Just a quick post - more details later but sources provided the following 4Q filing info

Eric Massa - $414,000 cash on hand

Randy Kuhl -$326,000 cash on hand

Check out the links at the FEC site.

Margaret Cho writes this excellent piece for Huffington Post. And it has become a dilemma now. I thought I would breeze right through this primary, choice made for months now, and here I am without a candidate. I’m sure all you readers out there will put up comments, make suggestions why I should pick one or the other. But I like Cho’s take on this:

CNN received dozens of e-mails shortly after posting the story, which focuses largely on conversations about Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama that a CNN reporter observed at a hair salon in South Carolina whose customers are predominantly African-American.

The story states: “For these women, a unique, and most unexpected dilemma, presents itself: Should they vote their race, or should they vote their gender?”

An e-mailer named Tiffany responded sarcastically: “Duh, I’m a black woman and here I am at the voting booth. Duh, since I’m illiterate I’ll pull down the lever for someone. Hm… Well, he black so I may vote for him… oh wait she a woman I may vote for her… What Ise gon’ do? Oh lordy!”

(snip)

Why are white men allowed to look at the issues and judge for themselves and the rest of us are expected to take sides grade school style? That is racist and sexist and dumb. That is like if all the stupid people voted for Huckabee (please God let this not happen).[This is me-Please,please,pleaseGod]

Should they vote their race, or vote their gender? Hmmmm, I don’t know. Perhaps they should vote the issues.

Yeah, that’s what I’m gonna hafta do. Ok, readers-hit me with your best shot.

This is, in part, the “What the heck’s been going on over at Dragon Fly Eye lately” edition.  As the Germans say, checkun-zie outen:

• Carla Palumbo notes that the GOP in the county leg are stealing Dem ideas & proposals on opening up the leg and calling them their own:

We (meaning the Democrats) pushed for televising Lej meetings — they shut down the referral at every chance.

(snip)

fast forward to election day 2007, Republicans nearly lose the majority their lack of transparency a major issue, the secretiveness….. guess what referral is going to the Legislature this month coming up? A Republican sponsored referral to webcast the meetings (thank you Travis Heider D, Brighton for your original referral) and posting minutes and agenda on the website (thank you Democratic Caucus for your website that did it first). Ummmmm what changed…. did it get cheaper?

This is nothing new for the county GOP– I remember them nuking an anti-discrimination proposal that Carrie Andrews (D) put forward, only to bring it up later as a GOP proposal.  Party trumps good government.  It’s all about the PR, folks.

• Here’s Jon Greenbaum’s (of MetroJustice fame) take on COMIDA’s recent, secret, and destructive picking of your pocket.  Lots of good stuff, read it all, but here’s a couple highlights:

Behind closed doors (geez- did COMIDA violate the state open meeting law AGAIN?), Maggie Brooks’ COMIDA just changed the requirements for local workers, making it twice as easy for a contractor working on the Wegmans culinary facility to bring in workers from outside the area. And this contractor is doing this with the tax breaks the county is giving them. And you were wondering why your property taxes were so high!

(snip)

So that means that the Maggie Brooks team can decide who gets the contracts behind closed doors and, voila, contributions pour into the Republican Party housekeeping fund (Siemens Corp delivered a wheelbarrow filled with cash to Minarik around the same time they got contracts from two of these LDC’s).

It gets worse.  There’s stuff about the weird, conflicted, dealings of the Harris Beach law firm (yeah, it’s the same one that the East Rochester GOP board members hired as interim village attorney).

• DFE himself wishes aloud about better day-to-day governance rather than sexy, big-ticket, RenSquare-ish projects:

Despite what many would have you think, when businesses are asked what features of a city most attract them to new investment, the answer isn’t lower taxes or a conveniently-located Italian-themed marketplace.  The answer is routinely some combination of an educated workforce and reliable infrastructure, which means well-maintained roads and communications lines.  Funny thing: not only are these things good for business, but they’re good for the citizenry as well.  And who could complain if we spent our time, talent and treasure building livable communities and good jobs?

