Channel 10 picks up Cooper Vision phone bank story
Channel 10 has a follow-up on the story of the Democratic phone bank that Maggie’s minions shut down. We broke the earlier this week. Here’s more from Channel 10:
Monroe County Democrats say something strange happened to dozens of their volunteers on Election Day and the party is preparing to call for an investigation.
A couple of weeks ago, the Democrats made an arrangement with the company CooperVision to use its phone bank.
[...]
Democratic Party Chair, Joe Morelle says he’s concerned about why his party’s phone bank was shut down. News 10NBC asked him why he thought it happened.
“I can tell you that Tuesday night we were in a sense uninvited by the company and I would feel terrible if they felt threatened in any way by our presence,” Morelle said. “But, if this is true, it doesn’t say a lot for people who would seek to win elections by discouraging people to vote.”
News 10NBC contacted CooperVision Wednesday. Their response was quote “We have no comment on this matter.”
The Democrats say they are in the process of investigating and may call the District Attorney to look at it.
I wondered how long it would take before someone at any thought to taking this story seriously.
There definitely needs to be an investigation. Everyone needs and deserves to know the truth in this situation.
Guess what I found out? The Parma Dems were at a phone bank Tues and Wed last week at Larsens Engineers - Larsens does some work for the town of Parma. Well I got a phone call the other day informing me that Rick Lemcke (Parma supervisor) called someone at Larsens to complain about the Parma Dems using their phones to get out the vote…What will Lemcke do? I have heard frequently about his vindictive nature so who knows, maybe he’ll cancel any contract work that Larsens is doing for the town. I’ll update you when I find out more.
Thanks.
Would that be the same Dick Lemcke who made the following contributions, according to the NYS Board of Elections:
4/24 to the Committee to Elect Dick Yolevich ($200)
6/28 to the Committee to Elect Supervisor Jim Breese ($125)
8/27/07 Lenhard Campaign Committee ($200)
Just askin’…
I really liked how Durso wouldn’t dignify an inquiry with a response
I have said this time and time again. Maggie and the Repos are out to put an end to true democracy….you know, where people actually have a VOICE.
Making get out the vote phone calls is something very few people like doing, but it absolutely necessary seeing that so few people vote. The idea that a local business would open its doors for such an activity should be rewarded and praised. Instead, the local goon squad is out making calls and putting pressure on these businesses to put an end to the calls.
I can’t say that I know much about the situation other than what I have heard. But aren’t businesses “free”, just like citizens?
This nets it out very nicely.
When the Republicans can’t run on their record they resort to intimidation.
Business’ should be free to support whomever they what without fear of retribution.
It’s not just the Republicans - it’s whatever Party or group holds power. I remember back in 1992 when Clinton’s people would not let Governor Casey of Pennslvania speak at the Democratic Convention - because he was pro-life.
It goes both ways.
And that’s similar to illegally strongarming businesses? I swear, Lee, for someone who is a terrific blogger and observer in general, you come up with some weak “democrats do bad things too” examples.
Come on.
I was referring to the putting an end to democracy part. When you silence people who disagree with your view, you are putting an end to democracy.
I actually agree with your point that this is typical of one party rule. But I think there aren’t a lot of recent Democratic parallels for this type of behavior. You have to go back to the Chicago machine or some such.
Netting this out, it’s pretty clear that there won’t be many (any) local businesses wanting to provide phone banks for Democrats during the next election. That’s bad, it sucks, and it’s a reality.
So, what’s the MCDC’s alternative plan? There are a lot of ways to do GOTV calling that don’t involve a phone bank supplied by a local business. One is lists given to volunteers who call from home. Another is setting up your own phone bank. I think either of these options should be within reach for the MCDC. Those of you who are involved in party politics might want to ask this question at the next party meeting.
Yes - Rotten there is are multiple ways to conduct a phone bank - there is value in the control and monitoring of a centralized operation. Remember most of these folks are indeed part time volunteers.
just to piggy back on this, as i have organized them before, more gets done at a ‘location’ than at home. it follows the same productivity as office work. sure, some people are effective working at home, but most need the structure to maximize output.
