Is the Monroe County GOP Melting Down?
So, based on everything I’m hearing/seeing/reading, I keep coming back to that question. Well, are they? Let’s look at the evidence:
- * I’m hearing things from Republicans like “I will never vote Republican again.”
- * I’m hearing things from my typically apolitical neighbors like “They run that place [the county leg] like a banana republic!”
- * Brooks is having to do a massive propaganda/PR campaign to stop the bleeding.
- * A friend of mine in Pittsford has been polled twice in the past week on the leg race there (Nixon vs. Daniele), and they threw in questions about Maggie Brooks.
- * The county GOP is going hard negative against certain candidates (e.g. Steve Eckel). Negative campaigning is generally considered a last ditch effort of desperation.
- * The county GOP is mailing ham-handed, fear-mongering lit against all local Dems running in the leg races.
- * Did I miss any other indicators? Add ‘em in the comments.
So, what gives? Is Minarik and crew just freaking out? Are they just thinking of creative ways to spend Brooks’ massive warchest?
I’m not going to say the Dems have this election in the bag, but the local GOP’s actions give off an “I’m drowning!!!” kind of vibe. Throw them an anchor– help your favorite candidate with phone banking, lit dropping, and Get Out The Damn Vote!
I think all of the schools’ administrators speaking out has really helped. Despite what Maggie and Steve think, people generally like their schools (at least in the towns) - they moved to their towns in part based on the schools’ reputations. They know their schools and the folks who run them better than they know Maggie (who they thought they knew as a pleasant, smart woman instead of a partisan, divisive politician). I think this plan at this time was a major miscalculation by the Monroe GOP, and the more response they get, the more they’re reacting -but poorly. Kind of like the panic experienced by a drowning non-swimmer -they’re flailing wildly, and ready to bring down anyone nearby.
,,,and even if they don’t like their schools - they don’t want to take it out on the kids regardless…
From what I’ve been hearing, I think there is a ton of dissatisfaction with Mr. Minarik in the Republican Party that has been building over the years. As long as he keeps winning local elections, he keeps his head above water. However, if all this crap backfires on the GOP on Nov. 6th, I would hope some influential people, who support his Party, will step up to the plate and say enough is enough you fool (just as they did to Doyle, although they chopped off the subordinate head of the dragon). They must realize his tactics are not conducive to fostering the positive, cooperative future we so desperately need in the Greater Rochester area. We need to work as a team to improve our future, instead of conspiring for partisan gain.
Let’s be frank, what did Karl Rove do for you? What is Steve Minarik doing for us?
They run that place [the county leg] like a banana republic!
I assume this doesn’t mean that they sell tasteful-but-overpriced clothes while pumping in Norah Jones on the sound system.
Personally, I would find that objectionable enough to vote against, but that’s me. Then again, if on Maggie had a butt like most of the sales girls at the BR, I might change my tune. . . .
as someone who has run on a treadmill in the row row behind Maggie at the YMCA, let me just say …you wouldn’t make these jokes if you saw what i saw.
Claw your eyes out,maybe; but not jokes
Ease up on the personal attacks, kids.
Hey, at least it is fun to watch….shooting themselves in the foot over and over again this year is pretty awesome stuff.
Republican Party=Titanic.
FEAR FEAR FEAR…that is ALL the Republicans have this year.
I watched Cheryl Dinolfo on the news last night and half expected her to go into Randy Kuhl’s rant about “they’re going to kill you…” For heaven’s sake, she is a county clerk, not the terrorism czar.
Those Republican mailings are disgusting, but then again, we expect nothing else. But how exactly do county legislature candidates fit into the entire driver’s license issue? THEY DON’T.
If you want to put Bythepeople’s exhortation to Get out the Damn Vote into action, the Monroe County Democratic Party GOTV rally is tomorrow at the Plumbers & Pipefitters Hall, 1850 Mt. Read Blvd. at 8:30 am. After the rally, pick up literature for your area, or the area of your favorite candidate, and take it to the streets!
[...] I’d hate to start counting my chickens before they’re hatched. But I tend to agree with BTP on this one, I think the Republicans area wee bit more concerned then they thought they needed to [...]
“For heaven’s sake, she is a county clerk”
And not a very good one either. Has anyone been to the actual County Clerk’s Office lately, her PRIMARY responsibility?
I for one have worked in or around that office for more than ten years, and it is without a doubt more dysfunctional and bass-ackwards than it has ever been. The good people on the front lines are horribly under supported by the higher ups, and any support they do get comes in the form of incompetent do-nothings. Not to mention the lines that are regularly out the door (that is NO exaggeration I am afraid) and when the general public finally does make it to the counter they will nearly half the time find themselves confronted with a very unhelpful, discourteous staff member.
What was once an efficient, well run recording office has become an understaffed quagmire. And most of what staff she does have is under trained and woefully unprepared to deal with the public.
This is the office I most look forward to seeing the Dems take in ‘08. What was once an important and respected post in our local government has been turned into nothing more than a podium for political grandstanding and a jumping off point for higher office.
PS: This is NOT an attack on any individual County Clerk’s Office employees. I have known and worked with many of these good people for many years. There is still a bunch of great people who are great at their jobs in this office; unfortunately they have been surrounded with and vastly outnumbered by incompetents and buffoons.
I have a lot of good contacts and even friends in that office. I do not want ANY of them to think that this is on them. It starts at the top, and no matter how well they do their individual jobs, Cheryl Dinolfo is still the one bringing the rest of it down around them.
I’ve attended meetings with Dinolfo and have been spectacularly unimpressed with her intelligence and grasp of management issues. This was a while ago, before she became Clerk. I can’t give you specifics - just an impression - and the impression was that she was totally clueless.
She is a political appointee, nothing more, and is totally unqualified to actually manage a large office.
Are there any particular times during the week and times during the day when lines tend to get out of control?
Out here in the west burbs I was also stunned by the amount of dissatisfaction among life long republicans.
The problem is here as on the national level the democrats have not developed any effective strategy for mobilizing this discontent.
I think we need a more progressive plan for Monroe counties future,not just less taxes and better republicanism
I think there are still a lot of old style republicans and swing voters to whom that would appeal.
I hear ya!
Does Dinolfo have ears? There is no evidence of her ears. Maybe she can’t hear what’s really going on around her.
A big Daniele billboard parked on a crumbling vacant parking lot on Monroe Avenue–just before the Clover/Monroe Intersection. Not enough of his lawn signs strewn all over Pittsford?