The Inner Loop

BREAKING: Morelle resigns

2007-01-11T11:31:00.000-05:00

Joe Morelle must think he has a pretty good shot at becoming the state's next comptroller.

In a letter emailed to Democratic Party members late this morning the Monroe County Democratic Party Chair announced he was stepping down from that post.

In the letter and and in a statement on his website (.pdf), he cited his candidacy for comptroller the reason for the move.

From the letter:

Although this decision was very difficult, I believe that resigning my Chairmanship is the right thing to do in light of my candidacy for New York State Comptroller. I believe that I am truly the best- qualified candidate for Comptroller and that I can better serve our party, community and state as a greater voice for our region in Albany.

The letter goes on to highlight his accomplishments, but Dems now will be scrambling to look forward, not back. This year promises a series of bruising intra-party squabbles in the district city council races (second item), not to mention the question of who will succeed Morelle in the Assembly should he get that comptroller job he so covets.

Morelle restored some measure of party discipline, which might've softened those disputes, had he stuck around. A weaker party chair could spell, if not disaster, a return to the traditional divisive model of Democratic Party politics. The names that have been tossed around for a replacement for Morelle as chair so far have tended to include former party chairs (though at least one fresh face has said privately they'd consider a bid).

One such former chair is Ted O'Brien. Making O'Brien chair would take him out of the race to succeed him, leaving it open for his fellow county legislator Stephanie Aldersley to take over Morelle's vacated Assembly seat (Brighton Town Supervisor Sandy Frankel might be interested and some city politicians surely will be but the district is carved up in such a way that Irondequoit will likely have the controlling voice).

--- Krestia DeGeorge

Former City School employee sued by state AG

2006-12-29T16:30:00.000-05:00

One of Eliot Spitzer’s last announcements as State Attorney General has to do with a former Rochester School District employee. A lawsuit filed in the State Supreme Court in Monroe County names Henry Marini, the district’s former chief financial officer, as one of four defendants. A joint investigation conducted by the Attorney General’s office and the State Comptroller’s office alleges that the Rochester City School District paid approximately $420,000 in consulting contracts, but the district did not receive all of the services.

See the press release from Spitzer’s office here: http://www.oag.state.ny.us/press/2006/dec/dec29b_06.html

Ferry farewell

2006-12-21T17:14:00.000-05:00

A few notes from this afternoon's press conference on the fast ferry's abrupt departure from Rochester (it's leaving at 6:30 p.m. tonight):

The ferry will be going to Shelburne, Nova Scotia, where it will be docked for a cost to the city of about $300 a day -- cheaper, according to city officials, than it now costs to store the boat here.

A decision to move the ship was made after Bay Ferries, which has been running the vessel for the city, advised that if it didn't leave tonight, there might not be another chance before the St. Lawrence Seaway closed for the winter at this month's end. (Within the Seaway's narrow confines, breezes as slight as 15 miles per hour could spell trouble navigating and a calm spell is forecast for the next day or so that it will take to the boat to traverse the system.)

City officials had hoped up until earlier today that a deal with Euroferries, the primary prospective buyer at this point, might be completed before the boat left. A last-minute request from one of the company's two financing partners quashed that, according to Mayor Duffy.

Regardless of whether or not Euroferries can consummate the deal, city officials spin this move as a positive development. Should another prospective buyer come along, the city can sell the boat without waiting for the Seaway to reopen (which usually doesn't happen until around the first of April or so). The Great Lakes, said Corporation Counsel Tom Richard, are "the worst place in the world to sell a boat," for that reason. "No one can buy it if it's locked this side of the Seaway."

Should Euroferries fail to put together its financing, it has agreed to pay for the cost of moving the ferry to Nova Scotia, city officials said.

--- Krestia DeGeorge

BREAKING: Ferry is leaving!

2006-12-21T14:32:00.000-05:00

It's pretty rare that we break out the all-caps and exclamation points over here at the Inner Loop, but here's some news that merits it:

The City just announced, via an emailed press release, that the fast ferry, the erstwhile Spirit of Ontario, is leaving town for good tonight at 6:30 p.m.

It's probably a safe bet that the emergency ferry board meeting and the press conference to follow this afternoon will bring more information about the final deal.

Details as they're available. Check back often.

UPDATE: Here's the full text of the release:

The City of Rochester has been advised by Bayferries, inc., that due to approaching unfavorable weather conditions, the departure of the ferry needs to occur today in order to assure the ship leaves Rochester before the closing of the St. Lawrence Seaway. The City has set the tentative time of departure as 6:30 PM tonight, December 21, 2006.

The City had hoped for more of a notice of departure for the ferry, but weather conditions dictate a departure later today. The City is asking media to please announce the ferry departure time as soon as possible to give the public who would like to witness the departure the opportunity to do so.

D&C Contract conclusion?

2006-12-18T16:08:00.000-05:00

Don't like it? Tough.

That's the message from Gannett to D&C reporters.

Earlier this month members of the Rochester Newspaper Guild, the newsroom union, voted down a contract offer that the company called it's "final, firm and best" by an overwhelming 51 to 4.

Now, the corporation that owns the Democrat and Chronicle has told newsroom workers at the paper that it plans to impose that contract anyway.

Usually the D&C responds to our requests for comment with a boilerplate sentence or two about how they can't comment on personnel matters. That's why this letter to the guild from Wendell Van Lare, the company's top labor negotiator (or as Gannett likes to say: Senior Vice President/Labor Relations) provides such an interesting glimpse into the company's view of the negotiations. Interestingly enough, Van Lare agrees with the guild's leaders that the 401K issue --- the newsroom union wants one, the company refuses to offer one --- is at the heart of the impasse:

"It seems perfectly clear to me that the key issue that has kept the parties from reaching an agreement over these many years has been the Guild's insistence on adding a new benefit to the contract, to wit, the 401K, and the Company's refusal to do so."

Van Lare also mentions other issues the Gannett and the guild couldn't seem to comes to terms on like how much flexibility the company will have at scheduling reporters and whether layoffs would have to be on a seniority basis. And after declining the guild's request to keep negotiating, he leaves the door open just a crack with this offer that he must know he won't be taken up on:

"The Company would reconsider this decision only in the event that the impasse is broken with a clear change of position on the part of The Guild with respect to the 401K issue, the need for scheduling flexibility, overtime compensation only over 40 hours and the elimination of seniority as the controlling factor in layoffs."

Finally he lays the blame for the impasse at the feet of the union. "A new contract would be preferable," he writes, in apparent agreement, before adding this parting shot: "But, the way you chose to spin the Company's offer to your bargaining unit, and the overwhelming rejection of the final offer, after fourteen years of bargaining, leads to the inescapable conclusion that further efforts to reach an agreement would be fruitless."

It's not immediately clear what's next. A guild newsletter sent to members on Friday contained this bleak assessment:

"It’s indicative of Gannett’s concern for its work force. At some point a smile and half-hearted 'Thank you' become too little for the hard work we all provide. We keep hoping our own management will intervene and choose to do what’s right versus what’s expedient. We’ll see."

From that it seems that papers reporters may be holding out hope that Publisher Michael Kane or Editor Karen Magnuson will imitate upper management at the the LA Times, who earlier this year defied the Tribune Company's order to cut newsroom jobs (and eventually got canned for their troubles).

The group may also be able to appeal the National Labor Relations Board, if they think they can prove the company didn't negotiate in good faith. But they'll have to hurry. Van Lare's letter indicated the company would impose the contract beginning on the first of the new year.

Whether the union has lost their fight or not isn't clear, but they certainly haven't lost their dark humor. From the guild newsletter, here's their take on Van Lare's letter:

"We won’t recite all of Mr. Van Lare’s misstatements and mischaracterizations here; they’re too numerous. We can only assume that this letter was written with the idea that his corporate bosses would read it and find favor with what he says. (Must have worked. This week, he, along with some others in Gannett, was rewarded with 2,000 shares of Gannett stock for a job well done. Remember that when you’re asked to bring your own food to a holiday pot luck next week.)"

---Krestia DeGeorge

County budget wrap-up

2006-12-13T17:00:00.000-05:00

Last night the county budget passed.

No big surprise there. And we’ve already provided some analysis, including this piece (second item) --- written before the vote --- that just came out today.

So this post is just a follow up to highlight a few interesting points from last night’s proceedings.

First, a small but possibly significant change.

After County Executive Maggie Brooks released her proposed budget, the state revised the total assessment of property in the county slightly downward. To make up for that, the county introduced a slightly revised version of the budget. It basically takes about half a million dollars that was headed to the Monroe Community Hospital and brings it back into the general fund. In the revised version of the budget, that lost revenue is now replaced with revenue from patients.

Once the debate on the budget began, the Democrats in the legislature introduced a handful of proposals. Predictably, all were shot down.

The first, from Paul Haney, was the most complicated.

Right now, the county doesn’t identify what it collects from the regular property tax levy and from delinquent tax collections in separate lines in the budget. And in recent years, the county’s formula for estimating back tax collections and measures taken to cushion the county from delinquent payments (they can charge slightly more than the actually levied amount: a city tax bill for instance, shows a $9.31 per $1,000 assessed value, rather than the $9.10 that’s technically the rate) has meant that actual tax collections have been higher than budgeted since at least 1995. A decade later, in 2005 (the last year for which figures are available), the county collected $8.2 million more than it said it expected to in its budget.

Haney proposed separating out the revenue from back taxes as a separate revenue line, then using to it reduce the tax rate to $8.97 per $1,000, and pay for two small programs: a fund to help with indigent burials and a fund to televise the county legislature’s meetings.

The Republicans eventually managed to declare the proposal out of order (it amended a revenue estimate, they claimed, which county law doesn’t allow; Haney contended that it created a new revenue stream, but the GOP upheld their president’s ruling).

Another Democratic proposal called for the creation of a police districts. It’s a way for the county to charge towns that don’t maintain police forces to pay for more for the cost of the Sheriff’s Road Patrol, often their primary police presence.

Still another directed the county to use an additional $100,000 from a state flex fund for daycare subsidies, and a final one added $100,000 to restore a position of Director of Children’s Services for the county’s central library.

Each amendment was duly moved, debated, then voted down along party lines (except for the police district proposal, which Assistant Minority Leader Harry Bronson also voted against).

The Republicans did pass one amendment, though. It was a proposal from Legislator Bob Colby to take $175,000 that the county was slated to give to the Cornell Cooperative extension and give it instead to the county’s Planning Department. The Planning Department will use the money to create an Agriculture and Life Sciences Institute at Monroe Community College. The institute will take over the duties that the Cooperative Extension had been performing with the money, particularly working with the County’s farmland protection board.

The Amendment passed as the rest had failed --- along party lines. The Democrats who explained their vote against it said it wasn’t for lack of merit, but because, as GOP legislators freely admitted, the Cooperative Extension hadn’t been informed of the plan.

--- Krestia DeGeorge

The guild and Gannett

2006-12-04T18:43:00.000-05:00

The D&C’s union has overwhelmingly voted down a contract offer that the paper’s management described as its “firm, final and best.”

The Newspaper Guild of Rochester rejected the contract by a 51 to 4 vote on Friday.

What happens next? This is where things could get interesting. When the company announced the “final” offer a month ago, the union was taken a bit by surprise since, they said, talks had been improving. But the “firm, final and best” language paves the way for Gannett to declare an impasse and impose the contract.

