Mandates and Messages
Let the spinning begin.
After last night’s Great Fail where the Monroe County Democratic party and its associated local committees failed to win an additional seat on Monroe County Legislature and thereby flip it to Democratic Control, or win a County-wide race, or any of the Judicial races or keep some Supervisor races or win new Town board seats - the control of message begins.
A message in an election where record voter apathy (29% turn out) is a distinct possibility. Here is my take - voters did not show up because they needed a reason to vote for something as opposed to against something.
That isn’t stopping those trying to control the message or more accurately shape the message to fit their agenda. Some quotes of interest via the D&C
County Executive Maggie Brooks said Tuesday night that voters sent Republicans a clear message on Election Day.
“I think what we saw tonight was a mandate to keep going on,” said Brooks as the GOP racked up wins in suburban town government and kept its majority in the County Legislature.
Maggie Brooks is claiming a mandate. Got that? A mandate.
Monroe County Democratic Party Chair Joe Morrelle was quoted as saying
Morelle said he believes voters were sending a message with their votes, but isn’t sure what that message was.
“We believe clearly there is a backlash, but we’re not sure against what,” he said.
“We do wonder if national or state policy played a role. But that is not to excuse us, although we worked incredibly hard and I’m not sure how much more effort we could have put in this.”
I’ll be off line as I catch up on all the things that didn’t get done yesterday.
Comment away.
Related posts:
“Mandate” loosely translates as “the majority gets to do whatever it wants, whenever it wants without any regard for the minority party.”
I would call it a crushing defeat by local Democrats. The inability to obtain only one new Democrat county legislative seat in probably the worst Republican environment in decades questions the local leadership of the Democratic party. It desperately needs a major overhaul!
I think Joe Morelle should consider sticking to the Assembly. We saw him create and manage a team of talented individuals who increased the voter rolls, but failed to deliver. There needs to be new leadership in the MCDC, I can’t believe the ball was dropped this bad.
Morelle doesn’t seem to have a clue what was going on. I found his remarks lame. He squandered a golden opportunity for change.
We need to get him and the milquetoasts running the democratic party our now.
Joe dropped the ball, no reason why they couldn’t have pulled this off.
Keep in mind Morrelle also did not run anyone against Maggie Brooks last time is order to concentrate resources on taking back the Lej.
The man couldn’t win with money and he couldn’t win when the local GOP gave him multiple issues his candidates could run on.
Makes me wonder if Joe’s as bad at his job in Albany as he is as the party chair.
I have to say, I’m feeling a bit nostalgic. It seems like only last year that we went through all of this after the blue wave passed over Monroe County as 50,000 Monrovians didn’t bother to vote down ticket for County Clerk. Was that the year the State Senate changed hands, but not a single member our delegation was among them?
Or maybe I’m remembering the year before when Dems didn’t think it was worthwhile to run candidates for numerous offices including the County Executive? Good times.
Do we get to blame the candidates again or is it lack of money this year?
I don’t think the candidates out here in Greece were bad at at all. Most were quite good.
However, it is well known there was a lot of infighting amongst the Greece democrats and downtown appeared to try to squelch one candidate who supposedly didn’t toe the line. Downtown also interfered in the Maloney Candidacy –many think to its detriment
I think organization and tactics were very poor. It looks like the republicans got their base out better than the democrats, again organization and tactics.
The democrats played way too nice as they always do. When Maloney fought and went after Auberger for corruption he got points.
In Gates did anyone go after the republicans for their ties to Marone?
I don’t know? If they did they weren’t very loud.
Frank Alkoffer got work done by Marone and If I’m not wrong didn’t Elaine Tette.
How could this golden opportunity be missed?
If you go down almost 20 points (as the dems did in Gates) and you have these issues there is something totally wrong with your approach.
The dems are the Oakland Raiders and Cleveland Browns (throw in the Bills if you like) of politics.
Two years ago the fans cried foul when Joe Torre was given the boot…screams and yelps.
Tonight the Yankees are in a good position to win the World Series.
Don’t blame the voters, don’t blame the condition of the field. It’s management’s responsiblity to get the job done. There is no excuse for what happened in Greece. There’s no excuse for the mis-step with the McCarthy race.
In eastern cultures, this is when a man stands tall, takes responsiblilty and performs seppuku…
but you can go easy…a resignation is in order.
Anyone have any thoughts as to who a good successor would be to Morelle if he should step aside?
Nora Bredes?
I don’t want to crucify Joe personally. I just think we need different leadership
Agreed. No seppuku nor crucifixations.
Just head out to the mound, take the ball and say, “It’s not your day.”
Maybe your party needs a leader who can:
motivate fundraising in the “off-season” to build war chests,
cultivate credible candidates,
focus on winning strategies,
hire assistants who are not rivals wives,
and can give their full attention to the county.
