A Watertown Post featured image showing Cliff Olney during a public meeting, as discussion grows over what kind of leadership Watertown may need in the 2027 mayoral race
By Hans Wilder | Watertown Post Opinion
WATERTOWN, N.Y. — As Watertown begins looking toward the 2027 mayoral race, there is one name that deserves serious discussion, even if the politics surrounding that name are complicated: Cliff Olney.
Olney is no stranger to City Hall. He served on the Watertown City Council, regularly found himself in the middle of its biggest fights and has never shown much interest in quietly sitting in the corner while everybody else makes decisions. During his political career, Olney has identified at various times with different political camps and, more recently, described himself as an independent progressive. Watertown’s municipal elections themselves are officially nonpartisan.
That combination makes Olney particularly interesting heading toward 2027.
You do not have to agree with Cliff Olney on everything to recognize something about the guy: he appears genuinely interested in Watertown’s future. He talks about the city. He argues about the city. He gets aggravated about the city. He has fought City Hall while literally sitting inside City Hall.
That is considerably different from simply accepting that Watertown is getting older, poorer and harder to maintain and then figuring out how best to manage the decline.
And that brings us to what the Watertown Post calls the Golden Age question.
The political and economic environment around Northern New York is changing. Watertown is represented in Congress by Republican Claudia Tenney in New York’s 24th Congressional District. Tenney maintains a Watertown satellite office and represents western Jefferson County, including the city.
Meanwhile, immediately next door in NY-21, Republican Anthony Constantino won the Republican primary this summer and is now the party’s nominee for the November congressional election. He is not Watertown’s congressional representative, and whether he reaches Congress will be decided by voters in November. But NY-21 contains much of the rest of Northern New York, including parts of Jefferson County, making whoever holds that seat an important regional figure for Watertown as well.
That creates an interesting question for somebody like Cliff Olney.
What happens when a politician with progressive instincts discovers that some of the things he wants for Watertown might overlap with priorities coming from a Republican federal government?
Infrastructure. Manufacturing. Housing. Development. Energy. Fort Drum. Downtown investment. Regional transportation. Private capital. Federal projects. Bringing people and businesses back into communities that have spent decades watching population and opportunity drift away.
Those issues do not necessarily fit neatly inside the old Republican-versus-Democrat box, particularly in a city whose local elections do not even put party labels on the ballot.
Olney has already demonstrated an interest in issues beyond simply balancing next year’s spreadsheet. Years before the current mayoral discussion, he publicly called for the city to develop a plan addressing homelessness and affordable housing.
The disagreement is over how Watertown gets from Point A to Point B.
There is a political philosophy in Watertown, including among some Republicans, that seems to amount to managing what remains. Keep things running. Patch another road. Find another fee. Raise another rate. Cut something when the numbers no longer work. Hold another meeting about why nothing can be done.
That is management.
Development is something different.
The alternative philosophy asks what Watertown could become if Northern New York aggressively pursued outside investment, federal relationships, energy development, housing construction, tourism, transportation and the economic potential sitting right outside the gates of Fort Drum.
That is essentially what this newspaper means when we talk about a Golden Age approach to Watertown.
It does not require Cliff Olney to suddenly wake up tomorrow morning wearing a red MAGA hat and carrying a Claudia Tenney yard sign down Washington Street.
It requires recognizing where the opportunities are and being willing to work with the people controlling the levers that can help make those opportunities real.
And yes, there is another question hanging over 2027.
Mayor Sarah Compo Pierce’s current term runs through the end of 2027. She has not announced a decision about another campaign. Pierce has also spoken publicly about just how consuming the mayor’s job can become, describing constituent calls, emails and messages arriving around the clock while she balances public service, work and family life.
My own expectation is that she ultimately may decide not to seek another term. That is my prediction, not something Mayor Pierce has announced.
She appears to be a nice lady, and there is nothing personal about that observation. City Hall and the Watertown Post may not always see eye to eye, despite the fact that ultimately everybody involved should want the same basic thing: a stronger Watertown.
But Pierce is only a small part of the larger 2027 story.
The more intriguing question is Cliff Olney.
He already possesses something that cannot easily be manufactured by a political consultant: he cares enough about Watertown to fight over it.
The question is what philosophy would guide that fight.
If Olney looks around Northern New York over the next year, talks with Tenney, watches what happens in neighboring NY-21, builds relationships beyond the traditional Watertown political establishment and considers where federal investment and private development are heading, he may discover that some of his goals and what the Watertown Post calls the Golden Age are not nearly as far apart as the political labels suggest.
Perhaps that is the political light bulb worth watching in 2027.
Not whether Cliff Olney suddenly becomes something he isn’t.
Whether he decides Watertown’s future is more important than the labels everybody has been carrying around for the last twenty years.
Now that could make the Watertown mayoral race interesting.
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