In a one-page communiqué to its membership dated Monday, union leadership told editorial staffer they hoped the lopsidedness of the vote against the contract worked to their favor.

“The Guild’s bargaining committee will formally notify the company in a letter today and stress that the overwhelming margin (93 percent of the vote against the proposal) demonstrates the need to return to the table to find a middle ground on outstanding differences,” the letter read. The guild will also ask the company to keep a federal mediator, which they just recently admitted, at future bargaining sessions.

The company hasn’t said previously whether it would seek to impose the contract, releasing only terse, single-sentence statements about its long-running guild dispute (it’s company policy not to comment on personnel issues). ~~Tom O’Connor, the local Gannett operation’s spokesperson didn’t respond to an email query for comment Monday afternoon.~~

UPDATE: Democrat and Chronicle Spokesperson Tom Flynn just emailed with the official company statement. Here it is:

"Our position has been stated many times. We presented a final and best offer to the union. A decision on that contract was entirely in the hands of its membership. We have nothing more to say at this time, out of respect to our employees."

--- Krestia DeGeorge

Superintendent search begins

2006-11-14T16:24:00.000-05:00

The same executive search company that is taking Rochester school Superintendent Manuel Rivera away to Boston has been hired to find his replacement.

The Rochester School Board announced today that Hamilton, Rabinovitz & Alschuler will conduct the search. The firm has placed superintendents and high-level executives in large urban districts throughout the country, including Los Angeles and Minneapolis.

“Our biggest concerns were finding a superintendent with experience in an urban district, and one with sensibility for working with diverse communities,” said board member Tom Brennan. “We’re also looking for someone who can make a commitment and stay a while, because stability is important.”

The district received proposals from 13 search firms, but Brennan said it was the contacts Hamilton, Rabinovitz & Alschuler seemed to have in education settings, including colleges and universities, that helped the company land the job.

No salary range or timeframe for review of applicants has been decided.

“But the board is entirely in agreement that we are going to conduct this search out in the open with as much community engagement as possible,” Brennan said. “This is not going to be conducted behind closed doors.”

--- Tim Louis Macaluso

Rudy runs

2006-11-14T09:30:00.000-05:00

At about 5 o'clock in the evening yesterday, word got out that Rudy Giuliani has formed a presidential exploratory committee (a formality that lets candidates raise money for a possible bid for the White House). Just an hour later Working Families Party Executive Director Can Cantor was first out of the gate with this jab:

"For nearly seven years and nine months, Rudy Giuliani proved himself to be one of the most divisive figures in New York City's history – and that's saying a lot. He almost completely erased that image in an instant. But if Giuliani is actually now a serious presidential candidate – and this is not simply a gambit to boost his consulting business – I suspect the rest of the country will be introduced to the real Rudy – the divider, not the uniter."

--- Krestia DeGeorge

"the body on the barbed wire"

2006-11-10T11:00:00.000-05:00

Jack Davis Campaign Manager Curtis Ellis emails this morning hawking this Buffalo News story about Davis's role in the Dems' victories. Ellis credits Davis (perhaps a little more than is warranted) for the Democrats' takeover of the House by tying down National Republican Congressional Committee head Tom Reynolds. Here are a few excerpts (from Ellis's email, not the story):

"You might call this story 'How Cheney Cost the GOP the House.' Three years ago, Jack Davis was unceremoniously told he could not speak to the press after a Cheney fundraiser in Buffalo. That's when the industrialist and Republican donor changed parties and decided to challenge the powerful incumbent Congressman Tom Reynolds for his house seat."

Davis, you'll recall, first challenged Reynolds in 2004, and surprised just about everyone by winning 44 percent of the vote. In his 2006 rematch, Ellis says:

"Davis kept Reynolds tied down in Western New York and forced the Republican Party to expend resources and manpower defending the NRCC chaiman's own seat in Congress, a seat that was supposed to be safe. Every dollar Reynolds spent in Western NY was not spent fighting Democratic challenges in other districts. In the end, Reynolds pulled off a Pyrrhic victory - he won his own seat by a few thousand votes, 51-49, but the GOP House fell. Jack Davis was the body on the barbed wire that other Democrats climbed over to take the GOP House command center. And it was Dick Cheney that set Davis on the political odyssey led to the Democrats taking over the House."

--- Krestia DeGeorge

Massa speaks/Kuhl reax (updated)

2006-11-09T16:28:00.000-05:00

In his first statement since the election, Eric Massa reaffirms that he will hold out until absentee ballots are counted before he concedes. Kuhl is ahead by about 6,400 votes, but there are 10,000 absentee ballots to be counted, according to the Massa campaign. (Massa would have nearly sweep those votes to win.) Here are some excerpts from his statement:

"This is not about Eric Massa and Randy Kuhl," he said. "This is about the 10,000 people who voted by absentee ballot, who chose to exercise their right to vote, and who deserve to have their voices heard."

"This is about the integrity of the democratic process," said Massa. "I believe the voters of this district understand the importance of counting each vote and won't mind waiting a few extra days to make sure that happens."

And what's next?

"Until this election has been certified, it would be premature to talk about what happens next election," Massa said. "Regardless, I intend to keep working to improve the lives of people here in the 29th District, fighting on behalf of our veterans, and staying actively involved in my community."

"One thing hasn't changed," he went on, "I still love my home and want to do everything I can to make this District, and this country, a better place."

UPDATE: Here's a statement in response from Kuhl's camp, via spokesperson Bob Van Wicklin:

"We're not surprised by our opponent's refusal to concede but we are a bit disappointed. Absentee votes won't differ much from the election night results, certainly not enough to change the outcome. The voters have spoken and it's time to move on. "

--- Krestia DeGeorge

City to buy Midtown?

2006-11-09T15:31:00.000-05:00

This afternoon at a City Council committee meeting, Mayor Duffy will ask the council to consider buying Midtown Plaza.

A mid-afternoon press release says that for $250,000 the city can secure an option to purchase Midtown through February. The property's current owner, Midtown Rochester Properties LLC, approached the city with the offer.

"What happens to Midtown Plaza will play a fundamental role in the rebirth of downtown Rochester. Any development of Midtown will require local, state and perhaps federal aid and assistance. This option plan will allow the City to help find the right development and right developer for this vital downtown property," Duffy was quoted as saying in the release.

If the city did proceed the asking price would be $6 million for "the McCurdy Building, Seneca and Midtown Towers, the Euclid and B. Forman Buildings as well as the Plaza itself."

Corporation Counsel Tom Richards weighed in on the matter in the release, saying "Buying this option secures our ability to influence the future of this 8.6 acre site in the heart of downtown and guide it in the long-term best interest of the city. If a new owner were to purchase the property, we would have diminished capacity to do that."

The option would also give the city enough time to make a sound decision about whether or not to go forward with the purchase.

--- Krestia DeGeorge

Bush, the day after

2006-11-08T13:41:00.000-05:00

As he held his post-election press conference today, President Bush found himself faced with a difficult task. During the election, he and his party insisted that Democrats embraced terrorists and would leave both Iraqis and our troops in harm’s way if they were elected. Now that they’re elected, he has to convince the public -- and especially the troops -- that he and the Republican Party lied, that the nation will continue to support the troops.

Speaking of lies: During his press conference, the president fessed up. He says he lied when, a week before the election, he told reporters that Rumsfeld would stay on. His reason: he didn’t want to inject an important decision into the campaign.

Rumsfeld or no, Bush kept up his defense of his Iraq policies, insisting that the US can “win” -- and that Iraq is not in the throes of a civil war.

-- Mary Anna Towler

Dems lead in the Senate

2006-11-08T13:30:00.000-05:00

The Associate Press is reporting that Democrats have picked up an additional Senate seat. Montana Democrat Jon Tester has defeated Republican incumbent Conrad Burns, the AP is projecting. If the AP is correct, that leaves one seat in contention: Virginia's. That election is expected to go into a recount, which the Washington Post reports will take place in December.
-- Mary Anna Towler

Rumsfeld leaving

2006-11-08T13:12:00.000-05:00

The Associated Press is reporting that Donald Rumsfeld intends to step down. President Bush made the announcement during his news conference early this afternoon and said that he will nominate former CIA director Robert Gates to replace him as Secretary of Defense.

Next for Minarik? Hockey tryouts

2006-11-08T11:36:00.000-05:00

Fairly or unfairly, even before the fact, state GOP chairman Steve Minarik has been singled out for a lot of criticism over the state Republican parties failures. (The New York Post says unfairly: it's Pataki's fault.)

The political blog at one New York City paper posed this question, among others, to their readers on Monday: "How long does it take Republicans to get out the knives for state chairman Stephen Minarik? Who will replace him?" (Check out the comments for answers; their readers are, um, less than charitable.)

Minarik left Albany early and flew back to Rochester to celebrate the election results here where he's also the county chair. We caught up with him at the GOP festivities at the Clarion and did our best to get him to talk about what's next for the state Republican party. Here's what he said:

We did the best we could. You know the odds were against us from the very beginning and we tried to do our best. I commend John Faso and John Spencer and all those guys for putting forth a good effort. I mean, I don’t know what else to say.

What’s the next step from the party’s perspective to rebuild? You’ve got a lot of work to do. First of all, are you going to stick around?

I’ll tell you this. It was interesting time for us. Would I like it to be better? Sure. But I think that we did the best that we could. It’s not like the party is a disaster. We still control the state Senate. We held our own in the Assembly. We did good on the congressional races.

What’s the next step going forward?

You know what the next step is? My son has his third day of tryouts at Webster Schroeder for hockey. That’s the next step.

So are you going to stick around at the state level or no?

I don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see.

--- Krestia DeGeorge

Morning after

2006-11-08T10:24:00.000-05:00

* Voters, commentators were saying this morning, were unhappy with Bush and want change, so Democrats picked up far more seats than they needed to control the House of Representatives. But not in Western New York. The state’s Republicans knew exactly what they were doing when they drew our Congressional district lines. Even with the war, the president’s low popularity, the Foley scandal, and strong Democratic challengers, every Western New York seat was a safe seat. And unless something dramatic happens in the counting of absentee ballots, Jim Walsh, Randy Kuhl, and Tom Reynolds will be back in Congress in January.

* I’m still befuddled at the Democrat and Chronicle’s Congressional endorsements. The editorial-page editors went for Eric Massa over Randy Kuhl, and they seem to have been concerned about a lot that the Bush administration has been up to. But like a lot of voters, for this crucial election, Bush was forgotten. What mattered was that Upstate Republicans had brought home the bacon. OK, sure: Representatives are supposed to work for the interests of the folks back home. But that’s just part of their job. Just as important -- more important, right now -- is forging national policy. The men Upstate is sending back to Washington will do all they can to support the Bush disasters.

* Well, at least the ads will stop. “Ugly” doesn’t begin to describe the House and Senate campaigns around the country. And then there was the money spent on them -- $2.6 billion, according to the latest reports. “Obscene,” growled Lou Dobbs during CNN’s election report last night. Yes indeed. And just think what the country could do with that money if it were channeled toward education or health care.

* Speaking of ads: it’s a petty thing, in the overall scheme of things. But the first reform I want Eliot Spitzer to work on is political phone ads. Our home has been blessedly free from telemarketing calls since we signed up on the Do Not Call registry. But when the politicians passed that legislation, they did the predictable. They excluded themselves.

-- Mary Anna Towler

First reactions

2006-11-08T09:51:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was a pretty good day for Democrats.

