About Jesse Sommer

Biography

Jesse is a party-unaffiliated resident and business owner on Albany’s Lark Street.  He was raised vegetarian in the neighboring Town of New Scotland, NY, as the protective yet obnoxious older brother to three sisters.  He’s a K-12 alum of the Voorheesville Central School District, a cancer survivor, and a proud uncle of two nieces and two nephews for whom he’s an occasionally bad influence. 

Jesse is a former U.S. Army paratrooper (Master Parachutist) and officer in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps. He was twice awarded the bronze star for combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, and was discharged honorably in 2022 after a decade on active duty.

Veteran

Employment

Jesse owns New Scotland Spirits — a farm distilling outift that self-distributes whiskey, vodka, and gin across 30 counties statewide — and operates the company’s Tasting Room on Albany’s Lark Street.

Additionally, Jesse serves as an attorney with the Montgomery County Public Defender’s Office and is a Columnist for the Altamont Enterprise & Albany County Post.

Jesse earned a Bachelor of Arts in Government from Wesleyan University, a Juris Doctor from the American University Washington College of Law, and a Master of Business Administration from the American University Kogod School of Business.

Education

FAQs

  • “Ending poverty is good for business” is a self-evident truth. I’m a business owner on Lark Street, and the solution to the panhandling and homelessness that discourages commercial activity is simple: end the poverty.

    I’ve assembled ample research and published multiple articles on this topic. Combatting quality-of-life crimes first requires raising the quality of life for our most desperate. Albany’s economic vitality is directly related to how we manage the suffering on the streets.

  • I’m appalled by the intended use of the $400 million allocated to “rescue Albany” in the state’s Executive Budget.

    The reported $135 million renovation of the NYS Museum is profane given the city’s unhoused crisis, the $35 million intended for yet another study to address the feasibility of dismantling I-787, the paltry $1 million proposed to bolster the Albany Police Department (currently in the midst of critical staffing shortfalls), and the $150 million requested by those seeking to develop Liberty Square and erect a soccer stadium is vomitous.

    We have 873 vacant buildings in Albany. Instead of allowing them to blight our cityscape, we need a focused interagency effort to rehabilitate them all, and utilize them to (1) facilitate a pathway to homeownership for low-income tenants and (2) provide city-dispersed facilities in which to provide on-the-ground services for people experiencing homelessness.

  • At the federal, state, and municipal levels, I’m irreparably disgusted with the very concept of political parties. What was once useful in marshalling resources to advance particular political interests and policy objectives has disintegrated into a rigid system that stifles both creativity and compromise.

    If I’m unable to convince my neighbors that my thoughts are worth their consideration and my voice can be used to amplify theirs, so be it.

  • YES, this is a real campaign for the Albany Common Council presidency.

    A better question is whether it’s realistic. That very much remains to be seen, as I’m mounting a party-unaffiliated bid for office with little money and no institutional support. Yet my objective in this gambit is principally to advocate for a different approach for applying state funding (to the tune of $400 million) to Albany’s revitalization, and to demonstrate that the constituency is fed up with uniparty control.

  • Are you talking about New Scotland Spirits, the farm distilling outfit which distills “Helderberg Whiskies” from grains grown throughout New York State, and which you can learn more about at www.NewScotlandSpirits.com?

    I hadn’t thought of that, but, yeah, I guess this probably does promote my business, huh? By that metric, clearly I’m already improving the economic climate of our capital city.

  • “Only one man possesses the delusional audaciousness necessary to both fix our capital city and publish campaign photos like this.”

    You’ve no idea how hard it is to carry the weight of this chip on my shoulder. You’re right that my campaign is also structured to satirically indict the apathy and disregard I’ve encountered since leaving the military and moving back to Albany.

    My capacity for satire is how I cope, my unlimited thirst for attention is why it works.

  • Email me immediately and tell absolutely no one.