I would be incredibly ineffective as a home-phone-banker.
Dad! Daaaaaaaadyyy!
Yes, I’ve been involved in phone banking before, and I agree that calling from home is less effective. My point is that a vibrant, effective Democratic party will find an alternative, and this is a good, concrete example of a concrete example to use in judging the effectiveness of party leadership.
Phone banks will continue…as they did when we were denied access to the CooperVision phones. The location of the phone banks and whether a business gives access to their phone lines is not at issue.
Right now the issue is whether someone in authority within the Maggie Brooks administration put illegal pressure on local companies to deny GOTV activities.
If this was in fact done, we need to know why it was done. We need to know whether there was any legal basis for shutting down phone banks.
I would be happy to sit home alone making calls, however, the spirit of “group effort” would be sadly missing.
A. The answer to where to bank, or at least one of the answers, is unions. There are some great unions which have allowed Democratic campaigns to use their facilities and staffs. And they are way more organized than a lot of the Democratic campaigns around here.
B. The answer to preventing some of this nonsense is to start lawsuits, which enable you to get records - documentary, computer and phone records, in a process called discovery. Governmental use of intimidation by threatening to cut off funds to businesses, in order to prevent lawful election activity has to be actionable. Doesn’t the MCDC have counsel? If not, maybe statewide or national Democratic organizations should be contacted. Or the attorneys who pursued the issues in New Hampshire (although that was federal and this is state)?
I cannot speak for MCDC officially but I do know that the party did have some union locations as well as business locations for phone banks and there is a room with several lines for phone banking at MCDC HQ.
Well for starters, Morrelle HAS TO contact the D.A. about this. The only way to let local business know they are safe, is to make an example out of this situation. If it’s not addressed swiftly and with substance, the fear attached to challenging them survives, and challengers to their candidates will have an even greater disadvantage in wanting to face such an uphill fight to try to make a difference.
Note to Joe Morrelle - DO SOMETHING!
I absolutely agree. It is less than a year until the next election.
Winning the next election is a result of the actions started now. Morrelle needs to ensure that phone banks can be enabled next cycle. That is done now and if there is any illegal activity surrounding coopervison it needs to be identified.
I mean just because we didn’t have a candidate for Exec this year doesn’t mean we won’t have a Candidate for County Clerk next year.
Or does it? Guess it depends on what kind of Democratic party we have here.
That was my point. If there’s a viable, vibrant party, they’ll find another way to do phone banking.
If our local media were to investigate, it could resolve the issue whether Mr. Morelle does something or not. However, it would be preferrable if Mr. Morelle took this very seriously. A couple phone banks shut down in 2007 could turn into many more being shut down in the future if the Democrats are show to lack strong leadership.
We’ve already endured an election cycle without a “top of the ticket” candidate. We really can’t endure more humiliation.
What if folks from this website wrote to Mr. Morelle, requesting that he vigorously pursue this issue?
Why doesn’t RT put up a “sticky” post and summarize it in letter format. Then we can all “sign” it, and when it gets enough signatures, we can print it out and mail it to him.
This is the link to the “contact us” page from MCDC:
http://monroedemocrats.com/contactus.cfm
If MCDC doesn’t read RT on a regular basis, everyone there needs to be replaced.
Maybe cut out the middleman and go directly to Mike Green….
districtattorney@monroecounty.gov
I have reason to believe that MCDC is pursuing this aggressively.
I’m just concerned about possible differing meanings of “aggressively.”
Aggressively means…I’ll get right on it when I get back from the gym. Maybe.
[...] sad thing, of course, is that Minarik’s dirty trick with CooperVision worked and will continue to bear fruit. In the comments, Rotten says — and I think he’s [...]
[...] like we made Minarik angry (via the Brighton-Pittsford Post) with our coverage of the Cooper Vision phone bank scandal: He (Minarik) added he was upset that claims of what [...]
[...] an “institutional memory”, so when Coopervision shuts down a Dem phonebank and then gets their threatened COMIDA grant restored by the GOP, we connect the dots. You didn’t see that connection made in the press, [...]