They swept the statewide offices in New York. They got their majority in the House. Maybe the Senate too. And there were even unexpected gains locally. Democrats have their first elected official in Parma (town board member-elect Joseph Rittler) in recent memory. They picked up both seats that were up in the village of Fairport. And they picked up a town board seat in Gates.

Republicans didn't have the best day, but they held onto enough to hold their heads high. They hung onto control of the State Senate, which means they still have a say in Albany, even if it's only enough to throw up roadblocks for Eliot Spitzer. And it appears when all the votes are counted they will have kept all three local Republican seats in Congress (in the 25th and 29th there's still the possibility of a recount).

What's it all mean?

Everything and nothing.

As just about every pundit must've said by now, Democratic control of something --- anything --- at the federal level will bring a badly needed modicum of accountability to Washington. But beyond that? Beyond that it's pretty tough to say. A least a part of the wave that carried these Democrats into power was an anti-Bush, anti-War, anti-GOP sentiment as much as anything else. Democrats seem to be thrilled about this. But maybe they should think twice about that. If this election was in fact a referendum on the Republicans that means the Dems will have a brief honeymoon. But soon a fed-up nation is going to expect some results and a coherent agenda. Even assuming the Dems deliver on these, there's no guarantee that the voters will like what they have to offer. Plenty of these seats, after all, aren't necessarily friendly to Republicans.

Here's an example: New York's 20th district, in the eastern part of the state. Kirsten Gillibrand unseated Republican John Sweeney. But Sweeney had his own problems including a domestic incident he couldn't fully explain away, a taint of corruption based on trips he took at the behest of a lobbyist to the Mariana Islands and a bizarre episode where he was photographed drinking at a frat party in Schenectady. Not the best way to firm up a conservative base. But the district remains a Republican one by enrollment. Gillibrand may have beaten Sweeney, but another Republican without his baggage might appeal to voters in that district. Especially two years from now, when the White House is up for grabs. Especially if, in those two years, a Democratic House hasn't managed to accomplish much. Or even if Gillibrand hasn't done a lot to distinguish herself.

On the state level, the Democratic takeover reprises the same basic theme. Dems proved last night that they can win elections. Now they have to prove they can govern. Eliot Spitzer may get a longer-than-average honeymoon, but he too will be expected to deliver, particularly when it comes to reform. What's different is that the state GOP is in shambles and if he fails to enact serious reform, there might not be a strong candidate to hold him accountable.

Your thoughts?

--- Krestia DeGeorge

Holding out

2006-11-08T00:33:00.000-05:00

The Associated Press has called the race in the 29th Congressional District for Kuhl. The latest figures I saw had him up 51 percent to Massa's 49 with 99 percent of districts reporting.

But Massa Campaign spokesperson Mike Williams tells me that the campaign won't be conceding tonight. They're drafting a statement to that effect but it won't be out for a few hours. Apparently there are conflicting numbers floating around for the number of absentee ballots that are still out there to be counted. One source says 4,500, another 8,000 to 10,000, says Williams.

And they haven't ruled out asking for a recount, depending on how close the final numbers are.

--- Krestia DeGeorge

Watching, waiting...

2006-11-07T21:45:00.000-05:00

There's a whole lot of this going on right now at the Democrat's victory celebration at the Hyatt, and not much else. (Presumably the same thing is happening across the street at the Republicans' party.)

Dems have Bob Dylan's "The Times They are a Changin'" playing over the sound system at the moment. Wonder what's on across the street?

--- Krestia DeGeorge

Let the fun begin...

2006-11-07T21:17:00.000-05:00

So the polls have finally closed. Now's when the interesting stuff starts. So far there's a lot of zeros up at the the unofficial results website for Monroe County --- http://66.192.47.50/enr/main.jsp --- but that'll be changing soon.

Meantime in the first surprise of the night, Monroe County Party Chair Joe Morelle just told me that he's not sure how the three local contested races will go. They're "down to the wire," he says. Usually party chairs are nothing if not optimistic about their candidates chances, especially to reporters. Is this a bad sign for Massa, Maffei and Davis? Is it Morelle simply being an honest politician?

--- Krestia DeGeorge

Turnout update

2006-11-07T18:01:00.000-05:00

Five o'clock turnout figures are finally in at the county board of elections. Compared with recent years things look about average.

As of that time there was a turnout of 38 percent county-wide. In the city it's 34 percent. In the towns it's 40 percent.

At the same time in 2002 --- the last mid-term/gubernatorial election --- turnout was basically the same: 39 percent overall; 32 in the city and 41 in the towns.

It's probably too early/too close to tell whom that favors.

--- Krestia DeGeorge

More hypocrisy and denial

2006-11-07T17:39:00.000-05:00

Now that Rev. Ted Haggard has been outed by a former male paymate, we can all give a sigh of relief. The Foley scandal was not an aberration in the Republican Party or the Religious Right. Hypocrisy, as many of us have long known, is an equal-opportunity indulgence.

But the saddest thing about these two stories is how many people --- millions, in the case of Haggard --- listened to the hypocrisy and absorbed it deep under the skin. Comments like coming to terms with his “repulsive” side show how dysfunctional the repression of a subculture can render a whole society. The self-loathing Haggard has been an instructor on how to demonize gays, based on his own secret life. If it weren’t such a tired old scene out of movies like the “The Children’s Hour,” where one is compelled to perform self-correction because self-acceptance is so far out of reach, it would be funny.

How many gay men and women sat in Haggard’s church or listened to his sermons came to the conclusion that they were not worthy? Is it any wonder that Gay Pride parades in almost every city in America include legions of recovering addicts, teens who managed to survive suicidal thoughts, and adults rejected by their own parents and siblings?

The Republican Party has embraced a philosophy of separate and not equal in dealing with gay America. Being gay is not a tragic drama, but to sit at the same table for jobs, housing, and social acceptance, many gays still live double lives, some of which turn tragic. Haggard first said he paid for drugs and massages from a male prostitute but didn’t use the drugs and never got the massages. Dude, c’mon. We were supposed to believe you’re just a buyer?

Haggard still desperately wants to sit at the same table.

Let’s pray he’s learns how to pull up a chair for others.

--- Tim Louis Macaluso

Last-minute shennanigans?

2006-11-07T12:46:00.000-05:00

So the first rumors of election tricks are trickling in. Over at the heavily partisan Walsh Watch, they've got word up of a Republican City Councilman wearing a Maffei stickers and trying to convince voters they're at the wrong polling place.

Meanwhile Massa's campaign is crying foul over a fake endorsement of Kuhl by Canandaigua Mayor Ellen Polimeni. Polimeni saw the endorsement, called Kuhl's campaign and demanded it be taken down according to a release from Mike Williams, spokesperson for the Massa campaign. The endorsement may have only been up for a few hours, but Massa' campaign is treating is seriously. The release included this repudiation from Polimeni:
"The claim is completely false. In fact, I've had no contact whatsoever with the Kuhl campaign prior to this. I am a supporter of Eric Massa."

Rochesterturning doesn't have rumors of any funny business yet, but they've got a good primer for what to do if you're a victim, complete with hotlines to call (some specifically for Democrats).

Alternatively you could just tell us. (Seriously. We want your voting horror stories)

--- Krestia DeGeorge

Bad omen for Davis?

2006-11-07T12:43:00.000-05:00

David Staba, the New York Times' man on the ground in Buffalo captures this telling anecdote and retells it on the paper's political blog.

It seems $2 million only buys so much name recognition.

--- Krestia DeGeorge

WFP update

2006-11-07T12:23:00.000-05:00

Can you put a number on the difference a get-out-the-vote campaign makes? The Working Families Party thinks it can. Specifically: 1 to 4 percent.

Here's WFP Communications Director Alex Navarro touting his party's clout in an email about a robocall for Massa recorded by Sen. John Edwards at their behest:

"If Massa, Davis, Arcuri or Gillibrand win by 1-4 points, it will be because of this kind of work."

--- Krestia DeGeorge

Remainders: Election day blitz

2006-11-07T12:06:00.000-05:00

* There’s one interesting tidbit coming from the Working Families Party. The WFP usually campaigns on behalf of their endorsed candidates, but this year they ran a targeted campaign aimed at flipping congress by flipping a handful of seats in Upstate New York (and one in Connecticut). What’s interesting is that at the last minute the WFP scrapped their plans to redouble efforts in races they were already working on --- the 24th district in this area --- and decided to focus on the race in the 26th. The party is dumping half a million dollars or so into their drive, most of that in the form of paid door-to-door canvassing. They’re also running mostly-volunteer phone banks in other districts. It’ll be interesting to see whether that pays off for Jack Davis, the Democrat and WFP endorsee in the 26th, particularly given the idiosyncratic campaign he’s run. That campaign has turned off some Democrats, (although it did eventually make the DCCC’s Red to Blue list). Perhaps that’s one reason why WFP was interested in adding the district: picking up the perceived slack.

* The court case pending between 29th district candidate Eric Massa and his former campaign manager Sanford Dickert was unexpected and puzzling. A trip to Bath to look at court documents hasn’t done anything to elevate this dispute above the level of he-said/she-said. There are a couple of different takes on this. Conservative Radio Host Bob Lonsberry thinks it’s damning stuff, the makings of a possible criminal case against Massa. But his case seems a little flimsy, basically choosing to believe one side over the other, without much evidence available either way. The best analysis of the whole issue --- at least as it relates to the campaign --- is over at The Fighting 29th, a Massa-leaning blog that’s covered the hell out of that race.

* Amidst the hype surrounding the congressional elections it’s easy to forget that every seat in the state Senate and Assembly are up for grabs as well. There are two of these locally that are worth watching, one for each house. First in the Assembly, there’s the 131st district. Susan John is a veteran incumbent, but she’s got one of the most competitive seats in the state, mixing liberal parts of the city (the Southeast) with conservative outlying towns (Rush, Scottsville). Two years ago she beat challenger Mike Slattery by a not-so-grand total of 1916 votes out of well over 50,000 cast. This year she faces an arguably more formidable opponent in John Ferlicca. Ferlicca is an attorney, former county legislator and the only challenger endorsed by the Democrat and Chronicle. He also has the endorsement of the Rochester Business Alliance and Business groups from Syracuse and Buffalo. And he’s run a tough, sometimes negative campaign. Over on the Senate side, City School Board member Willa Powell is facing off against Republican Joe Robach in the 56th. The district is heavily Democratic but no one really expects Powell to win, maybe because of Robach’s tremendous name recognition and his reputation as a moderate (he was once a Democrat). One of the great mysteries of this campaign though is where the state organization has been for Democratic State Senate candidates like Powell. Early on this year the party talked a big game about taking back that house. But since then there’s been precious little to say about their efforts, at least in this part of the state.

* Reports of possibly illegal automated calls have surfaced with a lot more frequency in the last few days. Channel 13’s Evan Dawson has a good round-up of the robo-call issue up on the station’s website (Note: the video, which is embedded in the page, plays in Internet Explorer, but not Firefox).

*Last, but not least: your comments. Got predictions? Reactions? See something interesting at your precinct? Or just want to rant about this election cycle? Please let us know in the comment section.

--- Krestia DeGeorge

Malachy comes courting (Reposted)

2006-11-07T10:13:00.000-05:00

Apparently even Blogger doesn't like third-party candidates. Here's a repost of our take on Malachy McCourt, Green Party candidate for governor, eaten by Blogger's servers over the weekend.

Your gubernatorial candidate, in concert.

