
As a self-made millionaire with blue-collar roots and experience and connections both upstate and downstate, Wilson is uniquely qualified to represent a diverse cross-section of New Yorkers.
Wilson's opponent, incumbent Democrat Thomas DiNapoli, was appointed to the job by the state Legislature after Alan Hevesi resigned amid an ethics scandal. DiNapoli has shown himself to be more honest and earnest than his predecessor, but he lacks the financial expertise necessary for developing and protecting the state's $125 billion pension fund and maximizing the effectiveness of the office's vast oversight apparatus. Prominent members of his own party have questioned his qualifications as comptroller.
Furthermore, as a former longtime member of the state Assembly, DiNapoli has ties to old-school Albany politics at a time when the state is desperate for independent thought and action.
With Democrat Andrew Cuomo heavily favored to win the gubernatorial race, the election of a conservative Republican as comptroller - especially one who has never held political office before - would provide a degree of balance.
Throughout the campaign, Wilson has shown a refreshing willingness to roll up his sleeves and dig into the mountain of problems facing New York, speaking not only in platitudes but articulating a vision for a practical, comprehensive financial overhaul. Reform is what voters are clamoring for, not only in Harry Wilson's hometown, but throughout the state.