•  He also weighs in on the financial problems of Rochester’s sports scene that’s been in the news:

I’m just hoping that, in an effort to save face for the city, the mayor doesn’t decide to try to take over Paetec Park unless it can be proven to be a money-maker.  I would say that we need to have someone take a serious look at what kind of entertainment/sports venues this city can really support - that we could use a master plan against which to work - but I think we all know by now these things are run by the contractors, not by our elected officials.

•  Moving over to Water Buffalo Press, they cover a new report out from Comptroller DiNapoli on the Thruway toll hikes.

Um… let’s see - we have croneyism, the use of the influence of public office when awarding contracts in exchange for donations to the campaign fund, the ever-escalating health care costs for the construction companies in question.

Man, I wish Spitzer would just clean house of all these Pataki holdovers.

• Another helpful reminder by WBP’s handsomeswede looks back on 2007 and a report on COMIDA’s illegal activities around the airport and AirTran:

Surprise, surprise; COMIDA’s dealings in this instance were at worst illegal and at best, well, illegal.

Perhaps the most discouraging aspect of this story was the relative yawner of an issue it became in the arenas of local media and public opinion, a public which has become so accustomed to COMIDA’s questionable use of lease deals, bonds and tax exemptions that an instance identified as illegal by the state comptroller fails to reach beyond said official’s announcement on his website only to be buried in the archives of the local fish wrapper (assuming you can actually access such archives.)

So let’s compare, shall we?  You or I do something illegal and we get fined or thrown in jail or both.  COMIDA members, along with state and county officials, engage in illegal activities and they get posh salaried jobs with health benefits and favoritism from their political cronies who benefited from the shady deal - seems fair.

Or, you could cozy up with the Constitution-shredding national GOP and have them legislate retroactive immunity for you.

Drinking Liberally meets tonight (and every Thursday) from 8 to 10 at Monty’s Korner on Alexander and East in Rochester’s East End. Why not drop by?

If you’d like to receive the chapter’s witty and informative email reminders about Drinking Liberally each week, you can your name to the mailing list here.

Usually, it’s a bit of a free for all but tonight we’ll try to organize some kind of serious discussion of Tuesday’s primary. It looks as though a news crew might drop by to film some of it as well.

Randy Kuhl has endorsed John McCain for president (from the Elmira S-G via F29th):

Rep. John R. Kuhl Jr. endorsed Arizona Sen. John McCain for president today, calling him the right person to lead and unite the country.

[...]

Kuhl said he disagrees with McCain’s stance on immigration, which includes a type of amnesty for illegal immigrants already living in the United States. The Hammondsport Republican also said he didn’t like certain aspects of the campaign finance measure that McCain and Wisconsin Sen. Russell Feingold, a Democrat, have pushed through Congress.

But on balance, Kuhl sees McCain as a presidential candidate “who will be able to work with Congress.”

Is that last bit a swipe at The Decider?  What about all those great memories?

Continuing our series of retrospectives - Here is January 2007. fasten your seatbelt for a quick trip back to January 2007. It was new year and it started with real hope and promise in the form of Inaugurations. Nationally - Congress, a Congress with A Democratic Majority was being sworn in.

State Stories

12 years of George Pataki finally ended. with Governor Spitzer being sworn in. Check out the Joe Bruno’s reflection on the Pataki era. I suppose dysfunctional is a matter of perspective. Spitzer issued executive orders and, with his first official action, curtailed the ethical lapses that persisted under previous administrations. But check out this media attack by Bruno Albany’s problems are really the media’s fault. See how often the the State Legislature meet. Oh want to learn more about member item spending by party?

Spitzer, determined to flip the State Senate, appointed a Republican Senator to an administration position setting up a special election for a downstate senate seat, which was won by Dem Craig Johnson.