If you think there’s no suspense left in the gubernatorial race, well… you’re almost right.

There is one small item of interest though that’ll be worth watching for come next Tuesday night --- and it’s not the size of Eliot’s Spitzer’s “mandate.”

It’s the number of voters who turn out to support Green candidate Malachy McCourt. McCourt’s obviously not going to win, but that’s beside the point. What’s important for this race is that if he gets 50,000 votes or more, the Green Party gets its ballot status back. True, ballot status may not seem very important compared with the money and organizational power wielded by the major parties. But consider how it’s worked out for parties like the Working Families or the Conservatives. Because each of those parties has a line on the ballot they can cross-endorse major party candidates. And they can bestow that endorsement in exchange for the understanding that cross-endorsed candidates will help further a specific agenda that party has plotted. Typically those policy goals are somewhat further from the political center than those of corresponding major parties. Such a system allows for progressives and conservatives who might otherwise be shut out to have a voice in public policy debates.

The Greens have had a ballot line in the past, but four years ago their gubernatorial candidate Stanley Aronowitz garnered just 41,797 votes. That was a little more than 2,000 less than the Right to Life candidate, and it cost the Greens their spot on the ballot. It’s not necessarily Aronowitz’s fault. That year then-Comptroller H. Carl McCall was making an underdog bid to oust Gov. George Pataki, a campaign which no doubt attracted some progressive voters that might otherwise pulled the lever in the Green column.

This year with a Spitzer victory virtually guaranteed, McCourt stands a better chance of getting voters on the liberal end of the political spectrum who want their vote to count for something (an October 10th Zogby poll showed him at 5 percent, far more than he’d need to capture).

McCourt, the younger brother of Angela’s Ashes author Frank McCourt and a bestselling author in his own right, was in town last weekend courting Rochester voters with his running mate Alison Duncan (it was part of the pair’s lone upstate swing).

It’s not often you get to see candidates for statewide office singing or reciting poetry, but both were part of the duo’s campaign “show” if that’s the right word. Performing for an audience of about 25 (at least half of whom were Green Party volunteers) McCourt managed to range from the high-minded --- “It is still axiomatic that patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel” --- to the ridiculously off topic --- “I’m writing another book called ‘I read your brother’s book’” --- in the space of an hour and a half. To attend the gig, you’d think he has no other agenda than getting the Green ballot line back and entertaining people in the process. That’s not entirely the case. McCourt does have a platform that follows the Green Party’s progressive values. The first item in his “issues” list is bringing New York’s National Guard troops back from Iraq (which he argues, with the help of Green AG candidate Rachel Treichler, a governor could do). He’s for more money for schools, more renewable energy, and legalizing medical marijuana, among other predictably liberal stances.

After the event McCourt brushed off any concern about the small size of the crowd in Rochester, so close to the election.

“The people who were here are the ones who are important.”

And he was bullish about his chances to secure the 50,000 votes he needs to retake the Greens’ ballot line.

“I’m quite sure we’re going to get that,” he said.

~~In a few days~~ Today, we’ll find out whether or not he was right.

--- Krestia DeGeorge

The D&C Blues

2006-11-06T22:30:00.000-05:00

The local Gannett operation may be bolstering penetration by adding new publications every few months, but that doesn’t seem to be steering readers back to its core product.

The most recent circulation figures are out and the Democrat and Chronicle followed the national trend, circulating 214,908 papers on Sundays compared to 222,627 a year ago --- a drop of about 3.5 percent. For weekdays, the slide was slightly less pronounced: 156,128 in September of this year compared to 161,314 in September of 2005 (down 3.2 percent).

But steering readers back to the daily paper may not be what 21st century media companies want anyway. Here’s how paper spokesperson Tom O’Connor spins the declining figures: “Our strategy focuses on growing our audience,” he says. “We’ve done just that.”

And according to O’Connor, that growth can happen “across any platform,” not necessarily the daily newspaper, just so long as it keeps happening. In this case any platform might mean Insider, Rochester Magazine or the company’s websites.

It’s against this backdrop that the Newspaper Guild of Rochester’s 14-year contract battle may be winding to a conclusion, though not the one editorial staff had hoped for.

According to union officials, Gannett’s negotiators have handed its newsroom union a contract offer they say is their “firm, final, and best.”

O’Connor’s only comment was to read a prepared statement:

“We have negotiated in good faith and presented a firm, final and best contract offer to the guild last week,” he said. “Beyond that we don’t comment out of respect for our employees.”

The Guild trashed the offer in an e-mail to Rochester media outlets saying it “guts protections for hourly workers.” For example, it changes overtime from being figured on a daily basis to a weekly one. And the offer does not include a 401(k) plan, which other local Gannett employees have and which has been a major sticking point.

“It’s disappointing that Gannett has chosen to push contract talks to the brink of impasse,” Local 17 President Steve Orr said in a statement. “The Guild continues to believe that a fair and equitable contract agreement can be reached, but only if the company shows a willingness to negotiate honestly. Despite a steady exodus of journalists from the newspaper, many of whom have not been replaced, the company does not seem interested in providing a contract that encourages workers to stay.”

Still, the union is planning to hold a vote on the offer after conducting meetings with its members to discuss the plan. If the union votes the plan down, Gannett could declare an impasse and impose it unilaterally. That’s something union members fear may be in the offing, since the company described the offer as final. The union may still have some options, however, even if the company takes that route. They could try to convince the National Labor Relations Board that the company wasn’t negotiating in good faith before it declared an impasse. But that’s tough to prove.

The company’s sudden eagerness to settle the issue may work against them, says Guild Secretary Gary Craig.

“It was almost an artificial deadline,” he says of Gannett’s goal to reach a resolution by year’s end, “which doesn’t imply good faith bargaining.”

Privately, Guild members say they wonder why the company chose to play the impasse card now, after 14 years without a contract and after six months of more productive talks that included a federal mediator.

“We were making headway on a number of issues right before they pulled the plug,” says Craig. “It’s a mystery.”

--- Krestia DeGeorge

Down in the muck

2006-11-03T11:42:00.000-05:00

Down in the mud

We’ll find out Tuesday night whether the lies and distortions have worked. If they did, like our columnist Jennifer Loviglio, I’m not sure I can handle it. This is not the country any of us should want.

I’m not talking about whether the Republicans keep their stranglehold on Washington. I’m talking about what they’ll have done to keep it. Just as a for-instance: my e-mail has been besieged this week with press releases from the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee, expressing outrage over something that the Republicans themselves simply made up.

I’m referring to John Kerry’s supposed gaffe, of course. The RNC hammered away at an old theme: that this distinguished war veteran doesn’t respect America’s troops. Clearly, clearly Kerry was talking about George Bush, not US soldiers, when he said that if you “make an effort to be smart, you can do well” and “if you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

But the Republicans are desperate for something to take voters’ minds off of the war. So they’re beating up on Kerry, banging that gong loudly enough to drown out everything else. (The National Republican Congressional Committee --- headed by New York’s endangered species, Tom Reynolds --- localized the Kerry story. In a press release on Wednesday, the NRCC insisted that Democratic Congressional candidate Eric Massa should denounce Kerry. On Thursday, it insisted that he return $1000 that Kerry’s Political Action Committee contributed to his campaign.)

Predictably, the Democrats have let them get away with the smear, running away from Kerry as fast as they could.

Even some of the media fell for all this. National Public Radio’s Morning Edition news program yesterday reported, incorrectly, that Kerry had said that students who don’t get an education wind up in Iraq.
This morning, local Democrats alerted us to yet another Republican distortion: a mailing from the New York Republican State Committee insisting that “Democrats are more concerned with protecting the rights of terrorists than protecting the lives of Americans.”

This is too much. Americans deserve better than this. Much better.

As MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann noted yesterday, it’s George Bush, not John Kerry, who should apologize to the troops, for getting thousands of them killed in a war he started “without a clue.”

--- Mary Anna Towler

The blunt approach

2006-11-03T10:38:00.000-05:00

Wow.

Give credit to Steve Minarik for not pulling his punches, if nothing else. His state GOP came out with this mailer basically equating the Dems with terrorists. It's like a Tom Tomorrow cartoon come to life. You only thought that guy was joking.

Rochesterturning claims that the pieces are going out to in the three competitive races locally -- the 25th, 26th and 29th. Kudos to Ben Smith to getting a jpeg up while we were still waiting for local Dems to get to their scanner. He's also got an image of the mailer's reverse side posted.

---Krestia DeGeorge

Minarik clinches Minarik Award [Daily Politics]

Steve Minarik is a Loser (a glance at the url for this post shows they had another word in mind for Minarik) [Rochesterturning]

Hevesi's unusual endorsement

2006-11-02T16:20:00.000-05:00

We've been trying not to join the bandwagon beating this Alan Hevesi thing to death, but here's an interesting tidbit. The comptroller's campaign sent out another batch of testimonials from various elected officials this afternoon. And it led with an unlikely person: Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi. Up until September, the primary challenger to party gubernatorial annointee Eliot Spitzer was practically persona non grata among most New York State Dems. Perhaps this is in response to Eliot's sudden decision to drop the radioactive comptroller Hevesi. Or maybe Suozzi's just the highest level official Hevesi can get to stick with him.

Here's the text of Suozzi's "statement of support":

Alan Hevesi has been a great Comptroller for suburban homeowners. His report on property taxes sounded the alarm on the huge burden placed on State taxpayers and his work on Medicaid reimbursements helped establish the caps that prevented our local taxes from going even higher. His opponent, Chris Callaghan lacks the experience necessary to deal with the issues facing Long Island. That's why I am voting for Alan Hevesi.
-Thomas R. Suozzi, Nassau County Executive

---Krestia DeGeorge

Targets

2006-10-31T11:19:00.000-05:00

Somewhere along the line, Republicans decided that Social Security was a winning issue for them in these mid-term elections.

It’s not exactly clear why the GOP thought they could own this issue, coming just a year after the president wrapped up his unpopular tour promoting his plan to reorganize the benefit system.

Yet this fall a new crop of commercials are out, attacking Democratic candidates on the issue. And it’s not an attack that you’d expect given the president’s proposals. These ads are attacking Democratic candidates by saying that while republican candidates view Social Security as a sacred trust, Democrats will cut benefits, raise age eligibility limits, raise taxes and privatize the system. Huh?

Of all of these, perhaps the nastiest was leveled against Democrat Eric Massa, who’s running in the 29th district.

The ad, paid for by the National Republican Congressional Committee, shows gunsights moving around before locking in on the heads or chests of senior citizens. Meanwhile an ominous voice enumerates the changes the GOP says Massa would make.

“Don’t let Eric Massa make social security a target,” says the ad’s narrator as it ends. But it’s clear from the visuals that you’re supposed to recognize that seniors, not social security is the target of this scary Massa guy.

Massa quickly responded with a press conference that coincided with a visit by Laura Bush to stump for Massa’s opponent Randy Kuhl. He accused Kuhl of playing politics with gun violence, saying “This is not only irresponsible, it is insensitive to those of his constituents who have suffered from such crimes.”

Within hours Kuhl issued his own press release stating that he was “shocked” by the ad and that his campaign (in accordance with election law) had had no previous knowledge of it.

“I in no way condone or support the way in which the NRCC chose to portray that in their ad,” he said in the release. “I call on them to stop running this ad immediately.” Perhaps Kuhl’s call to the NRCC was honest, or perhaps it was done with a wink and a nod. In any case, at press time the ad was still running.

