Michael Donnelly’s name will appear on the ballot for the 50th District State Senate seat as the Green Party candidate in the November election.
But he does not appear to be campaigning.
Donnelly, a lawyer from DeWitt, has not updated his campaign website, except for one video, since he ran for the 119th State Assembly District seat in 2010. He has not responded to over 20 interview requests for this story, to messages left at his address listed with the New York State Board of Elections, nor to messages left with family members and friends. Other Green Party officials also acknowledge that they could not answer how to reach him
“That’s the million-dollar question,” said Scott McLarty, media coordinator for the national Green Party of the United States, with a laugh. Others in the party also have not been able to reach Donnelly, he said.
Donnelly’s name will definitely be in the ballot for the 50th State Senate District, according to election officials. He is the only challenger for incumbent Sen. John. A. DeFrancisco, R-Syracuse. The district includes parts of Onondaga and Cayuga counties, as well as Auburn, Manlius, Clay and Ira. Of the district’s 193,296 voters, 35 percent are registered as Republicans and 32 percent are Democrats. The Green Party has 417 registered voters. The election is Nov. 6.
Family members and others who know him well describe Donnelly as quiet, intelligent and dedicated. Some acknowledged his absence from the campaign trail without giving an explanation for it.
Donnelly is the quiet type, said his mother, Mary Ann Donnelly. “He thinks about everything very carefully. He is the smartest person I know,” Mary Ann Donnelly said. “I tell him he is too smart for his own good.”
He is from a family of lawyers. Both of his parents went to Harvard Law School. His father, Samuel Donnelly, taught at Syracuse University’s College of Law. His mother, Mary Ann Donnelly, taught at LeMoyne College’s business school. Two of his six siblings are also lawyers. Michael Donnelly has his law degree from Indiana University.
He has a longtime interest in politics, said his mother. “We had discussed politics his whole life – it was a common topic,” Mary Ann Donnelly said.
Kathleen Pugh, a childhood friend of Michael Donnelly and Green Party state committee member from Onondaga County, recalls Michael Donnelly as being introspective, quite and reserved. “But when he speaks, it’s decided. He knows his mind and what he’s planning on saying. Although he did not talk a lot when we were kids,” said Pugh, “periodically we would be talking about something and he’ll make a statement that clarifies everything,”
She has known Donnelly since they were 11 years old, she said, and has supported his campaign for state Senate since he accepted the Green Party’s nomination.
For the 50th State Senate election, Donnelly added a video to his website in the spring of 2012 after he decided to run for the state Senate seat. In the video Donnelly, wearing a green T-shirt with a sketch of a figure carrying an anvil under a flannel shirt and leather jacket, offers sharp criticism of incumbent DeFrancisco but no specific proposals of his own. He singles out DeFrancisco’s vote against a marriage bill authorizing same-sex marriage as his “main kick against” DeFrancisco.
This video is Donnelly’s main visibility in the campaign. DeFrancisco told The Post-Standard that he has only seen Donnelly twice – once at a Manlius Chamber of Commerce’s candidate forum and once at the LaFayette Apple Festival where Donnelly was spotted eating with his family.
Fellow Green Party member Howie Hawkins confirmed that Donnelly wants to defend marriage equality and is interested in more progressive taxation to cover the cost of public service. Donnelly has been to forums where he has been invited where he talks about his political stance, said Hawkins.
“He is most passionate about having public defenders for people who cannot afford It on their own and providing more support for those people,” Hawkins said.
(Kristen Beatty is a senior with dual majors in broadcast journalism and political science.)
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