Finally we saw a precursor to Jim Alesi’s lack of logic - something evident in many of his essays or legislative bills. Gerrymandering anyone? Check out Jim Alesi’ non-sense over why it is unfair to redistrict?

Federal Stories

A year after Rudy lost his campaign plans he was quitting the GOP Presidential race. John Edwards had his first local meet-up, while both Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama announced their Presidential campaigns.

We even Praised Randy Kuhl for urging dialogue with Iran. He came out against the stop-loss,The Democratic Majority starting pushing needed legislation though Congress giving the opportunity our local Congressional Representatives put their vote where their mouth isn’t. Tom Reynolds voted against an increase in the minimum wage (Walsh for it), while John “Randy” Kuhl voted against funding stem cell research. Heck, Randy even gets promoted to Deputy minority whip position.

Bush was talking escalation in Iraq. Check out Oberman’s take - riveting. The “surge” debate started. Hey, it was only a year ago. Feel safer yet? Stlo7 was duped in this post as well. Check out the excitement as I wrote how Bush will use FISA courts and not have warrantless wiretapes. Well - how did that work out for us as we debate in January 2008 - if we should give telecoms retroactive immunity and what about those signing statements. Oh, gas prices were about $2.40. Since it is January We had out 6th Bush state of the Union. Check out what hasn’t changed - it is worth it. Finally a year ago we were learning that it is more than an emperor- it was about the procession. We need to stop the procession.

Monroe County

Meanwhile, in Jan 2007 the D&C launched their very first political blog. First words off of Lawrence’s (Yes, that James Lawrence) blog was recalling how Clinton people trashed the White House before Bush came in. We, of course, remind Mr Lawrence about the facts. Happy to help.

In Monroe County, the Dem party chair, Joe Morelle, was in the running for the recently vacated state comptroller’s office - remember that guy Hevesi? Morrelle resigned as MCDC Chair. In the meantime, Jim Vogel took over as temporary MCDC Chair. If Morrelle didn’t get the job did anyone really think he wasn’t coming back to MCDC?

There was the strike - 14 years and counting members of the Newspaper Guild who work at the D&C were looking for something as basic in a large company as a 401K. The comments were lively and we did a follow-up. We are in year 16 now?

Remember the weather? The weird warm weather in Jan 2007?

We were were also looking closely at Monroe County. The County GOP voted down a Dem proposal to lower taxes. (reread that sentence again). We wondered why ECC was recommended to get a contract to market the sale of electricity generated from the Mill Seat Landfill. They are an Information Technology company. Oh, check out the D&C follow-up. Can you say pay to play? I guess Cornell Cooperative doesn’t pay and their budget, like this year, was cut a year ago. COMIDA and 5Linx? There was lots of questions about this business. Why doesn’t the D&C write about it or the rest of the oddness going in Monroe County.

A year before Maggie would be sworn in 2008 in we asked questions - what kind of leadership should we have in Monroe County? Has anything really changed in a year?

Short Takes

Rightwing radio gets called out, We discussed Battery operated cars - yeah the ones that existed 100 years ago. Jeanine Pirro - is investigated - again. Darn it Paul Wolfowitz read this post.

January 2007 also brought the loss of a progressive powerhouse: Molly Ivins. It’s hard to believe she’s been gone almost a year. Please, take a few minutes to read more about her, as she was truly one of our strongest voices. Here’s the link to the last column she penned.

We’ve told you before that it seemed strange how much Steve Minarik — Monroe County’s street-fighting man of the Republican party — fawns over Michael Bloomberg — Manhattan’s well-respected man about town, formerly of the Republican party.  Well, we don’t know for sure that he’s still backing Bloomberg but it does look like he’s the only prominent local Republican who hasn’t jumped aboard the “Straight-Talk Express” (via the new WHAM political blog):

A number of county party chairs officially endorsed McCain today.