Ed Patru, a spokesman for the NRCC, said the ad would continue. To discontinue it at the request of a candidate, whether by a call from the campaign or a public statement would still constitute coordination between the NRCC and the campaign, a breach of election laws, Patru said.

The New York State Democratic Party, with its prolific press release machine got the last word in the battle of the press releases, treading where the Massa campaign didn’t dare.

“The last candidate in

America

who should be trying to link his opponent to gun violence in his ads is Randy Kuhl,” wrote party spokesman Blake Zeff, alluding to allegations from Kuhl’s divorce records that surface during the last campaign.

But Kuhl may yet get the last laugh. This kind of negative advertising inevitably turns off many voters who’d otherwise turn up at the polls on November seventh. If voter turn out is low that tends to be good for Republicans, incumbents and candidates who enjoy an enrollment advantage. All three of those apply to Kuhl.

--- Krestia DeGeorge

Port plans

2006-10-30T15:51:00.000-05:00

Tonight at 7 p.m. the city's hosting a public meeting to unveil the final draft version of the master plan it's been conconting for the port area at the Roger Robach Community Center. Here's a sneak peek at what will be on tap:

This is an artist's rendering of one of the two plans. The other plan would be similar, but include more housing density, by building higher.

Here's a plan showing the street grid. The "village green" and the Northwest block (upper right in this sketch) would each sit above a level of underground parking.

The biggest change from previous incarnations of the plan, according to Sasaki's Varoujan Hagopian, who's headed up this project all along, is nixing a proposed four-story garage across from the Robach Center.

---Krestia DeGeorge

Bad days for Davis

2006-10-27T15:14:00.000-04:00

Yesterday Buffalo's WGRZ-TV released results of yet another poll in the 26th congressional district. This one shows Reynolds has regained his former lead in race. This time the difference is 50 percent for Reynolds to 45 for Davis, just barely outside the poll's plus or minus 4.9 percent margin of error (minutiae here).

That doesn't mean the race is out of play, but is does suggest that the taint of the Foley scandal is beginning to wear off for Reynolds. Despite Davis's insistence that voters are eager to hear his message of trade protectionism, his rise and Reynolds fall in the polls adhered closely to the unfolding of the scandal story. If that's behind enough voters in this race, it might be time for Davis to start worrying.

And if that weren't enough, today Ben Smith unearths an anti-Davis spot by a 527 calling itself New Yorkers for Responsible Leadership. The ad doesn't mention Reynolds at all. It starts with an actor saying "I'm disgusted with this whole bunch in congress; they really let us down." But then it goes on to bemoan that Davis's campaign is "a joke," before calling him "an eccentric, out of touch millionaire with really kooky ideas."

It doesn't seem to be aimed at getting people to support Reynolds so much as getting independent voters to stay home. As we already mentioned, since Republicans usually vote more reliably in off-year elections, driving down turnout tends to help their candidates. Maybe that's becoming a centerpiece of Reynolds' new strategy.

--- Krestia DeGeorge

Rural shift?

2006-10-27T12:02:00.000-04:00

NPR is out this morning with a long, thoughtful piece by rural affairs reporter Howard Berkes about a new poll that shows support for the GOP flagging in rural areas. The survey covered 500 likely voters in rural areas in competitive districts, including the 25th and 29th locally. In September poll found nearly equal numbers of voters supporting Democrat and Republican candidate. Now a month later, the GOP candidates have slid to 39 percent while the Dems have risen to 52 percent.

The best stuff from the poll, though, is in the six-page detailed summary (PDF). Here are a couple of their findings:

"Despite this movement in the vote, a slight majority still says that they believe their own representative deserves reelection and a slight plurality believes that corruption in Congress represents business as usual."

and this:

"We also see an enthusiasm gap -- the most interested voters give Democrats much wider margins than voters overall; in fact, Republicans lead among the least interested voters."

Those two nuggets of analysis may be a restatement of conventional wisdom -- that Republicans turn out to vote more reliably, and that voters tend to espouse a "pox on both their houses" attitude when it comes to some of the seedier aspects of politics. But taken together they point up one possible GOP strategy: Heavy negative advertising that turns off independent voters who can swing these elections, coupled with a robust get out the vote drive.

Rochesterturning views this shift as payback for the Republicans for having lumped the Rochester in with rural areas to create safe GOP seats. There may be a grain of truth to that, but none of the three seats locally represented by Republicans actually enter the city of Rochester, only its suburbs.

UPDATE: Here's a page dedicated to the poll by the outfit that commissioned it, the Center for Rural Strategies. It's got some more explanation including a well done two minute video on the poll and what it means, with the two pollsters -- one Republican and one Democrat -- who conducted it.

--- Krestia DeGeorge

Breaking: Spitzer yanks Hevesi endorsement

2006-10-26T16:26:00.000-04:00

So Spitzer has finally dropped his endorsement of embattled Alan. But he doesn't like Callaghan either. There's nothing up on his website yet, so here's the text of the press release in it's entirety:

STATEMENT BY ELIOT SPITZER REGARDING THE COMPTROLLER’S RACE

Recent developments in the Comptroller’s race are deeply troubling. The outcome of the Ethics Commission investigation presents information that compromises Alan Hevesi's ability to fulfill his responsibilities.

J. Christopher Callaghan’s experience and substantive positions lead me to believe he is not qualified to be Comptroller. Therefore, I can no longer support either candidate in the state Comptroller’s race. I am confident that State Senate proceedings will carefully evaluate the facts and recommend appropriate action. In the event that Mr. Hevesi is removed from office through such a proceeding, it is the obligation of state leaders to act in a bipartisan manner to find a highly-qualified replacement.

~~For whatever it's worth, Hevesi's endorsement of the Spitzer is still up on the Attorney General's campaign website at the moment.~~

UPDATE: So that was quick. Apparently Spitzer's wants a little more distance from Hevesi, and even an endorsement from the comptroller is too close for comfort.

--- Krestia DeGeorge

DCCC adds Massa, Davis

2006-10-26T14:56:00.000-04:00

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee just added Eric Massa (NY-29) and Jack Davis (NY-26) to their Red to Blue List, which means they'll get more money and logistical support from the national organization. The release isn't up yet, but the DCCC does have a blog post mocking Randy Kuhl (29th) and Tom Reynolds (26th) for the occasion.

Massa could certainly use the money in his tight race, but it'll be interesting to see how this helps Davis, if it does at all. He's been running the campaign almost exclusively on his own money and without much of any other kind of party support either. Does he suddenly need the organizational help?

Speaking the 26th, Ben Smith has word of a WGRZ poll with Reynolds back on top.

--- Krestia DeGeorge

More ads in the 29th

2006-10-25T15:30:00.000-04:00

While Kuhl and Co. are touting First Lady Laura Bush's visit to Greece this weekend, the big push from Massa's campaign is an attack on what they call negative advertising.

The Kuhl spot in question is here:

Referencing an Elmira Star-Gazette article from July 30 (possibly in 2005; the type in the video's pretty grainy), the ad says that he'll raise Social Security taxes and cut benefits, then cuts to a shot of a worried senior citizen. The campaign's press release quotes Massa consultant Erick Mullen saying "With this ad he is intentionally misleading seniors in our District and attempting to scare them with lies."

(This ad eclipses Massa's third, which also just arrived. It starts as a feel-good spot that includes an oblique reference to his "outsider" status --- I chose to raise my family here in Upstate New York, just like you" --- before going after "professional politicians" for botching the war in Iraq and not doing enough for veterans.)

The progressive bloggers over at Rochesterturning.com, meanwhile take umbrage not at the Kuhl ad's purported negativity, but at Kuhl's claim near the end that he "regard[s] Social Security as a sacred trust."

Massa press aide Mike Williams promises to follow up by posting a video clip of Kuhl taking a no-negativity pledge soon. Meanwhile, does anyone have a copy of the Star-Gazette article in question, or access to the paper's archives?

--- Krestia DeGeorge

Buying the votes

2006-10-25T11:25:00.000-04:00

Ah, democracy.
This morning’s Wall Street Journal reports that drug companies, afraid of what will happen if Democrats take control of Congress, are pumping money into close races. Among the beneficiaries: Pennsylvania’s very-threatened Rick Santorum.
Karl Rove is still insisting that Republicans will hold onto the House and the Senate. He could be right. They’ve still got plenty of money to spend on television ads in these last few days before the election.
TV ads could determine the outcome of the election, and more and more, they're becoming simple character attacks. Among the worst: Harold Ford, a Democrat who has been impressing even hard-core conservative Republicans in that Republican state.
The ad shows a series of actors dishing out mock praise for Ford. Among them: a tarted-up young woman who gushes, “I met Harold at a Playboy party” --- and at the end of the ad smiles, whispers “Call me, Harold,” and winks.
--- Mary Anna Towler

Laura Bush on the stump

2006-10-25T10:28:00.000-04:00

First Lady Laura Bush will be in Greece on Saturday. The event, at the Greece Community and Senior Center, is being billed as a "victory rally" for Congressmen Tom Reynolds, Jim Walsh and Randy Kuhl.

It's free and open to both the public and the press, but tickets are required, (the release we got, from Kuhl's campaign, says they're providing complimentary tickets to their volunteers and the state's GOP get-out-the-vote volunteers out of the campaign office).

There's no fundraising associated with the trip, according to Kuhl spokeman Bob Van Wicklin.

"This is not a fundraiser. It's an opportunity for people to meet the First Lady of the United States, for free," he writes.

Kuhl's democratic opponent, Eric Massa, is hosting Hillary Clinton in Rochester for a fundraiser on Monday, and Kuhl tried to contrast the two events.

"People can meet Randy, Tom, Jim and Laura Bush for free or our opponent and Hillary Clinton for a donation of $25 or more," he says.

It'd be easy to read this as an indication that the three men are worried about their races and bringing in the First Lady in a last minute bid to shore up their bases and get out the vote. And any effort to bring Hillary and Nancy Pelosi into it certainly doesn't do anything to dispel that theory.

But Van Wicklin stops short of addressing it, saying only "As for GOTV efforts, we ALWAYS work hard to get out the vote in any campaign I've worked on."

--- Krestia DeGeorge

(Fatty, cholesterol-laden) food for thought

2006-10-24T13:27:00.001-04:00

Normally we stick to campaign ads here, but this banner ad running over at Empire Zone, The New York Times' political blog, deserves a passing notice. Sponsored by the Ad Council it nails the look and feel of a political campaign ad, right up to the point point where it asks you to vote for ...a stick of butter? You get the point.

Great ad, just one question: who told them the Times' political blog is the best place to reach non-voters?

--- Krestia DeGeorge

Amo speaks

2006-10-23T16:16:00.000-04:00

Randy Kuhl's Republican predecessor in Congress Amo Houghton weighed in on the race in his old district, endorsing Randy in this 30-second spot (paid for by Kuhl's campaign). The poster, one KuhlforCongress, calls the endorsement "resounding," but given Houghton's staid delivery and the spot's bland content "perfunctory" seems a little more accurate.

Here's a transcript:

Hi, I’m Amo Houghton. Time moves along but I use to represent you in Congress. Two years ago I retired and Randy Kuhl was elected to succeed me.

He’s done a wonderful job and of course it’s no surprise. Randy is one of us. He’s lived and worked and brought up his kids here. He knows this area like the back of his hand. I’m going to vote again this year for Randy. I’d be honored if you’d join me.

