| With Friends Like These ... Dems Implode in LD21 |
By: Aaron E. Wicks
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Posted: Sunday, July 19, 2009 7:59 pm
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Rochester, NY (July 20, 2009) -- Last week, as Democratic Party regulars wondered who would be submitting petitions to run for City Council and School Board, one surprise entry threw the party into turmoil. Jan Bowers has submitted enough signatures to qualify for the ballot in September, assuming she survives any potential challenges to the validity of those petitions. But it turns out that incumbent County legislator Carrie Andrews is in the same position. That is, Andrews' petitions are under scrutiny -- and so far, some of them appear to be wilting under the glare of the spotlight.
As the petition deadline approached last Friday, Andrews visited the Board of Elections to personally inspect the petitions that had been submitted in her district, Monroe County Legislative District 21. To her likely surprise, the Bowers petitions contained more signatures that her own and many of the signatures had been collected early in the petition season. Why is this problematic? Because if a voter signs a petition for two candidates competing for a single office, the earlier signature is valid, but the later one is not. If Andrews' petitions had a number of those signatures, she could have been in jeopardy of falling short of the legal requirement to appear on the ballot. (This issue is currently under challenge with the Board of Elections)
Fortunately, as a Democrat, Andrews had friends in high places. Some of those friends engaged in a last-minute blitz for signatures to make Andrews' ballot access more secure. The "Save Carrie" effort brought such local luminaries to the streets as Harry Bronson (Legislator from LD24 and County Legislature Minority Leader), Vincent Esposito (County Legislator from LD 16), Ted O'Brien (former MCDC Chair and County legislator from LD 17), Anthony Plonczynski (Leader of the 21st LD Committee) and -- drumroll please -- County Chairman, Assemblyman, former Comptroller candidate and occasional petition fraud perpetrator: Joe Morelle (given his record, perhaps not an ideal choice to help in this effort). The Andrews All-Star Team returned just under 100 signatures in their tour de force. Not bad for a night's scramble.
One problem: highly-placed sources indicate that the petitions that have been filed to supplement Andrews' original filing have been filed incorrectly. Specifically, the Beacon has learnt that the Board of Elections has communicated the following to MCDC regarding their additional petitions:
[The additional volume of petitions] “does not comply as it indicates that it is volume two (2) of a two (2) volume petition and it was not bound. . . . Since it is unclear what your intention is, each petition currently stands on its own and as noted above... the second petition . . . does not comply with the requirements.
How MCDC could have submitted petitions on behalf of one of its candidates that did not comply with election law is nothing short of jaw-dropping. Democrats know (and this reporter has witnessed it on more than one occasion) that Democratic Commissioner Tom Ferrarese is available to answer questions to ensure that such errors do not happen -- evidently his guidance was not sought or it was ignored.
This type of story has a number of names (some of which are more colorful than others): SNAFU, clusterf--k, goat rope. But what should concern both Democrats and non-Democrats alike is how does such a situation come to pass? Why did the party have to roust party leaders at the eleventh hour to come to the aid of a candidate -- aren't there close to 100 members of the 21st LD Committee who exist, in part, to gather these signatures? And if the committee was not sufficiently responsive, wouldn't the party have been monitoring the situation to ensure it would not fall short -- or even be at risk of falling short?
The explanation is likely a simple one -- one that is quite common when an area is under the control of a dominant regime: arrogance and complacency. The party clearly did not act with more alacrity because it did not feel that was necessary. This scare might be a timely lesson for the party before such things have important consequences -- like losing elections.
The good news? Someone who is willing to work hard and who has a handful of solid supporters can still compete with an established political party. Competition is a wonderful thing in a democracy. Democrats in LD21 learnt this recently (and may yet learn more such lessons). Voters will benefit by having more candidates from which to choose and by knowing that you can take on the establishment and at least get them to sweat a little....
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