She’s the University’s  “Other President” by Joel Blumenthal 

Early in her successful campaign last year to become the first woman ever elected president of the city of Albany’s Common Council, Helen Desfosses discovered some major differences between this and her previous campaigns for elected public office.  

      First of all, nobody ever publicly called her “Professor” Desfosses, as they had when she ran unsuccessfully for a spot on the Albany School Board in 1985, and for the State Assembly seat representing the City of Albany in 1992.  
     That speaks volumes about how the public perceptions have changed of both Desfosses, a political scientist who has been a University at Albany faculty member since 1978, and of the University, her employer.  
     A decided underdog when she announced her candidacy in May, Desfosses issued a Nixonian promise that if she lost this time, she would never run for office again. From that day on, Desfosses and her campaign manager/media guru, Libby Post, B.A.’82, M.A.’84, ran a near-perfect campaign.  
     Together, they pulled off what observers of Albany’s legendary O’Connell-Corning Democratic political machine consider one of the most amazing victories in recent memory. (See the story on Mayor Erastus Corning 2nd and his biographer, Paul Grondahl, M.A.’84, on pages 13-14 in this issue.)  
     Running in a Democratic primary where incumbent Mayor Jerry Jennings, M.S.’76, beat Assemblyman Jack McEneny by a margin of 59 to 41 percent, Desfosses—promising to be an “independent” leader of the city’s legislative body, the 15-member Common Council—defeated the incumbent Council president and mayoral ally, Robert Van Amburgh, 44 to 42 percent, or 9,083 votes to 8,639. A third candidate, Greg Burch, drew 2,912 votes, or 14 percent of the total.  
     Since registered Democrats outnumber Republicans in Albany by an 11-to-1 margin, victory in the primary was tantamount to election. Jennings was unopposed in the November general election, while Desfosses garnered about 75 percent of the total vote, with only token opposition from a Republican candidate and Van Amburgh, who remained on the ballot on a minor party line.  
     At the Fall Meeting of University faculty, Psychology Department Chair Mark Durand, who also serves as chair of the faculty, displayed an overhead slide of the news photos of Desfosses, and jokingly referred to Desfosses as “the University at Albany’s other president.” She began her four-year term on New Year’s Day.  
     Looking back on the campaign, Desfosses said, “I was serious about not running again if I lost. I figured if, the third time around, my message, delivered the best way I could deliver it, wasn’t acceptable to the voters, I’d explore other avenues to contribute, because I wasn’t going to leave Albany.”  
     Desfosses, 52, earned her Ph.D. in political science from Boston University. A specialist in comparative politics, she is a professor of Africana studies and of public administration and policy, as well as associate provost for educational development in the Graduate School of Public Affairs (GSPA). She has long been active in the University and Capital Region communities. The University, for example, named her a Collins Fellow, after former President Evan Collins, in 1992, and she has won awards from the Red Cross, Chamber of Commerce, and other community groups. Desfosses said the promise to leave politics if she lost this time “gave me a great feeling of freedom. I figured I’d just see what my friends do to keep themselves busy.”  
     Fortunately, Post said, “The University has become more community-based, especially under President Hitchcock.”  
     And, said Desfosses, being a political scientist “gave me credibility. Most of the press assumed I knew what I was talking about when I spoke about the need for ‘balance of power’ in city government,” she said. “‘Balance’ is a very American concept.”  
     While most of her fellow political scientists “either stay away from politics, or study it as a form of pathology,” Desfosses said, “I expect to learn a lot from being in office that I can bring to the classroom.” To make time for her new responsibilities, Desfosses has resigned from the many community boards on which she serves. She is continuing to carry a full teaching load, including an intensive new graduate course in February and March on campaigns and elections. She has also arranged for two GSPA interns to work in the Common Council offices.  
      Since her 1992 campaign, Desfosses had frequently appeared on local TV stations as a commentator and news analyst, and had a regular weekly commentary aired on public radio station WAMC-FM—chaired by fellow Albany faculty member Alan Chartock, and boasting a signal that blankets Albany and reaches the Hudson Valley, the North Country, and seven states.  
     Her media exposure, Desfosses said, was “invaluable in several ways—when I went door-to-door campaigning, or in debates, or in interviews. People knew who I was. I had better name recognition than the incumbent, from being active in the community, as a University faculty member and as an individual. And, from doing two-minute radio commentaries every week, I had learned to say smart things succinctly, and in a way that didn’t talk down to people.”  
     Post agreed, noting that in 1992, “Helen tried to prove how smart she was. This time, she ran on being approachable, and warm. When she went door-to-door, people knew who she was, while they didn’t know her opponent (Van Amburgh had never actually run for the office. He was elected by his fellow Common Council members, following the death of the previous president.).  
     In fact, Desfosses and Post learned early in their research, not only did most voters not know who the Common Council president was, they also didn’t know that they voted for the office, or what powers went with the $26,000-a-year, part-time position.  
So Desfosses and Post created a brochure, featuring a Sherlock Holmes-type cartoon detective on the cover, with the text, “Helen Desfosses wants you to know the three best kept secrets in Albany.” It said: “#1: You get to vote for the president of the Common Council; #2: The Common Council president is the city-wide voice for Albany’s neighborhoods, and #3: The Common Council president succeeds the mayor if anything should happen to him.”  
     As the campaign proceeded, Desfosses and Post focused on the need for an independent Common Council, and the important powers that rested with Council president, should that person choose to use them. A turning point came during a radio debate with Van Amburgh, when the incumbent admitted that he was not aware that the Council president had the power to appoint the members of the Board of Assessment  Review or Industrial Development Agency until Desfosses had informed him.  
From then on, Post said, “The campaign had a sense of harmonic convergence.” The door-to-door visits went well, and dozens of volunteers regularly came to help out. The campaign spent slightly over $50,000, but was able to avoid expensive radio and television ads.  
     As Primary Day approached, Desfosses racked up endorsements from every media outlet that issued them, including what she called “an extraordinarily strong one” from the Times Union, the Capital Region’s largest daily newspaper.  
But the ghosts of the old machine still were haunting Albany, because, as Desfosses said,  “With everything we had going for us, I still won by only about 400 votes.”  
Just before she took office,Desfosses said she viewed her new position as “another avenue for the University to interact with the community.”