Sheehan names McEneny, Smith as campaign co-chairs
Napier named as campaign manager
ALBANY, N.Y. (April 10, 2017) — Albany Mayor Kathy M. Sheehan has named former Assemblymember Jack McEneny and City School District of Albany Board Member Vickie Smith as co-chairs of her re-election campaign.
“Jack and Vickie — who embody the diversity of our city’s fabric and its history — will help guide my re-election campaign as we continue the progress we started four years ago to move Albany forward to its next great chapter,” said Mayor Sheehan.
McEneny served twenty years in the New York State Assembly, representing Albany. He has served in numerous roles in government, including as Commissioner of Human Resources under Mayor Erastus Corning 2nd and at one point managed over 3,300 workers. A former Albany County Historian, he began his career in public service in 1965 as a social services caseworker in the City of Albany. He has served as an Albany County Legislator, an Assistant Albany County Executive, the first full-time director of the New York State Urban Cultural Parks Program (now Heritage Areas), and is the author of Albany: Capital City on the Hudson.
“Kathy Sheehan has been committed to our community for thirty years. From her days as a student, through her career in the private sector, and the public service to which she has committed herself today, Kathy has been a leader who is dedicated to Albany. She has made great strides in the past four years as Mayor, and I am proud to stand with her as co-chair of her campaign,” said McEneny.
Smith, most recently named as board secretary for the City School District of Albany, was first elected to the school board in 2015 for a one-year term, followed by a four-year term starting in 2016. Smith, a current employee of the State Education Department, was a member of the initial Albany Community Police Relations Board established under Mayor Whalen in 1988. She has worked with a variety of community organizations around equity and access including The Legal Project to ensure low income access to free legal services; Holding Our Own: A Fund for Women to advance feminist social and economic change through philanthropy; the Employee Ownership Project to support and develop employee-owned businesses; and the Feminist Action Network to increase AIDS awareness in the Black and Latino community.
“I wholeheartedly and proudly share in the vision that Mayor Sheehan articulated for our great city of Albany at the start of her first term — a vision of justice, a vision of equity ‘where every resident in every neighborhood has access and opportunity to a good quality of life.’ Every day under her steadfast leadership and collaboration with a myriad of partners, she is tackling neighborhood by neighborhood the economic, racial, and social inequalities that impede opportunity. Purposefully and deliberately this vision is coming to fruition and progress is happening! I am committed to seeing that progress continue,” said Smith.
Additionally, Sheehan has named Steve Napier as campaign manager. Napier, a Cohoes council member and veteran of regional and state-level campaigns, will lead Sheehan’s re-election effort.
For more information about Mayor Sheehan and her campaign, visit sheehanforalbany.com.
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