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| As Summer Approaches, the Grassroots Grow ... Angrier |
By: Aaron E. Wicks
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Posted: Monday, June 1, 2009 8:46 pm
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Rochester, NY (June 2, 2009) -- This author must make two immediate disclosures. First, it should be known that all media outlets prefer conflict to harmony. After all, do people pick up a newspaper or tune into the news to see people getting along? Hell no! So, as a journalist and business person, I openly confess that conflict sells. I also have to admit that I have a personal bias toward more political competition rather than less. Politics should be about choices and civil, substantive arguments. When pols cut back room deals to minimize he public debate and put on an appearance of public unity, the public good generally suffers.
Having made these two admissions, I now turn to the state of Rochester's Democratic Party. Despite the biases just confessed, it does appear that there is objective evidence that the leadership of the Democratic party in Rochester is in for a bumpy ride over the next several weeks.
Consider the following:
* In a recently-published letter to City newspaper, Jeanne Masten, a former Committee Leader and current committee member, expressed outrage at the outcome of the May convention. More to the point, not so much the outcome as the process through which that outcome was achieved. Repeating points also made in the Beacon, Masten noted with open disgust the fact that Anthony Plonczynski (Leader of LD21), Abby Rowe (Leader of LD26) and Joe Rittler (Leader of LD24) all betrayed their committee members' preferences by casting an unusually large share of their committee's weighted vote for Commissioner Cynthia Elliott -- despite the fact that Elliott received very few votes in any of these committees. Masten went further to point the finger of blame at County Legislators Carrie Andrews and Paul Haney for being complicit in this chicanery. Could Andrews and Haney find their names on a September primary ballot? Could Elliott find Southeast Dems balking at passing petitions with her name on them? Stay tuned.
* City paper is also reporting that Nancy Sung Shelton, one of the runners-up in the school board race, will be announcing her intention to access the primary ballot through the petition process. With Shelton's entry, the September ballot will have the names of Van Henri White, Jose Cruz, Cynthia Elliott and Shelton -- but only the top three vote-getters will be elected. There is also word that some additional candidates may petition for the school board primary as well.
* On the city council side, it is all but assured that the five designated candidates (Carolee Conklin, Dana Miller, Matt Haag, Jackie Ortiz and Loretta Scott) will be joined by the non-designated incumbents -- Gladys Santiago and John Lightfoot. Sherry Crumity and Diane Watkins -- both strong candidates who were not selected through the designation process -- are also very likely to submit petitions. And Tom Brennan, current School Board Commissioner, is likely to announce his candidacy for Council within the next several days. This list consists of ten candidates -- but again, there are likely to be even more.
* Sign-in sheets from the recent designating caucuses held by the various LD Committees -- the official record of who attended designating caucus meetings -- appear to show instances in which more votes were cast than members attending. The Beacon will investigate this matter and report out soon. If true, it would indicate fraud or gross incompetence by the only competitive party in the city.
All this adds up to bad news for the Democratic Party leadership. It turns out that some members of the party take the party's name seriously. They believe that public office, party leadership and political processes are not the sole property of a political elite or a group of faceless machinators. Rather, they belong to the people -- the "demos" in democracy. Masten's complaints and the possible fraud in at least one local committee are bad news for the party's leaders. These are instances of bad behavior that have been aired publicly for all to see. And party rank-and-file generally ask that leaders, at a minimum, to respect the rules and at least show a pretense of giving a damn about what the grassroots think. The crowded school board and city council primary fields also suggest bad tidings for leaders -- but that is only because leaders detest primaries. Primaries are the least controllable system for arriving at a party's nominee. There is a chance that the voters -- in all their boobocratic bungling -- might nominate someone who doesn't hew to the line set out by the leadership.
In this latter case, what is bad for the leaders is a boon to the voters. Democrats in Rochester will likely have some real choices in September. Of course, that depends on who can qualify for the ballot by submitting properly collected and signednominating petitions. And when those petitions are submitted, rest assured that all will be scrutinized closely to ensure they comply with state election law. That is the party's right and each voter's right: to review designating petitions and challenge them if they believe they are fraudulent.
But for now, the petition season is only just about to begin. If you are a registered Democrat living in the city of Rochester, prepare for the onslaught -- and check those petitions closely. Your first vote of this election year could be when you decide to sign or not to sign.
Republicans, take heart: city Democrats are proving that even without a credible challenge from the Right, they can get in their own way. But the real question is this: are the rank-and-file getting in the way of the leaders or are the leaders getting in the way of the grassroots?
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