No divided attention.
No offense, you’re the out-of-power party in a metropolitan county, you need a full time manager.
But, it’s your party…cry if you want…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRbsz1Ha7Zo
Ok, but who?
Look around your party.
Who has shown an ability to pick apart the strategies of your opposition? Assess their weaknesses? Identify your strengths? Motivate peole to work harder in a positive fashion? Have a plan to communicate with the members? Takes time to cultivate candidates years in advance? Works to raise funds all year? Has won a few? Has the ability to know the difference between going in for the kill as oppossed to filing dopey complaints?
Understands that you can’t have the wife of a opponent as their assistant?
Can someone in your party explain that?
l’m available
Joe Morelle doesn’t deserve any blame. He saw opportunity, drafted a plan and executed it well. Better than any party leader I’ve worked with. He was smart, indefatigable and generous with his time and party resources.
But you can’t build effective political campaigns without a lively civic culture and healthy, widely read and respected press. We don’t have these anymore. In the 18th LD, no civic organization sponsored a debate or meet the candidates night. Where did the D & C or Messenger Post Newspapers report in depth on the perennial budget deficits, the fact that we’ve met $60+ million budget holes with federal stimulus dollars (which will disappear next year) and that countywide taxes will increase next year by $7.4 million, thanks to a rise in the tax levy? What TV station sponsored debates between legislative candidates? (In other communities across the state, this is standard.) WXXI provided candidates free airtime, then broadcast candidate statements on a Sunday afternoon (on TV — think Bills) and on a Saturday evening (radio).
Come on. If the electorate isn’t informed and engaged, the status quo wins. That’s not Joe’s fault.
Nora:
Some of what you say about civic culture is true.
However this is a national problem which all democrats and republicans have to deal with or in some cases use apathy to their benefit. Still candidates win and lose under those conditions. Your statement is way too general to prove anything. We might as well blame Canada.
I must strongly disagree with the view that Morelle had a good plan or is a competent leader/strategist. No one says he is a bad man. But he is not a great leader under the conditions we face.
Still I can’t debate a simple assertion,
Please tell us what was his plan.? How did he effectively execute it.
If he had one I wasn’t aware of it?
“If the electorate isn’t informed and engaged, the status quo wins. That’s not Joe’s fault.”
But it is, it’s a good tactician and leader’s job to accurately assess the situation and implement an effective plan. It wasn’t that the “electorate” wasn’t imformed and engaged. It was your own party members who didn’t understand the importance of getting off the sofa and voting.
That’s a motivational issue. Who’s responsible to formulate an effective plan of action to inform and engage members? The party leader.
Are you confusing “like” for an individual with their effectiveness?
This isn’t about like or dislike, it’s about winning elections to move an agenda forward.
This seems to say that someone should start an alternative community newspaper to spread the news properly. (Add a website while you’re at it.) It’ll be free, probably weekly or monthly (there isn’t THAT much news), and supported by advertising plus probably some startup subsidy and maybe eventually a few subscriptions.
We’ve had what, 6 I think, community newspapers founded in Ithaca in my lifetime, all by people with day jobs. You can do it.
Each one has a definite political opinion but all do their best to report honestly (and only one of them fails). They’re available at every supermarket and many drugstores.
Aurora, NY has had a community newspaper founded as well.
I think there’s a definite opportunity to *create* a healthy, widely read and respected press. You just have to ignore the existing excuses for news media and start your own. This website has the reporting talent already…. the purpose of going to print is simply to get better *distribution* of information.
Oh my gosh. Talk about your classic “Shoot the Messenger (or the D&C)” mentality, how could you defend Morrell and try pinning it all on the media? Have Robutrad and the Greece police follies not been in the news non-stop for a minimum of the last six months?
In the county lej races, this allegedly well-conceived and executed plan failed to portray Republican incumbents as Maggie’s lapdogs. You know why? By letting Maggie run unopposed last year, Morrelle in effect told voters the Dems can tolerate her.
Yes, she’s well financed and formidable, but if the goal is to control the county then winning that one seat every four years in a high-visibility race has to be at least as easy as running 29 separate campaigns and consistently defending 15 of them every two years.
And Greece? My God!
Maloney and the town board candidates should have been running as a team on a platform of sweeping out the party that allowed such terrible things to go on unchallenged. Instead, we got board candidates who settled for little more than lawn signs, which get marginalized quickly by landscape clutter (an aside to both parties: I am sooooo tired of red or blue backgrounds on signs. Give me yellow on green or white on black with a memorable four-word soundbite: “I’ll fix this mess”)
Every Tom, Dick and Harriet knew Auburger would throw out a late blitz, yet there was absolutely no counterpunch to flimsy anti-Maloney rhetoric (”union boss” and “never managed a $50 million budget”) in the final week.
