I’m a fan of Mary Ellen Odell (MEO), not only for her impressive path to political power, but for her full-speed-ahead management style as County Executive of Putnam County the last 2-1/2 years, since she won a special election in November 2011. We haven’t encountered each other in too long a while. I regret the disconnect, because MEO’s the kind of high-energy, intellectually stimulating, always engaging presence I enjoy hobnobbing with. Besides, there’s that book...
That’s not to say I fully understand the tenor, or intent, of my friend’s latest press statement, a somewhat over-ripe reaction to New York state Sen. Greg Ball’s May 16 announcement that he will not seek re-election to his 40th district perch, nor seek to wrest the Republican nomination for her seat from the incumbent County Executive, nor run for any other office in this region in the foreseeable future. If somewhere there was one of those cheeky news headlines, "Ball Bounces Himself Off the Court," I guess I missed it.
There are slightly awkward turns of phrase that characterize the County Executive’s own May 16 pronouncement about Sen. Ball's announcement that, to my jaded journalist’s eye, at least, appear a tad gratuitous as well as superfluous.
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Curiously, the statement leads with the double negative of Ms. Odell saying she’s not surprised Mr. Ball would not challenge her in a primary to win the Republican nomination for her office “as she seeks re-election in November.”
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