One conspicuously has not, according to a McCain supporter who called me today. It appears Monroe County’s GOP chairman has not jumped on board.

Steve Minarik has been quiet about this election. Last I knew, he had pledged his support to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, should the New York City mayor enter the race.

I’m not sure what Minarik gains from a Bloomberg candidacy — other members of  my sewing circle have their opinions about this — but such a candidacy is appearing increasingly unlikely (from a Washington Post political chat earlier this week):

Jonathan Weisman: Stop it already. Bloomberg is not running. I never have believed he would run and I still don’t.

I was going to wait until the tears abated, but perhaps this is a post, better written with a saline chaser….

Dear John,

You cared, you really cared. You cared about the poor, the uninsured, the laborer trying to make a living in this caricature of the USA which this administration has created. Where the American Dream has become the American Nightmare. Where health-care has gone from being a right to a privilege. Where the middle-class is disappearing at a rapid rate.

You are the candidate who raised the campaign bar from personal attacks to issue discussion.

You had no money to work with, but you had supporters because your refusal to accept corporate PAC money made you a favorite among the progressives who saw the difference and appreciated your integrity. But there weren’t enough of us to make up the difference. The movement and the organization were too powerful and your whistle-stop type campaign couldn’t compete.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson from the Huff Post writes:

Edwards became the first Democratic presidential candidate to go where no other Dem or certainly Republican candidate has gone in four decades and talked up poverty disgrace, universal health and economic democracy. He bucked history, negative public and political attitudes, and of course ridicule for championing these populist causes. But here’s the deal. Edwards may be out of the race but his message and the reason for that message won’t disappear like Houdini. Obama and Clinton will continue to pilfer and repackage parts of his message, while of course giving no credit to the messenger.

No matter. Edwards did himself, us and the nation proud when he boldly stepped up and tried to shame the shot callers into facing up to their sorry and disgraceful neglect of millions of poor and uninsured Americans. We owe Edwards a profound debt of gratitude for that. Here’s a guess. Edwards won’t and shouldn’t go quietly into the night. We still desperately need his voice and we should do everything we can to make sure that his voice continues to be heard.

John, you have my eternal thanks for who you are and what you did. You are truly the better angel of America.

The better angel. John, you continue to sparkle.

jre-side-small.JPG

(h/t to Army42: Dear John, it’s not you, it’s us.)

I saw my first 2008 Presidential TV commercial - one for Hillary Clinton

It was a positive commercial that aired on the 6:00 news broadcast.

It is going to be weird seeing all the commercials leading up to Super Duper Tuesday.

I remember heading to a swing state in 2004.  New York being “safe”  aside from a few lawn signs - there really wasn’t any presidential campaign presence.   In Ohio, was nothing but Presidential presence - lawn signs and commercials.  It was overwhelming.

Everyone sing along now - ” just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down”. Looks like Maggie is getting a taste of her own medicine.

Did you catch this article about Maggie’s supposed snub by Assembly Democrats in Albany?

Maggie went to Albany looking for money - Apparently, the local Assembly Democrats would not meet with her. OK - so what of it? Did local GOP delegates meet with her?

This is Maggie Brooks, who just does stuff without community involvement, like the unFAIR plan. Who makes decisions based on speculation (like assuming the State will provide more funding than it actually does because she fails to see that the State is not in a position to do so.) . There is entire Ren Square debacle - Maggie knows best.

Heck - even our local D&C editorial board, rightly so, identifies in an editorial about Ren Square, our fearless leader’s attitudes as:

That’s consistent with County Executive Maggie Brooks’ whole approach to public outreach: We’ll tell you when we want to

Then, there is stone silence on the Public Defender issue.

Maggie Brooks needs to see that she lives in a world where interdependence is more important that independence.

Maggie’s response to this supposed snub?

“That type of rationale flies in the face, quite honestly, of the collaborative spirit I’ve tried to build in the community,” she said.

