Part II of interview with Tracy Logel
Sorry for the delay on this. Here’s Part II of our interview with former Chili Town Supervisor Tracy Logel. You can read Part I here. You may recall that, after a tough campaign, and an inappropriate (IMHO) battering on the D&C blogs, she was defeated by then Democrat David Dunning, who promptly changed parties and became a Republican shortly after his election.
RT: What role did the Monroe County GOP, and specifically higher ups like Steve Minarik, play in all of this?
TL: I mentioned both Steve Minarik, Republican County Chairman and Bernie Iacovangelo, Chili Republican Chairman in answering the previous questions. Personally I believe the Chili Republican Chair was behind Dunning from the time he first declared his candidacy. Bernie had been at odds with me from the day I declared my candidacy in the Primary against Hendershott back in 2003. He told me then NOT to run and as he said I would lose. I didn’t of course. Then I helped get Mary Valerio appointed to my seat in the Legislature. Again, Bernie was unhappy as he had a different candidate he wanted and NOT a woman especially Mary as she is the wife of one of Bernie’s ex- partners in the building business.
Not long after I took office, Bernie began calling caucus meetings at his office every Monday before Town Board meetings. These lasted for hours while the entire board was indoctrinated into his plan for the design and future of the Town of Chili. I stopped attending along with our Town Clerk, Richard Brongo and this is when Bernie began working on his plan to replace me. I complained that the caucus meetings were illegal, violating the Open Meetings Law and had contacted Freeman’s office in Albany to confirm that they shouldn’t be happening. Freeman agreed with me. As far as Steve Minarik is concerned, the Iacovangelo’s make large contributions to the party - need I say more. As long as Bernie could deliver a Republican Supervisor that was all that mannered. Just before this last election year, Bernie set up a meeting with Steve Minarik to have him ask me to step aside and let the Town Clerk, Richard Brongo run for my seat. Dick and I discussed it. We decided to stay with the positions we had so Bernie worked overtime to see that I was defeated. He promised to deliver Dunning to the Republicans the very night he won.
RT: What did you make of the constant attacks on you (and enthusiastic support for Dunning) in the D&C Chili blog?
TL: I never logged onto the Chili blog. My secretary checked it periodically and let me know some of what was being written. Others were monitoring it and determined there were about 15 to 20 actually using it and some of those were writing under two or three names to make it look like more. Somehow I became the focus of the whole anti-development mode created by the “No Mall on Paul” group. I believed then and still do that the Dunning’s support was just the 12 to 15 constant members of the “No Mall” group. I think they determined that the best way to beat me was to malign my character and create as negative an image of me personally as possible. As I understand it, some very negative and uncomplimentary things were being posted. According to those monitoring, I needed to ignore it all as none of it was true. I have always lived by the policy that one should not protest too much as that could lend possible credibility to the situation.
RT: Did you ever contact the D&C about stopping these attacks? (to editorialize slightly, I thought the attacks and support for Dunning on the D&C blogs went way too far).
TL: When I learned that the bloggers were maligning my character and attacking my personal family life, I contacted a good attorney and also the D&C. The D&C basically said they would post anything that was written and they believed in freedom of speech. I said freedom of speech was one thing but slander and blatant lies were criminal. They said they would not stop any of it. When I was informed someone was writing and using my name, I again contacted them and told them I did not read the blog and would never be writing on it so anything that came in with my name would have to be pulled. They finally agreed that the local monitor, Michelle Child, could pull any thing that was posted under my name.
In conclusion, let me say that I was never involved in the Women’s movement politically and over the years had pretty much ignored it. I will say now though, that I believe Chili is not ready for a woman in charge. The only other woman to be elected Supervisor lasted just one term in 1986/87. Lori Anderson experienced a very difficult 2 years and the town was again in an uproar over development in the same “No Mall” area. The Wegmans was finally built under great protest. Lori had police escorts to get her safely to her vehicle and home after the town board meetings. I started getting involved within the town shortly after that. Lori was followed by a succession of one term supervisors.
This is by far not all of the story but it certainly highlights some of the tangled web of Chili politics. It will take an expert in drama and intrigue to navigate the political system as it now exists.
Related posts:
Not for nothing but while I deplore what David Dunning did and continues to do, I frankly don’t think that Tracey Logel was anything to write home to Mom about, either, and it has nothing to do with her being a woman. It has a lot to do with her haughtiness at town meetings, and the perception that she rubber-stamped a lot of things without requiring a lot of looking into them. Mind you, I said “perception.”
The point here is not to promote Logel or denigrate Dunning. What took place was very interesting and I, personally, credit Logel for her thoughtful answers to my questions about it.