ALBANY COUNTY — On Monday, Republican Francis J. Vitollo — “Call me Joe” — was out posting election signs and going door to door to convince people to vote for him as Albany County’s next executive.

“People think their vote doesn’t count, but they’re wrong,” he said. “This race will be close if we get people out to vote.”

Vitollo is frustrated that incumbent Democrat Daniel McCoy won’t debate him. Vitollo has spent mostly his own money to finance his campaign, he said, citing a figure of $3,800. “I don’t want big business saying I owe them,” he said.

The New York State Board of Elections says that McCoy has spent $595,895 since Jan. 1; most of that was for a September primary battle against Daniel Egan, which McCoy easily won.

Vitollo is also greatly outnumbered when it comes to enrolled voters: Republican voters in Albany County number 35,103 to 85,917 enrolled Democrats.

“I am personally invested in this,” said Vitollo. “Our Founding Fathers were willing to risk their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor for the American Revolution. These guys ran the risk, if they lost, they’d be tried and hung for treason, leaving their families destitute.”

Vitollo, 59, said the point is to “risk it all for what you believe in.”

He lives in Coeymans and has six children and 15 grandchildren.

“No way could I look my kids and grandkids in the eye if I didn’t invest in the future of this country for them,” he said. “The only way for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”

Vitollo, who used to own a small construction business, is a registered nurse who works as a charge nurse at a 60-bed emergency room in White Plains, he said, a job he’s held for the last eight years.

He is making his first run for office, he said, because the Republican county committee asked him to.

“I saw the needs of the county and felt I had what it would take to help,” said Vitollo.

“Professional politicians need to come to an end,” he said. “I’m a Jeffersonian…‘Public servants’ is an oxymoron.”

He said of McCoy, “He has the unions in his pocket but he hasn’t done anything for them. He has the Democratic machine…without the party, Mr. McCoy would be nowhere. I think the people have had enough of party politics. It’s time for the people to win.”

Vitollo favors term limits.

He describes his stance as “pro-business and pro-American.”

“First and foremost, I would make the Industrial Development Agency truly active in the county,” said Vitollo. “It’s done next to nothing since McCoy took office,” he said, “The county has relied on towns to move business forward. I’d be proactive; we have the port, the railways, the abandoned industrial buildings.”

He also said, “We are an eyesore in the wheels of progress. The only businesses brought in offer minimum-wage jobs…McCoy is a miserable failure.”

Another tenet of his campaign is to “reduce the size of county government…We are way over-represented,” said Vitollo.

Finally, he said, “People of the county pay too much in taxes. We need to reduce taxes, get our hand out of people’s pockets. We’ve been taxed enough already. I go along the lines of the Tea Party.”

In addition to having the Republican line, Vitollo is endorsed by the Reform party, which has roots in the Stop Common Core movement. He said, “It’s also libertarian, the people’s party.” There are no Reform Party members in Albany County, according to 2015 enrollment figures from the county’s board of elections.

On the revised county charter proposal, Vitollo said, “I do not support it…It gives one party too much say in the changes.”

He went on, “The charter does need to be amended. Things do need to change. The one they drafted is very weak and does not strengthen the people. This is my theme: It’s time for the people to win. That charter makes the politicians win.”

On regulating oil trains, Vitollo said, “The county’s role should be along the lines of making sure state regulations, of which there are many, are in line with safety for the people…I’m all in favor of safety and protecting the environment and people. We need some very strong laws that do that.

“But legislation shouldn’t waste time duplicating what is done on the state level. We don’t need legislation we can’t enforce.”

Similarly, Vitollo said of laws passed by the county legislature to ban toxic toys and Styrofoam, “Many of these have state and federal regulations. The toxic-toy thing is puff, making it look like they’re doing something. We don’t have the ability to enforce such laws.”

On heroin, Vitollo said, “I work in the ER so I see this on a regular basis. It is incredibly infectious because of how cheap it is.”

He outlined a three-part plan to stem the heroin epidemic.

First, he said, “Make sure our law-enforcement folks are properly equipped to deal with this epidemic. We have a very good police force…We need to make sure they have the proper tools.”