Yeah - tell us all about the collaborative spirit here in Monroe County.

Live by the Sword, Die by the Sword

Nuggets o’ goodness for you to soothe the post-Edwards blues.  Man, what a bummer.  He’s winning our straw poll (over on the right of the page).  Doesn’t that matter at least as much as Florida?  At least corporate America will sleep a little easier tonight.

•  Surprise!  High winds knock out power for the second time in a month!  Wouldn’t it be cool if your house had a wind/solar system that would not only help offset your utility bill, and spur a local renewable economy, but also keep you with power during times like this?  Oh, and the storychat had one of the best comments I’ve seen there in a long time:

Yeah, it’s too bad that the wind didn’t do more damage to the area, or I’d have something to compare the Republican party to.

•  You can check out new NY voting machines from 3 different vendors this week. Am I a dork for being somewhat interested in checking this out?

What: Public inspection of new voting machines.
When: Noon to 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Where: Medley Centre, Irondequoit. Use Entrance 1 on the mall’s north side, near the flag. The machines will be in the former Express store, C-201 on the mall directory.

• Republican Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno and the top Republican in the Assembly, James Tedisco, have both endorsed McCain.  Why is this funny?

James “I love to fearmonger” Tedisco endorsing McCain. Got to love the irony with this one. After all, McCain was a huge proponent for what some opponents call the “Amnesty bill” in the Senate regarding immigration. So Tedisco is siding with someone who is willing to give immigrants a home in the United States.

I guess it’s okay for a Republican, but not okay for our Democratic governor.

•  Robert Harding over at TAP has a list of potential contenders for Mary Lou Rath’s senate seat in NY-61 over in Genesee county.
• Fun LTEs in the D&C:

Republican field is not promising

As we approach Super Tuesday, I am convinced that all the Republican candidates, excluding Ron Paul, are fearmongers and warmongers. They are all reactionaries in their own vision of the future, and will maintain the status quo. It will be a continuation of the Bush-Cheney regime, which means another trillion or two in war projects and the privatization of the military into mercenary armies at taxpayer expense. The Constitution will be gradually altered to fit the needs of the corporate state, and civil liberties, free speech and freedom of the press will be things of the past. With Republicans in power, we are assured a bleak future.

and here’s another…

It seems to me that this stimulus package proposed by President Bush to help boost the economy is no more than a money-laundering scheme. Just another way to ensure more oil company profits. Stop and think where will this rebate go, and when it’s gone, what will we do?

• What’s up in Webster with the cross-endorsing thing?

Webster Democrats have unanimously endorsed the two Republican candidates in the upcoming village special election.

“There were a lot of questions and concerns at first,” said Dolly Kujawa, Webster Democratic Party leader. “But this is purely a one-shot deal, not a new precedent.”

Republican Mayor Jake Swingly and Trustee David Kildal will be the only two names on the ballot for the March 18 village election. The news came as a bit of a surprise to Swingly.

“I think it’s great,” said Swingly. “I was a little surprised but we’re all neighbors here.”

Swingly was appointed by the Village Board to replace former Mayor Jack Judge last September, after Judge unexpectedly resigned following an ongoing village feud over an unpaid lawyer’s bill and missing employee files, dubbed “filegate.”

Kildal was appointed by Swingly to fill his seat as trustee.

This was interesting too.  Anyone have any input to what’s going on here?

Kildal changed his party affiliation to Republican last fall after he was appointed to the Village Board. However, he missed the cut-off date and technically is still a registered Democrat.

“I don’t care what the party is if someone has good ideas and good sense,” said Swingly.

They will be on display tomorrow at the Medley center.   From a D&C article today

If you go

 

What: Public inspection of new voting machines.

When: Noon to 6:30 p.m. Thursday.

Where: Medley Centre, Irondequoit. Use Entrance 1 on the mall’s north side, near the flag. The machines will be in the former Express store, C-201 on the mall directory.

