Another candidate for County Exec
Yesterday, we told you all about Andrew Stainton, who is running for County Exec as a member of the sustainability party. Turns out the Working Family Party is running a candidate as well:
Brooks, a Republican elected four years ago, will face Working Families candidate Patrick Christopher, 37, of Webster.
That’s the good news. Here’s the bad news:
But the lack of a Democratic challenger at the top of the ticket frees up Brooks to spend the $876,792 in her war chest on some of the 100 other local races in November.
There’s no way to put a good face on this: it’s a huge blunder by the Monroe County Dems.
You’ll notice we didn’t include any of the quotes from MCDC attempting to justify this.
This blunder’s HUUUUUUUUUUGEEE Rochester!
What’s the campaign finance law on this? Would she have been free to spend the money on lej races if there WERE a Dem candidate? Or not? If not then would an official WFP candidate be enough to force her to spend the money ONLY on the exec race? (not rhetorical questions, I don’t know)
Either way, money wins again. Very disappointing.
They can spend her money in any way they want and now we will have hundreds of thousands of dollars pouring into these contested legislative races and there is no big fish to raise money for the Democratic side or to fight back.
Its shameful.
I am still not convinced this is the better of two bad scenarios. Not to sound like a Polly Anna, but money does not have as large of an impact on the smaller races than it does county-wide. Additionally, without a marquis horse-race, I think GoP turnout will be depressed while the chance remains that Dems turnout in force. While not ideal, this could be the best course of action for the Dems. Will it tip the balance of power? Not likely. But I think the Dems will have more pick-ups than the GoP.
It looks bad. I admit that. Getting crushed by a 60% margin looks bad too. This is a calculated risk.
I’m actually curious as to how much money the MCDC has? Are they strapped or are they raising cash at a good clip?
Actually, Dem turnout is usually more affected by a marquis horse-race. The Republicans are more reliable voters in off years.
From my understanding, the reason money usually doesn’t have such an impact on the smaller races is because these candidates aren’t able to raise nearly as much as the larger candidates. In other words, the amount of money they raise doesn’t allow them to pay for much airtime, if any. I may be wrong.
Unfortunately, I think this can only hurt the Dems.
mcdc is a little strapped compared to maggie. i think it is only a blunder if you believe that a high profile person would have done it, like a bob duffy or a dave koon. what is the point of having a name no one knows to get pounded? what does that prove? if you think this is a big problem, you have fallen victim to the minarik spin machine.
Didn’t the minarik spin machine suggest this was a good strategy? Honestly, I don’t pay much attention to him anyway. This is my own thinking.
Can’t the Dems redirect some of the money that Duffy has raised to counteract Maggie’s money? Granted Duffy hasn’t raised as much as the Brookster, but he should have enough on hand to make a difference.
Only if Duffy wants to share the wealth. I imagine he will, but I doubt he’ll give too much of it away, since he probably has future ambitions, and will need the reserves then.
Again, I want to say, I’m not sold on this being the right decision. I’m just letting it play out before I pass judgment.
Can we all agree that if the Democrats have a net gain in County Lej seats, than this strategy wasn’t the disaster everyone is claiming it is? Is that fair, and if not, why?
All I keep thinking is if we ran someone and they lost 75% to 25% then we’ve got 4 years of “The people of this county solidly rejected the ‘Democrat’ (I hate it when they say that) alternative.” “They embraced this administration’s policies with open arms!”. The way we’ve got it now at least takes the fight to the ground. They cannot say that. We’re showing up for fight, but not for an ass kicking.
Good point (assuming that it would be as much of a blowout as that).
Yeah, its not like the Dems can do anything about the situation at this point anyway. I don’t think they should endorse a third-party candidate with no elected experience. At the end of the day, everyone can pontificate in different directions about what strategy may have been best, but let’s work with what we’ve got!
Hopefully, the Party, and elected Dem officials will put as many resources as possible behind the county leg. candidates. In my mind, we’re undoubtedly on the right side of the issues!
hrsstud, that “let’s roll up our sleeves and git ‘er done” attitude is why you make the big bucks.
Seriously, part of the whole “Crashing the Gate” idea is, if you don’t like what’s going on in your local politics, step up and do what you can to make a difference. You get enough progressives involved, you start to acquire critical mass.
The world is run by those who show up. And blog.
With Stainton vision of a train that goes across the county and him pleding to knock on every door in Monroe County, this guy is a shoo in
Don’t count Stainton out……
I just think it’s silly that the Dems are saying that they have chosen not to run a candidate. Fact is, no one wanted to run and they couldn’t find anyone. If anyone had stepped forward, we’d have a candidate. So, I don’t see this is a “blunder” just an unfortunate sitation we’ll have to deal with.
Unfortunately, I see it as likely to hurt Democrat turnout more than Republicans. For whatever reason Dems just don’t turn out for the local elections unless there’s a high profile race going on.
Andrea? It’s the republicans who don’t turn out unless there is a high profile election. Jeesh!
You may want to read this and get the facts straight:
http://www.whec.com/article/stories/S155276.shtml?cat=703&v=1
You might want to try not to be so rude.
Also, what does that article you linked to have to do with voter turnout in off year elections? Quoting someone’s opinion is not reading up on the facts.
Indeed. Anyone have any hard evidence on the correlation between top-ticket races and turnout?
Regardless, I agree, it’s an unfortunate situation. Now let’s see what we can do with it.
OK, maybe you (and only you?) will believe Minerik?
County GOP Chairman Stephen Minarik said the challenge for Republicans will be getting voters to the polls in a year without a competitive county executive race. Lower voter turnout could hurt Republicans in suburban races, he said.
“We will have to spend far more money on turning people out to vote than we probably would have,” Minarik said.
Democrats are also without a state Supreme Court candidate. So when voters go to the polls, unless Democrats get a judicial candidate by next month, the party will have the first two ballot lines blank. The first Democratic candidate would be Sid Farber, a former Republican running for Family Court judge against Republican Joe Nesser.
To combat lower voter turnout, Republicans plan to promote a Taxpayer Protection Act that they approved earlier this year. The measure, which Republicans got on the ballot by gathering enough signature petitions, would cap nonmandated county spending at no more than the rate of inflation.
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070801/NEWS01/708010318/1002/NEWS
I’m not understanding you. I said that Republican turnout is always high. So, I’m disagreeing with Minarik. What are you getting on my case about?
Turnout is going to be lower on both sides, sillies! You’re talking about elections that are going to be decided by only a couple hundred people. It’s base-on-base, us against them, a ground game. It’s about getting rides to the polls at this point…