YouTube says embedding was "disabled by request" so you'll have to go to their site to view it.

UPDATE: Kuhl for Congress spokeperson Bob Van Wicklin pleads ignorance about the no embedding request: "No idea what you're talking about on the Amo thing."

Van Wicklin is busy today pushing a press release about the latest fundraiser for Massa. It's in New York City. With Nancy Pelosi.

The language in the release may be a bit overheated, but the point is there. If Massa wants to overcome the "outsider" status (which Houghton references in the ad) with voters in the rural and conservative Southern Tier, this probably isn't the best way to go about it.

---Krestia DeGeorge

Ambassador Joe Wilson

2006-10-23T11:03:00.000-04:00

In our rush to cover the big political events going down on Friday we're just now getting around to a lesser-heralded, but also interesting event here Thursday. Retired Ambassador Joe Wilson was in town stumping for Democratic congressional candidate Eric Massa.

That's the Ambassador Joe Wilson: who's fact-finding trip undermined the Bush Administration's Saddam-sought-uranium-in-Niger claims, husband of the outed CIA agent Valerie Plame.

Wilson, who was also interim ambassador to Iraq when Saddam's tanks rolled into Kuwait 15 years ago, opened with an interesting anecdote. In the immediate aftermath of the invasion Wilson said his embassy's communication lines to the outside world were cut off. He described a heated conversation with Hussein's Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz, in which he finally pointed out that, since the US Navy had ships in the gulf, it'd be wise for Aziz to put him back in touch with Washington. Aziz complied. Eric Massa was a weapons officer on one of those ships.

"He was the one who made sure that I had communications," Wilson said

But beyond their shared experience in the first Gulf War, Wilson's endorsement of Massa could've been an endorsement of any other Democrat running for congress this year. That's because for Wilson, the most important issue is control of the House of Representatives.

"It's all about accountability. It's all about restoring the oversight function," he said. After the event, Wilson told City that he was traveling the country campaigning, but only for Democrats. This although he's worked for presidents of both parties since Gerald Ford and voted for George H.W. Bush in 1992.

"I come at this from a policy perspective, not a partisan one," he said and added that with it's neocons and "theo-cons" "This iteration of the Republican Party doesn't represent traditional Republican values."

---Krestia DeGeorge

Not president yet

2006-10-20T21:13:00.000-04:00

The 2008 presidential race was front and center in tonight's Senate debate between Sen. Hillary Clinton and GOP challenger John Spencer. No surprise there.

And also, not much to report there. Clinton didn't make any major stumbles and she didn't get off-message. But she didn't come off as particularly presidential either. Spencer tried to reinforce that as often as possible, including in what seems destined to be the debate's takeaway quote.

Clinton said Donald Rumsfeld should go as Secretary of Defense, citing President Abraham Lincoln's willingness to swap generals in the middle of the Civil War. That generated cheers, but moments later, so did Spencer's rejoinder: "You’re not president yet Mrs. Clinton."

In the Media Spin Room after the debate, that was the quote political reporters were repeating back and forth to each other.

Besides making the presidential ambitions gripe stick, Spencer didn't come off as particularly remarkable. Still, that's an improvement over the image he'd built up going in of a loose cannon.

State (and Monroe County) GOP Chair Steve Minarik had an explanation for that that doubled as a backhanded compliment: "Thanks to you all the expectations bar was low. He jumped right over that one."

--- Krestia DeGeorge

McCain in Rochester!

2006-10-20T16:24:00.000-04:00

Okay, so Sen. John McCain couldn't actually make it to Rochester today for a scheduled luncheon in support of Rep. Tom Reynolds. Instead he joined the proceedings by phone, which was piped into the banquet hall at the Clarion through loudspeakers in the ceiling (pictured). The Senator unexpectedly had to return to Arizona to tend to an ailing mother-in-law, and we're willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Still, it is convenient that Reynolds got out of a possibly sticky press availability that would likely have ensued had McCain and his Straight Talk Express come to town. As it was Reynolds managed to leave the hall through a rear entrance, without having to face reporters' questions.

The event was instructive for several reasons. As Ben Smith points out over at the Daily Politics, local party boss Steve Minarik got the ball rolling by being outraged that "People from outside this district are trying to tell you who your congressman should be." Ben's take: "An odd thing to say in defense of the guy who runs the National Republican Campaign Committee, but never mind." Complicating that is the fact that Reynolds opponent Jack Davis is basically taking no one's money but his own, so Minarik can hardly point to outside interests on the funding side, which is where they really matter. It seems he's talking about outsiders who've come to canvass for Davis in "get out the vote" efforts.

In fact, if there was a main message to the party faithul at the event, getting out the vote was probably it. "That’s probably what it’ll come down to," McCain told the crowd over the phone. And the admonitions to support Reynolds from both McCain and Minarik bypassed (for the most part) Reynolds positives or Davis's negatives and went straight to the issue of control over the House of Representatives.

Which seems fast becoming the only issue in all the congressional races.

--- Krestia DeGeorge

Dems in a landslide?

2006-10-19T11:57:00.000-04:00

New poll results out from the non-partisan project Majority Watch have bad news for Upstate Republicans in the House. The poll shows nearly all incumbents losing some by pretty hefty margins. Here are some of the local races:

25th: Dan Maffei 51 percent
Jim Walsh 43 percent

26th: Jack Davis 56
Tom Reynolds 39

29th: Eric Massa 52 percent
Randy Kuhl 40 percent

But before Dems break out the champagne, they should take into account the fact that this poll is employing some new experimental methods. The methods --- an automated voice rather than a human pollster and calling registered voters rather than random dialing, for example --- are meant to correct problems that arise from traditional polling methods. But the jury is still way out on whether they're an improvement. Here's a good explanation (via Ben Smith) from someone who knows this stuff.

Two polls in New York's 20th congressional district (centered around the Capital District) illustrate how far apart the results can be. A Siena poll with a similar sample size -- 630 to Majority Watch's 1001 -- conducted at virtually the same time -- Oct. 16-17 to MW's 15th-16th -- gets wildly different results. Siena has GOP incumbent John Sweeney up 53 to 39. Majority Watch has his Democratic challenger leading by 54 to 41. Obviously, both can't be right.
We'll find out which one is next month.

--- Krestia DeGeorge

The attorney general blues

2006-10-17T16:28:00.000-04:00

Republican Jeanine Pirro and Democrat Andrew Cuomo were in town this morning for a debate in the Attorney General race.

Here's how the New York Times' Jonathan Hicks described it on The Empire Zone, the Gray Lady's state politics blog:

"Voters who are looking for a substantive discussion of issues such as reform in Albany and Medicaid fraud might well be disappointed by the debate between the two candidates for attorney general taped today in Rochester. Instead, viewers will get to see a series of attacks..."

If the Times -- known for meticulously salvaging newsworthy scraps from throwaway political events -- writes you off, you know you're in trouble. Or at least you should.

But that's exactly the level of coverage the event merited. Instead of answering the questions put to them by a 'Voice of the Voter' panel that included D&C Political Reporter Joe Spector and WXXI News Director Peter Iglinski, the candidates merely used them as launching pads for a barrage of insults, principally about each other's competence, integrity, and toughness. These were mainly delivered in shrill voices more reminiscent of children bickering in the back of the car than candidates for the state's top law enforcement job. Poor moderater Julie Philipp (of WXXI-TV) had the thankless task of stopping them at the end of their alloted time, which basically meant shouting them each time. For all that noise there was very little said, and very little policy discussed.

The debate goes out to all the state's public television stations who'll begin re-airing it tonight. But seriously, can't we just skip to a pledge drive or something?

---Krestia DeGeorge

Foley's failure

2006-10-14T15:12:00.000-04:00

The Mark Foley thing has been bugging me for days, even though I was hardly surprised when I first heard about it. It’s not just that leading Republicans like Congressman Tom Reynolds and House Speaker Denny Hastert knew about Foley’s inappropriate e-mails and did nothing. And it’s not just they may have been motivated by a desire to hold onto Republican seats in the House.
But shouldn’t the GLBT community be outraged? It has been strangely silent.
I’m not an advocate of outing people. But there’ve been a lot of comparisons made between “gay Hollywood” and “gay DC.” Gays in the entertainment industry have a legitimate concern --- especially those in front of the camera, who feel audiences won’t accept them in heterosexual roles if their real identity is made public. But DC is different.
Closeted gays in the highest levels of government are pretending to be someone else in order to obtain privilege and power. Their goal is not to suspend our sense of reality but to improve it. It’s hard to excuse a closeted gay man in the Republican Party, given the bigotry and hardship this administration has heaped on GLBTs. This is the party that used same-sex marriage as a wedge issue to win the 2004 election.
I understand men in Foley’s generation who either haven’t come out or have come out only to a few close friends. If they began wrestling with their sexual orientation 20 or 30 years ago, there was no “Will and Grace.” There was no “Ellen.”
And there was no Barney Frank either.
Maybe what really bothered me was realizing that flagrant abuse of public trust is not limited to heterosexuals. And just because someone is gay in government doesn’t mean they care about we the (gay) people.
--- Tim Louis Macaluso

Reynolds, remixed

2006-10-13T10:11:00.000-04:00

Damned Spot, the political ad deconstruction feature over at Slate, gives Congressman Tom Reynolds' latest offering a little makeover.
A Foley Apology, Translated is just what it bills itself to be: a translation of the political meaning behind the rhetoric. Sample translation:

Reynolds, in his ad: At the time, I thought I'd done the right thing.

Damned Spot's translation: I thought I'd given myself plausible deniability.

If you've seen the ad (or even if you haven't) you can pretty much guess where this is headed, but it's worth the watch anyway.

--- Krestia DeGeorge

Hevesi loves regionalism?

2006-10-12T16:50:00.000-04:00

Alan Hevesi, the state’s comptroller, has been making a name for himself by attacking local public officials. Today, Hevesi had a new target: the way New Yorkers are separated into cities, towns, villages. The divisions were designed in the 18th century, and now they’re expensive, outdated, and discriminatory, says Hevesi. He doesn’t suggest solutions, and proponents of regionalism won’t find anything new in his report on local government. It is, though, one more piece of evidence of the folly and the cost of the state’s multiple layers of government.

--- Mary Anna Towler

Renaissance renderings

2006-10-12T10:48:00.000-04:00

A couple of looks at the new designs for Renaissance Square unveiled by Moshe Safdie and the county Wednesday night. (Click to enlarge.)

Here's a sketch of the complex from viewed from Main Street:

Here's a look at the newly tweaked "pier" where RGRTA riders will switch buses:

And finally a closer look at the performing arts center, again from Main Street:

Iraqi deaths

2006-10-11T10:20:00.000-04:00

A new study of Iraqi deaths suggests that many more Iraqis have died from violent causes since the US invasion than before the invasion.

The study -- conducted by researchers from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins -- says that the total could be as high as 600,000. That's far higher than the total set in studies from a variety of other sources, and the Bloomberg report is getting mixed reviews.

Some experts say the study is credible, citing its sample size and the fact that it relied on interviews with Iraqi families. Critics quoted in the New York Times charged that the sample size was too small, among other problems. In addition, the Times noted that under Saddam Hussein "the state had a monopoly on killing, and the deaths of thousands of Iraqi Shiites and Kurds that it caused were never counted."