Actually, while you are there check out the Medley Center and see how those COMDIA benefits are working out.

I’m disappointed about Edwards leaving the race, but this more than made it up for it: I finally got to ask John Bolton the question I’ve always wanted to ask (from today’s Washington Post Book World chat).

Rochester, N.Y.: The mustache….why?

John Bolton: Habit

I doubt I’ll ever get the chance to Michael Bolton about his hair. Now that it’s mostly gone, it’s probably a moot question.

With Edwards out of the race, let’s remember how much he contributed to the Democratic primary. He was the first candidate to come out with a detailed health care proposal, way back in February. Throughout the race, he injected an emphasis on the issues that affect average Americans.

Here’s Matt Yglesias (not an Edwards supporter, per se) of the Atlantic on Edwards:

I think it was his presence in the race and his campaign that really set the tone for the whole thing, and he deserves an enormous amount of credit for any good things that may come in the next administration.

Here’s Paul Krugman (who seems to favor Hillary):

What the Democrats should do is get back to talking about issues — a focus on issues has been the great contribution of John Edwards to this campaign — and about who is best prepared to push their agenda forward.

A candidate should be measured not just in delegates won but in ideas advanced.  By the latter measure, Edwards’ campaign was a tremendous success.

The MP had an interesting antidote to those having the SOTU blues: Sandy Frankel’s state of Brighton address. One of the things that I liked was that the town isn’t waiting for federal, state, or county government to address the issue of climate change, they’re being empowered to take responsibility themselves:

Brighton Supervisor Sandra Frankel wants local residents to know that the state of her town is full of optimism and hope.

Frankel delivered her State of the Town address Jan. 23, highlighting the Green Brighton Task Force and townwide technological advances that will help move Brighton forward in 2008.

(snip)

Frankel noted the early success of the task force, which recently held a kick-off event at Town Hall that brought out more than 200 people. About half of those people signed up for a “10 percent challenge” to try to lower than carbon footprint by taking part in more environmentally-friendly activities like carpooling or turning off lights when they leave a room.

This is the same kind of leadership that resulted in Brighton pioneering “refuse districts”, which, besides their benefits to the environment, roads, and curb appeal, save consumers an average of around $150/year:

The town’s charge for collection service is a lump sum on the resident’s annual tax bill. The cost is substantially less: On average, a resident in a refuse district would pay about $160 a year, compared with about $300 if dealing directly with a private hauler…

Wish my town was as hip to saving me money, instead of echoing the conservative line: “We don’t want to inject another layer of government.” Interestingly, a search on “refuse districts” turns up Frankl’s campaign website, with a list of her accomplishments. Cool stuff.

[Update: A helpful Brightonian who was there provides more detail. From the comments:

The event in question was exactly that…a showcase for community based progressive ideals. Yes, the parking lot was full…as noted about 200 people attended the event, and it was held on a week night when library usage is also high. Obviously, Town Hall was lighted…safety is still key…but one of the missions of the Green Brighton Task Force, established by Supervisor Frankel, is to identify and implement energy savings in Town facilities. No other Town in Monroe County has such an ambitious program. The event itself was community based, led by members of the Town’s Green Brighton Task Force. Vendors were on hand displaying energy saving devices and services, children’s programs were held, and all business owners and individuals on hand were encouraged to take the 10% pledge to seek to reduce energy consumption in their homes or businesses by at least 10%.

This isn’t the first time the Town of Brighton has taken the lead on environmental issues under Supervisor Frankel’s leadership. The Town has received awards for its policy against the use of pesticides in Town facilities and Town parks. Brighton preserved Corbetts Glen as a nature park and adopted its tree law to protect its tree canopy.

And those pesky recycling bins? In fact, there are recycling bins in Town Hall, and Town policy is to make all photocopies two sided, to reduce paper use even further!

More of this kind of leadership around Monroe County, please.]