One of the most powerful attacks leveled by Mayor Michael Passero during his successful election campaign last year was the one in which he accused his opponent of cronyism.   

"The cronyism is offensive to me," Passero righteously told The Day's Editorial Board in an interview.

Well, back at you Mayor Passero.

I find the current level of cronyism in the city right now beyond offensive.

And, in retrospect, your attack on your opponent, for a mild version of what you've been practicing so skillfully, was one of the most disingenuous and hypocritical remarks I've heard in a political campaign in a long while.

After all, your opponent didn't meet in back rooms to massage a lobbyist's plan to change how city property is taxed, a secret and convoluted plan that actually made it into proposed legislation before the General Assembly.

Your predecessor didn't try to rescue a large political donor to your campaign, one represented by a former Democratic Town Committee chairman, from a real estate foreclosure by trying to buy the property with city money.

Your predecessor did give campaign volunteers jobs. But you've perfected this kind of patronage to an art form.

I haven't heard of a single job search for qualified applicants for the many well-paying jobs you've filled. Knowing the right someone seems to be the most important qualification.

The cronyism is alive and well in the Democrat-run school system, too.

You didn't make the shameful appointment of former school board member Robert Funk to a new $145,000 schools finance job. That cronyism prize goes to School Superintendent Manuel J. Rivera, who managed in one swoop to both reward a former school board member who hired him and to help out a crony who lost a re-election bid.

Voter opinion be damned.

You didn't make that school system appointment, but you enabled it by further delaying the much-delayed combination of school and city finances.

This was a case of such raw cronyism that no one could even give the reporter covering the appointment a copy of Funk's resume. Maybe Funk never even had to produce one.

There are some bright spots in city politics right now, though.

I was among those who worried about the all-Democratic City Council elected last fall. It looked like a big rubber stamp for cronyism, and worse.

Instead, the party, which lost its longtime chairman to California, seems to be fracturing.

One good example of this was the split vote on the council for buying the Edgerton School from the mayor's big donor. There was also what appears to be a successful petition drive to stop the purchase.

This is not how the establishment expects things to happen in Cronyville.

Even more interesting was the formal announcement by Chris Soto last week of his plans to challenge state Rep. Ernest Hewett in a Democratic primary.

I attended the celebration in the ballroom at the Holiday Inn and marveled at the big and eager and diverse crowd, young, old, black, white and Hispanic.

Soto, a candidate with impeccable credentials — degrees from the Coast Guard Academy and Brown University, founder of a city nonprofit that helps disadvantaged kids get into college — spoke to enthusiastic supporters in both Spanish and English.

Soto once tried to run for a seat on the City Council but was turned away by power brokers of the Democratic party who denied him a nomination.

Now he is taking a candidacy directly to voters.

Two of those city councilors who voted against the mayor's rotting school purchase deal were at Soto's announcement.

The crowd was encouraged to tweet friends with the hashtag #teamsoto. I suppose his opponent could rally supporters with a hashtag too: #lobbyistpuppet.

One gentleman left the rally a little early, but stopped to write what I imagined to be a generous check at a donations table.

"Let the revolution begin," he mumbled to no one in particular on his way out the door.

I'm with him. I hope people are shouting it soon.

This is the opinion of David Collins

d.collins@theday.com