--- Mary Anna Towler

Two strikes against Kuhl

2006-10-10T09:29:00.000-04:00

Thanks to the eagle-eyed Liz Benjamin over at the Albany Times-Union's blog for ferreting out these two new Massa ads set to start running today.
The first is pretty much what you'd expect: a few sound bites from Massa highlighting Kuhl's votes on select issues like CAFTA and funding for Walter Reed:

It's the second ad that's really the interesting one. It comes from Maj. Gen. John Batiste, a Republican. It shouldn't come as too big a shock to City readers that Batiste wouldn't help Kuhl. Here he is in an interview with City late last month:

In your talk at the library, you criticized members of Congress who make fact-finding trips to Iraq and come back and report that things are going well. Was that a reference to Congressman Randy Kuhl?

Yeah, that was Randy Kuhl.

Have you spoken to Kuhl? Could he be right?

No, no. I wouldn't give him the time of day or my vote, for that matter. I am a registered Republican, but it will be a cold day in hell before I vote for anyone who I don't think is well informed and has the moral courage to make the right decisions.

Still, it's a bit of a surprise to hear him in this Massa radio ad, slamming Kuhl.

--- Krestia DeGeorge

Kuhl on Katrina

2006-10-06T16:15:00.000-04:00

Apparently at least a few people think Brownie was doing a heckuva job.
One of them is local congressman Randy Kuhl.
In this severely truncated video clip (uploaded to YouTube by the campaign of his opponent, Eric Massa) Kuhl closes out his time in the pair's first debate by extolling Congress's reaction to Katrina as an example of government's responsiveness.

Also online you can find video of Tom Reynolds' Amherst press conference earlier this week. Ben Smith over at the Daily Politics rightly calls this video "tooth-pulling" so we'll let you follow his link

"Rochester: A city of quality"

2006-10-02T16:33:00.000-04:00

Remember when Midtown was hopping?
The creators of this video do:

There's not much more we can add.

Cheney comes to town

2006-09-24T11:25:00.000-04:00

So Dick Cheney came to town for a few hours Friday.

There's only so much news that can come out of a brief, scripted stump speech for a Republican congressman, but here are a few small surprises:

First, Cheney's kinda photogenic. Yes, you read that right. Photogenic. It's not that he's really good looking in person or anything, but for an amateur photographer used to shooting the animated features of guys like Eliot Spitzer, Tom Suozzi, and Eric Massa, a subject whose face muscles barely move is actually a pleasant change of pace.

Another surprise: His rhetoric, like his facial expressions, was subdued. When James Carville came to Rochester this spring to raise money for the Dems it was all fire and brimstone to rally the party's base. Cheney's talk sounded more like a professor's lecture by comparison. One based on platitudes and talking points to be sure, but delivered with a calm, measured demeanor nonetheless.

Finally, Randy Kuhl, the congressman who Cheney was here campaigning for, introduced him as "the President of the United States." Does Kuhl have some inside information? His campaign manager (and son) James Kuhl says no, it was a simple slip of the tongue.

Check out the paper this Wednesday for a fuller account of Cheney's visit.

---Krestia DeGeorge

Boston wins Rivera

2006-09-22T12:14:00.000-04:00

He was named this year’s national Superintendent of the year. He got an impressive grant from the Gates Foundation. Test scores have been rising, and he’s pushing a broad initiative called the Children’s Zone to provide services to families in the city’s poorest neighborhoods. And now he’s leaving.

At the end of this school year, Rochester Superintendent Manny Rivera will head to Boston, to lead that city’s school district. Rivera had previously said he wasn’t interested in the job, but apparently Boston wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Rivera has a long history with the Rochester district. He began as a teacher, served as an assistant superintendent and then as superintendent in the early 1990’s, joined the Edison Schools corporation for several years, and was then lured back to Rochester. He’s been superintendent for the past four years.

News of his resignation is being announced today, but by the time of the mid-day press conference, it was no secret. The story, using Rochester board president Domingo Garcia as the source, broke in a morning daily newspaper: not the Democrat and Chronicle, but the Boston Globe.

--- Mary Anna Towler

Paper chase

2006-09-21T15:11:00.000-04:00

Newspaper Guild of Rochester President Steve Orr at today's rally

Sunday marks the 14th year without a contract for reporters at the Democrat and Chronicle.

The guild (the union representing editorial staffers at the Gannett paper) held a rally earlier today across the street from the paper’s downtown building to highlight the anniversary.

Speakers at the event included Republican State Senator Joe Robach and Democratic Assemblyman (and Labor Committee Chair) Susan John, plus a heavy contingent of local union people. Jim Bertolone, head of the local AFL-CIO pledged to work with candidates Eliot Spitzer and Hillary Clinton to convince them to boycott the paper’s editorial board for the upcoming season (Last year all four major party candidates for mayor boycotted their endorsement interviews --- the paper endorsed anyway).

The guild has been in negotiations with the local management and Gannett attorneys since the last contract expired in 1992. Earlier this year the paper agreed to allow a federal mediator into the talks, but not much else has changed in awhile. One of the main sticking points is a 401(k) plan, which the company offers to other employees, but not those represented by the guild. Editorial staff also disapprove of plenty of other changes the paper is making to cope with an industrywide downturn.

A D&C staffer who identified himself only by his first name, Dan, said the paper’s statement was simply: “There’s no reason to comment on that at this point,” and attributed it to Director of Marketing Services Tom O’Connor.

--- Krestia DeGeorge

Dept. of Unfortunate Juxtapositions: Spitzer edition

2006-09-21T14:41:00.000-04:00

From yesterday's "In Other Magazines" in Slate, teasing two (unrelated?) articles: one on former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey and his new book about coming out, the other on a certain future New York Governor.

So this is why "winning isn't enough" for Spitzer?

To make matters worse the link Slate provides to the Spitzer story takes you to --- you guessed it --- McGreevey's tell all.

(For the real Spitzer article --- worth reading by the way --- click here instead.)

--- Krestia DeGeorge

100 Percent Batiste

2006-09-21T11:07:00.000-04:00

Retired Major General John Batiste has spoken out against Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s handling of the war in Iraq so many times now that he begins his speeches by addressing his critics:

No, he’s not trying to build up his name recognition because he is running for some kind of political office.

And, no he is not a Democrat.

“I’ve been a Republican all my life and I am a registered Republican today,” he told a crowd at the Rochester Public Library Tuesday, where he was reviewing David Suskind’s book “The One Percent Doctrine.” “But I can tell you,” he said, “come election time I am going to vote for the candidate that is most informed and with the moral courage to do the right thing.”

Batiste really didn’t offer much of a critique of Suskind’s book other than saying: “He had a great deal of access.”

Instead, he took the swipes at his favorite subjects, Rumsfeld and administration. “I think history will show there was no connection between 9/11 and Iraq,” he said. “But my office was right next to Paul Wolfowitz’s and Rumsfeld’s. I listened to them go through the process of trying to prove that there was [a connection] to justify their objectives.”

And he didn’t spare Congress for its compliant role in the lead-up to the war, as well as those who continue to support it out of party loyalty. “Our Congress and senators don’t have a clue,” he said. “Our Congress is not holding them [the Bush administration] accountable. When they go to Iraq and come back saying everything is going oh so well, vote that guy out of office, because it is bullshit.”

Was that a slap at Upstate Congressman Randy Kuhl? Batiste didn’t mention Kuhl by name, and maybe he was speaking in generalities. But Kuhl went to Iraq in early August 2006, and when he returned, he described Iraq as a place where progress is being made and said that “most of the country is very, very safe.”

Batiste will be in Washington with other generals on Monday speaking at a Congressional meeting on the war in Iraq.
--- Tim Macaluso

Getting warmer: the race in the 29th district

2006-09-19T15:35:00.000-04:00

In case you missed it (we did), Congressman Randy Kuhl came out with his first TV spot late last week. (Not counting his response to the MoveOn ads, of course.)

Like his competitor, Eric Massa's first, this is essentially a feel-good spot -- in this case emphasizing the federal money Kuhl's steered to his district.

The Massa-Kuhl race has quietly been building. Last week Kuhl called on Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to investigate price gouging at the gas pump. Perhaps that was an attempt to dull the impact of a Spitzer endorsement, which Massa received here in Rochester earlier today.

The endorsement -- actually made earlier in the season -- was done at a press conference at a local Veterans of Foreign Wars: the VFW-PAC is also endorsing Massa. Less than two hours after that Kuhl's House office countered that with a press release extolling the news that Iraq will take over security operations in a second province.

The Iraq war is shaping up to be a key battleground for this race. Massa is betting on his service in the military to lend credence to his calls for a withdrawal. Meanwhile Kuhl, who tried to burnish his war credentials with a trip to Iraq earlier this year, is characterizing his opponent's position (surprise, surprise) as "cut and run." The pair both made their arguments in a piece on the Democrats' war dilemma in this week's Sunday Times.
-- Krestia DeGeorge

Elliott vs. Rivera

2006-09-18T17:35:00.000-04:00

It’s not unusual for elected officials to write letters to the editor. But Rochester School Board member Cynthia Elliott’s piece in the August 31 Democrat and Chronicle raised the eyebrows of some of her fellow board members.

Elliott’s letter --- “Reminder: School Chief Serves Board” --- was a public reprimand of Superintendent Manuel Rivera.

Rivera and Rochester Mayor Bob Duffy are co-chairing the new Education Leadership Council, a group of university and business leaders hoping to improve the school district’s attendance and graduation rates.

In her letter, Elliott complained that by co-chairing the committee with Duffy, Rivera had elevated himself to the level of an elected official. The superintendent, she said, reports to her and the other members of the School Board, and the board’s president, not Rivera, should be co-chairing the Leadership Council.

Elliott is sometimes at odds with other board members and with Rivera, and this is no exception. “I can only tell you that the board does not share Cynthia Elliott’s views on this,” board president Domingo Garcia said on Monday. “To me and to other board members, the fact that the superintendent is involved at this level is a very positive thing.”

“This board expects the superintendent to reach out to the mayor,” said board vice president Malik Evans, “not to mention: the Council was formed by Mayor Duffy. It’s his prerogative who he wants to chair it with him.”

Elliott’s letter “made it look like there was something surreptitious going on,” said board member Tom Brennan. “There wasn’t; we’ve all known about this for a long time. He’s not acting out of order. It’s a CEO to CEO-level meeting, and frankly, Manny sitting down with the mayor of this city is long overdue. It is the only way that major projects like the Rochester Children’s Zone will move forward. I mean, isn’t this what we want?”

“I’m not concerned about the fact that she votes no on most things,” said Brennan. “There is nothing wrong with a diversity of opinion. But I am tired of these people who want to make the district their whipping boy and take every opportunity to be critical of the superintendent. It doesn’t do anything to move our agenda forward. It only makes the job harder.”

Brennan and Evans co-wrote a letter to the D&C last week supporting Rivera. So far, the newspaper --- which is in the midst of a special editorial-page project on the Upstate economy --- hasn’t printed it.
--- Tim Louis Macaluso

The Republican rebellion

2006-09-15T12:09:00.000-04:00

Republicans are having a grand old time playing strong man. Anybody who suggests that we ought to protect the rights of prisoners is accused of being fluffy headed about terrorism. So it was a fine thing indeed to see four strong Republican senators joining the rest of us wimps yesterday.
John McCain, John Warner, Lindsey Graham, and Susan Collins joined Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee in refusing to kowtow to the president on the issue of interrogating and trying prisoners. Also speaking out against the administration: former Secretary of State and Joint Chiefs Chairman Colin L. Powell. In a letter to the senators, Powell warned that if the administration is permitted to come up with its own definition of the Geneva Conventions, the world will “doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism.” And, he warned, it would “put our own troops at risk.”
The president vows to press on, ignoring the advice of someone who has had far more experience with wartime imprisonment than he has: former POW McCain.
--- Mary Anna Towler

Primary? What primary?

