Welcome !
And, thanks for coming.
I hope you find your visit stimulating, informative and personally fulfilling. If you have ANY questions, suggestions or find distasteful...please let us know what it is ASAP.
I'd like to be able to boast that I found Kingston...UlsterCountyUSA [NY]
But, to be honest with you, Kingston, NY found ME. Literally.
I'd been driving north on Route 9W looking for an elevation from which my boom box might pick up an afternoon-long, weekly civics lecture on a radio station of unknown origin.
Suddenly, there it was! Amidst the lush greenery and gleaming white church steeples of what I later learned was originally the thriving seaport of Wiltwyck, now Kingston's downtown, or Rondout, the name of the deep water creek which, several hundred yards east meanders into Henry Hudson's estuary.
"Rush Limbaugh and I have at least one thing in common," I began a presentation to the 33-member Ulster County legislature. Titters. Raised eyebrows. Sheepish grins. A couple visible forward shifts in their seats. Heads cocked to make sure they'd heard correctly.
"We were both sent by God."
As the laughter died down, I added, "I know it's something important, but I haven't the faintest idea what it is."
I'd got hooked on Ulster County politics my first week as a Kingston resident; I've attended to the bitter end 90 percent of the legislatures' monthly sessions and caucuses; not to mention countless committee and sub-committee meetings.
"Yuck," you emend. Hey, they're far more engrossing than television!
But ME run for political office? Not on your life. For years I'd claimed that no one, single-handedly, not even the president, could clean up the mess in Washington. Nor our state capital, Albany. No state capital.
But, April, 2007, almost nine years later, I found my niche, until that moment out of sight.
My mission: to become Ulster County's first-ever chief executive.
The so-called "charter commission" had turned over to the county legislature for fine tuning and endorsement its 70-page, recommended, new county law. The chairman appointed legislators to the Charter Committee.
I sat in on every meeting leading up to November, 2006's referendum. I tape recorded every word and sold to several libraries professionally produced audio cassette packages. I arranged for and facilitated three public discussions: New Paltz's Elting, Library; Town of Kingston Town Hall and at a North Front Street, Kingston, bar and grill.
By a close margin, voters approved the Charter as presented. And, so, come January 1, 2009, Ulster will have a new law. And, for the first time ever, a county-wide elected chief executive; and an independent comptroller with subpoena power.
Opponents' major objection seemed to be the enormous power the Charter bestows upon the county executive. Through all the debate, I maintained that that power needn't be used preferentially or without the incumbent, before making a decision, seeks adequate, balanced counsel.
I'd overlooked the politics of the situation. Suddenly I foresaw that power wielded not by the elected county executive, but by his victorious political party boss. Such would be worse than impervious to the voters. He needing but to shrug off complaints with the lie, "Hey, look. Talk to the county executive. I don't tell him what to do; I have no say in government. I'm only party chairman."
No matter which party won, I saw that as the final nail in the coffin: forever guaranteeing an opaque Ulster County Government.
Fruitlessly, I awaited a white knight to come charging to the fore. April, 2007, seeing that no truly independent candidate had volunteered, I prepared my platform and announced my candidacy.
Unlike my opponents and their political party bosses, I don't need to win. I don't need the money. Nor the presumed glory of the office.
But, don't missunderstand: I WANT to win. More than I've ever wanted anything in my life. And I shall do everything within my power, legally to do so. Why? you might ask.
Immediately and continually through five, distinct conduits, as my 19-point platform describes, I shall give back that extraordinary power to all the people, from whence that power derived, in 1776.
For the first time in history, Ulster voters will be the beneficiaries of a true, democratic, county election.
Allan Wikman is the only "no excuses possible" candidate. He has no political party boss to blame; nor to whom to report. No special interest groups to placate. He owes no favors. He has no hidden financial backers. No Political Action Cmmittees. No "527s."
Besides, he accepts as a campaign contribution no more than twenty ($20-) dollars from any one donor.
"But," you ask, "why should I donate even a dollar to Allan's campaign? I don't live in Ulster County. Not even New York State? What's in it for ME?"
Excellent question. GLAD you asked.
Are you suggesting that Allan Wikman, in little Ulster County, NY, is the only U.S. citizen among 3,400 U.S. counties who objects to politicians' having stolen our federal, state and local governments? The only citizen who, given the opportunity, would reverse the trend?
The changes Wikman aims to achieve are so startlingly unusual, so remarkable, that once he and his administration begin accomplishing them, the national media will be compelled to acknowledge them...to direct its audiences' attention to this beacon of promise.
You, then, and hundreds of your fellow civic optimists are going to want to learn how Ulster is doing it. You'll want to learn "how WE can do it, here."
You invite us, we'll visit you. Simple as that. We'll show you what we did, how we did it, how you may also.
Whatever that's worth to you...twenty dollars, $10-, one dollar...right now will help us return Ulster County
government to all the people.
Who knows? Some day YOU may crave the opportunity to do the same, yourself.
And, we'll come a running. Count on it.
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