Second, Vitollo said, “Many drug treatment programs have large weak points. I see it with people returning, after just getting out of treatment, back to the hospital with an OD….Treatment programs need to be revisited. Some are extremely effective.”

He contrasted some state programs that he said had a 15-percent cure rate with some private programs he said had an 85-percent cure rate.

“We’re failing them,” he said of the addicts, “and we’re failing the public…Crime goes along with it.”

Third, he said, “Go back to educating kids in the right way.” He praised the DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program.

He also said, “You need to give young people something else to do.”

On consolidating services, Vitollo said, “There does need to be a certain level of cooperation. There is a lot of duplication of services.

“The county is overburdened with the cost of maintaining roads. Sharing equipment could be very beneficial.”

He suggested, “Go to the departments themselves. The county hired someone to figure out where they could save costs and they enacted not one suggestion. Bringing in someone from the outside does not always work…

“You have to go to the people on the ground if you want to figure out how to save money…and they will take ownership of the idea. Those guys who run the plows, they know everything about it…We have to give them an incentive to come up with ideas.”

On caring for veterans, Vitollo said, “It takes time to see results. These guys did not get here overnight; it takes time for them to recover. Enlisting the help of other vets is useful.”

Vitollo said that, over the last century, soldiers have been given less time to recover from war.

“After World War I,” he said, “sometimes it took six months to a year before they made it home to their families; there was a catharsis with other veterans…

“After world War II, it was a month to six months. Most of them did very well. They were hanging with other vets, other men, and pouring out their hearts. They were given tasks to do to keep busy.”

Veterans from the Korean War, he said, had less than 30 days before they were home, and, for Vietnam veterans, that time had shrunk to just a few days as is true for veterans who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“You could be fighting one day and in your parents’ living room three days later,” said Vitollo. “That’s very little time for emptying the stuff in their hearts and heads….The problem is complex and has to do with the rapid pace of our society. These guys need care and love and touch. A lot of people aren’t aware of the time factor.”

On suburban poverty, Vitollo said, “Sometimes, it’s self-inflicted with debt load and credit load, trying to be there as a suburbanite.

“Some of it is not their choice — someone in the family has lost a job. There’s an incredible increase in cost for health benefits, a skyrocketing cost for health care.”

Vitollo asserted, “Obamacare is not working. I watch it in the emergency room. Those who don’t have, pay less; those that do have to pay a lot more and a lot is not covered. It’s a redistribution of wealth through the health-care system. I disagree with that.”

Vitollo also said that unemployment figures are misleading since they do not record the jobless who have given up seeking work. “Some have dropped off the radar,” he said. “We need to put them back to work. We need an aggressive industrial development agency,” he reiterated.

Vitollo also recommend, “Re-introduce the trades and vocations to education. College isn’t for everybody. A high percentage of entrepreneurs today don’t have college degrees…They are self-made.”

He went on, “Electricians, plumbers, carpenters — these people are needed in our society. Some people are not good with books or tests; they are hands-on.” He lamented that many schools have done away with vocational training programs.

Vitollo concluded of the poor, “Give them a hand up, not a hand out.”

On caring for elderly county residents, he said, “It is a lot less expensive to take care of people at home. A number of levels of health care can be extended to the elderly at home”

Certified nurse assistants, he said, “are excellent as a set of eyes and ears for the nurses.” He recommended “increasing the county nurse force to allow the elderly to stay where they are.”

On wages, Vitollo said, “There’s a problem with the government getting involved in setting minimum wage. The workers should drive that.”

He described how, as a 13-year-old, he offered to clean up daily at an auto-body shop in exchange for learning the trade, and ended up working there. “I kind of made my own job,” he said.

Minimum-wage jobs at places like McDonald’s and Wal-Mart, Vitollo said, “provide an education.” He said they teach responsibility, teamwork, respect for authority, leadership, and personal hygiene.

“These places are not intended to be lifetime jobs,” he said. “Entry-level jobs play a big role in future work…They’re actually paying you to get an education.”

On the $15-per-hour wage for fast-food workers, Vitollo said, “It’s a huge mistake to let workers drive their salary. It should not be the government’s role.”