2006-09-14T17:21:00.000-04:00

Ah, democracy.
You didn’t expect a high turnout for Tuesday’s primaries, but good grief: 14 percent in Monroe County? City voters managed to hit about 18 percent (according to unofficial returns yesterday), thanks to the Democratic fights over School Board and City Court. Even then, you’re talking about two important officials being elected by a small minority of voters. The number of registered Democrats in the city: 57,121. The number who voted on Tuesday: a little over 9300.
There’s no mystery about what that low turnout reflects: everybody knew Spitzer and Hil would win. But there’s also no secret about what it means, and, frankly, what it breeds: a growing disconnect between politicians and the public and growing dissatisfaction and distrust among the public.
--- Mary Anna Towler

Kuhl takes on ...Spitzer?

2006-09-14T16:42:00.000-04:00

In a press release today Freshman GOP Congressman Randy Kuhl fired one across the bow of Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. The issue: gas prices.
According to Kuhl, gas prices differ by up to 50 cents between his district and parts of Pennsylvania.
"We have price gouging statutes on the books in New York and they ought to be used by the Attorney General to stop this practice from occurring," said Kuhl in the release.
If it succeeds, the move accomplishes the dual objective of sullying Spitzer, while giving Kuhl some publicity that doesn't automatically include his challenger Eric Massa.

Meanwhile Massa's out with his first TV spot of the campaign (earlier ads attacking Kuhl were from MoveOn.org).

Unsurprisingly the mini-biopic focuses on his service in the Navy. It's a feel good ad that will appeal more to moderate Republicans than to the Democratic Party's base. But then again, that's who Massa will have to draw in order to win in a district with three Republicans to every two Dems.
--- Krestia DeGeorge

Job chase

2006-09-14T16:06:00.000-04:00

Do Rochester’s employers have it a little too easy?

That’s the question a friend was asking after a series of job interviews last month. We’ll call him G. He’s a middle aged male who got laid off from one of the local banks after it was bought out by a larger firm. G has some college education, but he wasn’t a high paid senior executive. He was always content with the backroom administrative grind --- the person behind the person. And yeah, he’s working, but it’s been one temp job after another with no benefits. No health insurance. No paid time off in over a year. He says his time off between jobs is spent in a nervous frenzy looking for work.

After a long dry spell, he was called to an interview at one of the local colleges. He investigated the job before he went to the interview. He role-played. He wrote down his talking points and timed himself to avoid talking too much. And when the interview finally came, he thought he did pretty well. G was a little concerned by one question --- why would he want to start at the bottom? Without prior experience in a college setting, he says he saw it as the perfect opportunity. It seemed like an acceptable answer.

When he didn’t hear anything, he called and left a message. Better to be a pest than to be too passive, says G. A couple days passed and he gets an email from the woman who interviewed him. She apologized for not getting back to him, but she was on vacation in Greece and would get back to him as soon as she returned to work. She asked if he was still interested in the job to which he replied an emphatic yes.

Another week passes after she had returned, and no call. It got to the point where it was uncomfortable asking, “Have you heard anything?” The answer was obvious. But the question I had was who besides Donald Trump emails the person applying for lowest paying job in the company from their vacation spot in Greece, teasingly apologizes for not responding sooner, feigns interest and then blank? Nothing?

But for G, it was the last straw. “Why should I stay in Rochester,” he says. “There’s just no opportunity. There’s no upward mobility. People stay in the same jobs until they get canned or they retire. And they wonder why Western New York is in decline.”

With all the layoffs in this area, the job market is tight. Among many local industries real competition for employees ended in the ‘70’s, and headhunters make their living by relocating engineers and nurses out of the area. (A cousin two years out of nursing school was virtually hired over the phone for a job in North Carolina.)

If you knew someone who was considering moving to Rochester, what would you tell them if they asked your advice? What would you tell them about the local economy? Anyone out there who made the decision to leave --- what was it like?

--- Tim Louis Macaluso

The home stretch

2006-08-28T15:25:00.000-04:00

When the endorsements from the big papers start rolling out, you know a campaign's almost over. The New York Times put us past that milestone yesterday, endorsing Eliot Spitzer for governor. Their argument seemed to hinge on their belief that Spitzer will have the necessary political capital to reform Albany, and longshot challenger Tom Suozzi would not --- though the tone of the editorial was vaguely apologetic for saying so. (The Times did endorse underdog Mark Green over poll fave Andrew Cuomo). Tune in on Wednesday to find out City's endorsement in the Democratic gubernatorial primary.

Art and the authority

2006-08-23T09:43:00.000-04:00

Tonight will be a busy night at the county legislature.

Last-minute proposals are on tap for both the controversy over moving airport art (third item) and the Water Authority debacle.

In the wake of a damning audit (pdf) on the authority from state comptroller Alan Hevesi, Republicans want the Water Authority’s current administration to show they’ve already made many of the recommended reforms. Dems want the legislature to do its own investigation and to try to recoup some of the lost money.

All those proposals surface at the meeting of the Ways and Means Committee at 6 p.m.

The Dems also have a proposal that would create a committee to recommend placement of art objects in the airport. Such a committee wouldn’t have much power, but it could influence the debate over what goes where.

The idea will get a hearing at the Environment and Public Works Committee meeting at 4 p.m.

Curfew a go tonight?

2006-08-22T16:37:00.000-04:00

City council will probably approve a temporary youth curfew at tonight’s monthly meeting.
When the item came up earlier this month councilmembers voted to hold the item in committee pending further review. At that time councilmember Adam McFadden (right), who initially proposed the idea a couple of years ago, said that not enough safeguards were in place to prevent the curfew from becoming a way of criminalizing urban youth.
The revised legislation, however, doesn’t directly address this concern. In a press release, McFadden said that a 90-day curfew will allow Mayor Bob Duffy’s administration to evaluate “both the demand and the potential problems that may arise in this venture.” McFadden also said that he’d like to continue efforts to create a curfew that mimics one in place in Minneapolis. Doing so would require bringing in the county and school district as financial partners, he said.
Proposed changes include:
• Extending curfew hours from 11 p.m. to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.
• Reducing the age from 17 to 16.
• Eliminating an exemption for youth “on an errand” at the request of a parent or guardian.
• Specifying First Amendment exceptions to the legislation.
• Changing the effective date and expiration of the curfew.
An early afternoon press release gave no further specifics.
--- Sujata Gupta

Weekend reading assignments: Scary Sy Hersh edition

2006-08-18T17:39:00.000-04:00

• Hardly any news about the Bush administration surprises us anymore. But the latest Seymour Hersh article in The New Yorker, while not a surprise, sure ramped up our own state of alarm. The Bush administration, Hersh writes, “was closely involved in the planning of

Israel

’s retaliatory attacks” against Hezbollah in

Lebanon

. The administration believed that a successful attack could both protect

Israel

and “serve as a prelude to a potential American preemptive attack to destroy

Iran

’s nuclear installations,” writes Hersh.

• Thanks to Matthew Rothschild at The Progressive for reading the fine print and the end of a Times story on growing violence in Iraq yesterday. While the Pentagon is planning to send in more troops, the administration officials, according to the Times, “are considering alternatives other than democracy.”

• “What does it say about the dinosaur newspaper industry that the world's richest man is investing in it?”

• A writer at one of Philly’s alt-weeklies goes on the 100-mile diet --- and lives to tell about it.
More on the locavore’s dilemma here.

• When it's not dealing with tough issues like exporting Democracy abroad our nation's paper of record tackles the truly important domestice issues of the day. For instance: Where does Red Sox nation start?

The paper trail

2006-08-18T11:17:00.000-04:00

In a press release on their website, the Messenger Post Newspapers announced their putting themselves on the chopping block. The Canandaigua Messenger is one of only a half dozen or so independently owned dailies left in the state. Publisher George Ewing Jr. says in the release that he’s received numerous unsolicited offers and made the decision earlier this year. He’s planning to hire a broker to look for good buyers, but there’s no word in the release of what criteria he’s looking for. Two possibilities jump to mind though. The first is GateHouse Media. The firm specializes in small market dailies, weeklies and shoppers and just moved their headquarters from suburban Chicago to Fairport. They own a cluster of dailies in the Southern Tier (Wellsville, Hornell, and Corning) and a daily in Oswego. And they recently bought a chain of suburban weeklies in the Boston area. They're also planning to take the company public later this year, so they'd presumably have some cash on hand for acquisitions.

Another possible buyer is Gannett. Suburban weeklies and small dailies haven’t been a big part of this company’s strategy so far, but their Rochester unit has boasted the highest print saturation (including specialty pubs like Insider, Rochester Magazine and the Big Auto Book) of any major market in the nation. It might be hard for them to resist extending their dominance a little further.

Speaking of our town’s print giant, Gannett launches a free bi-monthly mag for Rochester-area women today titled her. 20,000 copies will be mailed directly to homes and another 5,000 will be distributed at various locations. In a D&C Business section article the mag’s editor (and custom publications director) Jane Sutter says she “didn't see any obvious direct competition in the market.”

Apparently she doesn’t view Rochester Woman as competition and didn’t get the memo about the redesign of the Living section two years ago. Or the one with the readership stats for the Rochester Magazine and Insider, both of which overlap with her new mag’s demographic.

The piece, by business staff writer Amy Wu also promises “exclusive content, a searchable calendar database and a blog, and her will offer a weekly newsletter of things to do.” Then it adds, one sentence later: “There are no plans to add additional staff for the magazine.” Guess those slackers in Sutter’s division just weren’t working hard enough before.

We're on the list

2006-08-18T10:25:00.000-04:00

Angie Hicks had an idea. How do I tell my neighbors and friends about good service providers and warn them about the bad ones? And would anyone pay me for this dish? That was 11 years ago, and apparently people do pay her for the 411 on the best painter, carpet cleaner and tree trimmer by subscribing to Angieslist.com. After an ad campaign that blitzed the Rochester market last month, Angie and her list are finally here. It’s a bit like Craigslist married to Consumer Reports. Angieslist is more opinion than product testing. But it’s local like Craigslist minus the mind-numbing rants. So if it matters to you that XYZ plumber was a nice guy and walked your neighbor’s dog before she got home or that ZYX electrician was caught smelling that customer’s personals, check it out here.

--- Tim Macaluso

HillaryTV

2006-08-16T17:11:00.000-04:00

The first television advertisement for Hillary Clinton’s campaign for, er, US Senate comes to television screens in Rochester and around the state tonight. (Watch it here.)

The ad is mainly recycled material from the 18-minute film on the former first lady (pictured here in a visit to Rochester last fall) screened at the state Democratic Convention in Buffalo this spring. That film did nothing to quell speculation that this campaign is a springboard for the 2008 presidential election, so neither will this ad.

It sticks to four generic (i.e. non-New York state specific) issues that just about everyone would support: supporting firefighters before and after 9/11, keeping military bases open, creating jobs, and providing health care for kids. There are no new policy initiatives here; the campaign just wants you to know they think these things are important.

Here are the takes of the New York Daily News and Albany Times-Union.

What do you think? Tell us in the comments section.