What makes someone an insider in Albany?

I just received a startling, breathtaking, explosive insider tip that JCOPE’s Chairwomen was parking illegally in front of the building. Again!

The insider included a picture and posed the following question: Why is the Chairwomen at JCOPE on a Monday when most of the top staff is in NYC?

Now remember the rules here: I provide a forum for an insider to make a statement. I can’t vouch for the veracity of the statement. My only editorial comment is to say: “Hmm. If this is true, it raises some interesting questions.”

But this time, the most interesting question is: Who is the insider?

My definition of an insider is anyone with knowledge not yet reported in the media. Admittedly, this is a pretty broad definition.

The insider could be anyone of the following:

1. The Chairwomen’s driver.

2. Another JCOPE commissioner.

3. JCOPE top staffers that knew the chairwomen was expected at the commission today. (At most four people fit this description.)

4. JCOPE rank and file staffers who saw the chairwomen at the office today. (More than a dozen people fit this description.)

5. A tenant of 540 Broadway. (Approximately 200 people are in this category.)

6. Any lobbyist who drove by at the right moment and recognized the chairwomen. (Hundreds of possible people.)

7. A pedestrian who recognized the chairwomen and then told me. (There are nearly half a million people in the Capital District.)

8. The meter maid who remembered the chairwomen’s car. (The most honest person in Albany).

9. And, of course, I could be my own insider. (I do get around, and you would be surprised how much I see and hear on my own.)

10. Anyone told by anyone on the list who then tells me or someone else who then tells me. (Six degrees of separation.)

Alas, the point of this blog is that JCOPE personnel ought not to lose sleep worrying about the identity of insiders. It could be anyone.  In this case I confess it was me, I saw her car park outside JCOPE this am.

And if I had to guess the answer to the question posited by the insider (that’s me) I bet she was in town for the governor’s press conference on the signing of the DNA database bill.

Proving the old adage that if you give yourself an insider tip, the pleasure given equals the pleasure received.