More on Dunning’s Party Switch
The D&C had a good article about Chili Supervisor David Dunning’s party switch - the one where after being elected on the Democratic line as Chili Town Supervisor- he announced he will switch parties - effective November 5th. First my commentary - then snips of the article.
I’ve been mulling over this switch since it happened and while I’ll be the first to admit I’m looking at it from afar; having never met Dunning and not living Chili, I find myself looking to put this into context.
So here is the deal - After a week of reflection - I’m pleased Dunning switched parties. Yep. Pleased. Why? I want him out of the party infrastructure sooner rather than later as Chili attempts/continues to build party infrastructure.
From a party perspective, building sustainable infrastructure and ultimately winning elections is what it is all about. So I’m glad Dunning is gone because, had he stayed, I believe he would be a thorn, a pest, something that would undermine or obstruct progress in both the Chili Democratic party, and ultimately Monroe County.
If you are a Democrat this is about “more Democrats”. If you are a Progressive, it is about “More and Better Democrats”.
Now about Dunning the person - I stand with Tom Tobin’s remarks.
That’s either dumb or conniving and neither is a good trait for Dunning to display.
I think Dunning is an opportunist. A political opportunist - heck one who is oddly upfront about it but an opportunist nevertheless. Do you know that expression “there is no ‘I’ in Team”? Well, there is one in Dunning. Unfortunately, this has to be all about Dunning and not about the residents of Chili. Dunning’s initial comments were about how he could not run against fellow board members. He wanted…well here is the quote.
I don’t see this decision as a compromise in my values, rather support for my belief in the need for a unified leadership team.
I see Dunning the person - as not having the character to challenge status quo. He wants to be liked. Well, David - look somewhere else. Actually you only have to look at Irondequoit and Mary Ellen Heyman, or go to the wayback machine and see that Brighton was a Republican stronghold 20 odd years ago. Heck there was even change in ER last cycle.
But on to the article. Per Dunning, this is something he was thinking about all along.
The party change becomes official Nov. 5, and then he will join the Chili Republican Committee. Dunning said he was unaffiliated for 16 years until he moved to the Democratic Party in 2006.
“While I was running, I didn’t rule out the idea of switching parties but I didn’t embrace it, either,” said Dunning, who announced his decision before his first 100 days in office were over.
Back room conversations anyone? If you read Dunning’s quotes in the article - the guy just doesn’t make sense.
“I describe myself as right-, left-wing conservative liberal, basically a political mutt, so I’m not doing this to climb any political ladder,” he said. “I want to position myself to be Chili supervisor for a long time.”
Sorry David - that dog won’t hunt. What EXACTLY are the values you bring to the table? What do you believe in? How do you stay anchored to those values if you are all over the place?
Then he hides his desires from those who helped him
“He met with us and other Democrats a few weeks ago. I spent three hours with him … and talked to him at the Town Board meeting the day before he made the announcement. David never mentioned a word about it,” said Seward. “There is a way to do things in this world, and this is totally uncharacteristic of the individual I thought I knew.”
David Dunning - good luck to you as your unified team make unanimous decisions that affect all of Chili. I would say that you have silenced an opposition voice but that would be giving you too much credit. You used the Chili Democratic party to become Supervisor where you cast aside the opportunity to speak for the 5,400 folks who have decided to register in the Democratic party and represent their voice. You’ve done that so you can go along with fellow board members - because in the end it seems that it is all about you.
The d & C remarks in today’s article show David to be unprincipled and concerned with moving up. he is not concerned about service to his community. TO say that during the election you were thinking about switching parties and not disclose that fact o the public or to your fellow dems is not the sign of a man with integrity. Worse yet it seems like he is filled with self-deception. he thinks what he says poses no problems of consistency or integrity?
Everybody is falling for this in exactly the manner that Stephen J. Minarik would hope you would.
Don’t be fooled by the mindless, spineless behavior of David Dunning. He’s made his bed, he’ll have to lie in it.
Look at the history of other elections, the strategy and mindset of Minarik, and then start to ask the real questions he doesn’t want you to ask.
About 8 years ago, this same situation occurred in East Rochester. Entrenched Mayor Peter Quinzi, having served in local government for over 25 years in various positions was up against David Bonnachi, a local cop who had “problems” with the choice of people that Quinzi had aligned himself with - particularly a member of the planning board, and her husband, who brought litigation against Bonacchi, an ER Police officer for brutality. The couple, through the efforts of the Village Attorney Robert Hanks, reached a friendly settlement in favor of the couple. This settlement was enough to pay off the back taxes the couple owed to the Village and the County for their property, but was at the expense of the ego-based officer, a registered Republican who for years helped carry out Quinzi’s agenda, but now found himself on the receiving end of the GOP stick.
So he switched parties to Democrat, won and defeated Quinzi. He retired as a police officer and assumed his role as a Democratic Mayor for about 2 months. Then, without notice, he announces his switch to the Republican party. In making his announcement, he psycho-babbled about how he couldn’t be a member of a party that allowed Hillary Clinton to be a U.S. Senator from New York. It sure didn’t stop him from standing next to her when she brought in money for the fuel cell in the East Rochester School District: http://www.erschools.org/news06-07/images/022607_clinton/MondayFeb26USSenatorandpre/index.html
When Minarik loses an election, to him, it’s always one picture - the county - and how much control the GOP can assert in the critical towns and suburbs of the county - the master control of his operations center.
Of course, Bonacchi had retired as an officer, and immediately upon his announcement of his party switch, he was given the job of “Director of Security” for RGRTA - the bus company - the same bus company Maggie fights so hard for the Ren Square project for. RGRTA is another den of privilege for job dol-outs for Minarik. Many in the GOP can find employment there, amongst other community “project” firms through Minarik.
