Government

See also: Government of New York and List of mayors of Albany, New York Gerald Jennings, mayor of Albany since 1993 Albany City Hall, an 1883 Richardsonian Romanesque structure, is the seat of Albany's government.

Albany has a mayor-council form of government, which currently functions under a charter adopted in 1998. The 1998 charter completely overwrote the original 17th-century Dongan Charter. However, in an effort to keep Dongan in effect, the new charter was applied strictly as an amendment to Dongan, meaning Dongan is technically still in effect, giving Albany the distinction of having the oldest active city charter in the United States and "arguably the longest-running instrument of municipal government in the Western Hemisphere." The mayor, who is elected every four years, heads the executive branch of city government. The current mayor, Gerald Jennings, was first elected in 1993. The Common Council represents the legislative branch of city government and is made up of fifteen council members (each elected from one ward) and an at-large Common Council President. The current president is Carolyn McLaughlin; she began her term in January 2010.

While Albany has its own city government, it has also been the seat of Albany County since the county's formation in 1683 and the capital of New York since 1797. As such, the city is home to all branches of the county and state governments, as well as its own. Albany City Hall sits on Eagle Street, opposite the State Capitol, and the Albany County Office Building is on State Street. The state government has offices scattered throughout the city.

Albany is in the 20th Congressional district, represented by Paul Tonko (D) in the United States House of Representatives. The city is represented by Chuck Schumer (D) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D) in the United States Senate. On the state level, the city is in the 44th district in the New York Senate, represented by Neil Breslin (D). In the New York Assembly, the western portion of the city is in the 109th district, represented by Patricia Fahy (D) and the eastern portion is in the 108th district, represented by John T. McDonald, III (D). As the seat of Albany County, the city is the location of the county's courts including Family Court, County Court, Surrogate Court, Supreme Court, and Court of Appeals. Albany is the site of a United States district court for the Northern District of New York courthouse.

Politics

Albany politics have been dominated by the Democratic Party since the 1920s; Daniel (Uncle Dan) O'Connell established a political machine in the city with the election of William Stormont Hackett as mayor in 1922. Prior to that, William (Billy) Barnes had set up a Republican machine in the 1890s. Barnes' success is attributed to the fact that he owned two newspapers in Albany and that he was the grandson of Thurlow Weed, the influential newspaper publisher and political boss. O'Connell's organization overcame Barnes' in 1922 and survived well into the 1980s (even after his death), as the machine put forth candidates for whom the electorate dutifully voted. In many instances, votes were outright bought; it was not uncommon for the machine to "buy poor folks' loyalty and trust with a fiver".

Gerald Jennings' upset in the 1993 Democratic mayoral primary over Harold Joyce, who had the Democratic Party's formal endorsement and had only recently been its county chairman, is often cited as the end of the O'Connell era in Albany. Albany continues to be dominated by the Democratic party as enrollment in the city was 38,862 in 2009 compared to Republican enrollment of 3,487. This gives Democrats a 10–1 advantage in the general election. Every elected city position has been held by a Democrat since 1931.