Unfortunately, because RGRTA takes county funds, there was a little conflict of interest with state law involving elected officials employed by companies who accept a certain percentage of public funding, and Bonacchi found himself in a quandry - relinquish control as Mayor to keep the job, or rely on Stephen J. Minarik to find him another. It wouldn’t be hard for Minarik. The former chair of the ER Republican Committee has one of those nice no-show 40K+ jobs a year at the water authority (not bad for a guy in his upper 80’s who still manages to make his payments back to Minarik through the Friends of Maggie Brooks Committee - payments made like clockwork (look up Clyde Benoy in the Electon Records). Benoy now resides in Penfield.
Relinquishing control of the Village was not an option. So Minarik conveniently placed Bonacchi as a security head in the Rural Metro Ambulance organization. Another pet project and denzien of job dol-outs for the GOP. The same Rural Metro Ambulance fighting with Bob Duffy who would rather prefer Monroe Ambulance over Rural Metro - but a Rural Metro that manages to hang in there - no matter what - to preserve and protect their “deal” with the master - Stephen J. Minarik.
Monroe County is Minarik’s chessboard. Each piece of the player board MUST be controlled by him.
When mindless types like Dunning come along, it’s just another beefcake egotist like Bonacchi that sells his soul to the Devil Stephen J. Minarik in exchange for promises. The key here will be to watch WHERE Dunning goes to work. I will be willing to put 5K down on a wager that he’ll show up somewhere sweet - soon - with a nice salary, equivalent to the 80K+ that Bonacchi received.
Dunning was a no-mark when he entered the game. But the bigger question differs - (and I believe it was planned all along, and that the Democrats and residents of Chili were duped from the get-go by Dunning and Minarik) - is - what INTERNALLY to the Minarik Machine happened with the relationship between Tracy Logel and Stephen J. Minarik. Sure, he got Dunning in the end, and planned it all along to preserve that piece on his Monroe County chessboard, but what was the REAL reason that he had to develop his backdoor plan with Dunning to replace her? After all, she was a lifelong registered Republican, had no challengers up until Dunning came out of the blue, and has said little or nothing about the riff that obviously exists within the GOP.
How many more GOP elected officials will find “replacements” run as Democrats against them if they fail to follow the orders of Minarik? Everyone who had any intimate knowledge of Bonacchi was not surprised he switched parties, and many had stated that he made internal suggestions that he was never a Democrat, but simply used the party to launch his plan to replace the incumbent GOP Mayor who was aging, and living in Florida for more than 6 months out of the year and not serving the “best interests” of Stephen J. Minarik.
Others who have an intimate relationship with the Chili Board have hinted that this was planned all along as well. Tracy Logel wouldn’t play the games Minarik ordered her to play. And when you step out of line, he’ll run his surrogates against you on the Democrat line, and replace you without thinking twice about it.
Take a look at the Board of Elections records on Logel. You’ll see NO contributions from the local GOP. NONE. She carries in a 16,517.61 balance from 2006 - funds transferred IN - obviously held in some high interest bearing account along with all of the other GOP funds and then dispersed back to her - but no support from the GOP…hmmmm….
So the bigger nut to crack here is Tracy Logel. She has nothing to lose by bringing to light the exact internal workings of the Minarik Machine. My money further says that the methods used by Minarik could be exposed, and that this community would then realize how badly companies, individuals, COMIDA, federal funding, contracts, and so much more are used as political funding operatives by Minarik. When Logel refused to play - she was made to pay.
How about it Ms. Logel? You hold the keys to shutting this down once and for all, and considering that you too were used, there is no sweeter revenge than the truth.
So…How about it Ms. Logel? I’m certain the good folks at Rochester Turning would love to sit down and discuss this and so much more with you. It’s your reputation that was destroyed, your political career that was shut down, your future that was forever altered.
It’s your turn to level the playing field.
Here’s her bio:
Pertinent information: Tracy L. Logel,
One Grovewood Lane, Rochester, 14624.
Education: MPA – Masters of Public Administration,
BS - Bachelor of Science – Business Administration,
AAS – Associates of Applied Science. Married to Peter C. Logel –
44 years. Three married daughters; 6 grandchildren. Previous offices
and community involvement: Monroe County Legislator 10
years (1994-2003), Chili Town Council (1992 & 1993), Monroe
County Board of Health (1997 – present), Monroe County Supervisors
Association, Past President, Gates Chili High School Developmental
Assets Committee, Chili Economic Development Committee
Chair (1990-1992), Roberts Wesleyan College Community
Orchestra Board, Member of American Legion Auxiliary Post 1830,
Member VFW Auxiliary Post 412, Volunteer – EF Foundation for
Foreign Study Student Exchange Program (1991-Present).
Here’s his: (I’m chuckling)…
Pertinent information: David Dunning, 2
Wheat Hill, Rochester,14624, 50. Married, Wife Karen, 1 child. Education:
Some College (non matriculated studies). Employment:
Manage Retail Operations, PC Innovations, Rochester. No previous
office held.
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There is no clear link and direct link to Minarik — though their could be indirect ones. The key is Bernie Iacovanglo, chili town leader
who is grabbing town land for his own purposes.
PS tracy already got a county job didn’t she
You’re right - Iacavangelo owns enough property under development to make the list for Monroe County’s Land Use Report for Major Projects in 2005:
http://www.monroecounty.gov/Image/2005%20MLUR%20Report(1).pdf
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