The Maloney campaign spent less down the stretch and settled for a stale/scripted message that wasn’t nimble enough to jump on the Rahn bandwagon when he delivered a late broadside at Auberger. It was a reminder of what Maggie did to Bill Johnson with the “Pac-Man” commercial: nasty message that deserved to be thrown right back in the GOP’s face.
Agreed.
The dems lost in Greece because in the end the republicans understood better what that race would boil down to.
It wasn’t about corruption, or mismanagement, or that Greece residents pay extrodinarily high taxes.
It was “What’s the Matter With Kansas?” redux.
The republicans got more people out to vote against the godless liberals preventing public prayer than the dems imagined. The dems didn’t plan on it, it’s as if they never saw it coming. Dems continually argue facts while the republicans argue values.
Arguing facts makes sense; but without the value argument, do nothing to win elections…
If Joe Morelle ….”saw opportunity, drafted a plan and executed it well” and the Democrats lost in mass. I guess the plan was problematic.
The Republicans have to deal with the same problems/media as the Democrats…but they win! There must be some fresh people who will lead local Democrats. It’s not an indictment of Joe Morelle, it’s a function of trying something new.
Monroe County Democrats need a full time manager who is not holding a political office…someone who is a full time fundraiser …someone who is dedicated only to the Democratic Party! Something has to change…the sooner the better.
Many of the candidates selected for various races by Joe (Nora excluded if she was selected) were inadequate. As was the planning. After the last county legislature elections, some said we should immediately start planning for the next set of elections - picking a slate of good candidates right away or cultivating possiblities and planning. Coordinating a message and ultimately, having the candidates promote the message in unity. (I know - herding cats.) Funding races appropriately, and not just in spurts, when the candidate is a friend of Joe, or when the candidate is begging for help. Being open to outsiders and their ideas. Have you ever seen MCDC staffers at an event? (I mean when they’re there - their behavior towards each other and other organizations.) Providing access to resources for the candidates and not just the candidates favored by the “in” crowd. There are so many ways that this party locally is failing, and the biggest is in its leadership. Will we be running a candidate for county exec next time?
The races last night are disappointing.
I assure you that many of our candidates were far more “adequate” then what the opposition put up. This was echoed by many throughout the communities, as well as in the numerous highly contested endorsements they received.
There were many factors at work last night. Low Democratic turn out must be acknowledged as a factor, but that failure does not fall completely on the party’s shoulders. The apathy towards voting is high in off year elections anyways, add to that the ridiculous back and forth in many of the races and you further push those mildly apathetic people away. Add into that the fact that the youth that came out so strong in 2008 had nothing to compel them to action like last year and you have a dire situation for candidates hoping to count on their base.
Then you must add the growing level of fear that is being spread on the airways and blogs in this country; that the democratic leadership is trying to kill American values and tax families till they die. (Oh and Dems want to beat up your doctor) The neo-conservative movement has made an enemy of anything with a D next to it no matter who it is.
Then for us lucky New Yorkers we have a dysfunctional Democratic Caucus in Albany
(Mostly due to the down state dems who represent far different interests at times) that plays directly into the fears of a growing number of baby boomers, soon to be retirees, and many others who feel that their representatives have abandoned them in favor of graft corruption, and the “democratic agenda.” Worse yet they feel the only sane people who understand their fear and frustration are the voices yelling from their radios, the talking heads on their TVs, and the self appointed “Faces of neo conservatism” who by their own admission care more about ratings then reality. The party nation wide only failed in the foresight to see that this growing tide would be such a factor in this election. It is not that voters don’t care about corruption and scandal. They do, but they care about dollars and cents more. Even though we all know what the truth is by looking at our tax bills, the opposition did a marquee job of convincing many that the status quo was far better for their wallets then the evil Dem monster preparing to pounce. It is the reason they turned to messages of fear so early and so heavily in the races they stood the greatest chance of losing. It is also why they had no problems doing what ever they needed to convince voters that “our candidates” where in fact not the teachers, fathers, and business men and women they claimed to be. That they were in fact operatives of the evil taxing genius Dr. David Von Patterson. A ridiculous statement I know, but one that resonated with voters and one the County executive actually used in her statements last night.
So where does this leave us!
I don’t know the answer to that question and I doubt the sanity of anyone who claims to. We must examine the lessons we can learn, but we must also keep our ears firmly to the doors of government, but more importantly to the doors of our communities. The one thing we can not do is lose hope. We can not devolve into finger pointing and impetuous actions. Truthfully that’s exactly what our opposition and the “neo-conservatives” are hoping for; taking a page from Sun Tzu, destroy your enemy from within.
So return to your families and your communities. Continue to champion the needed causes of our society and don’t forget that the wonder of the experiment known as democracy is the opportunity of renewal each year! Best wishes to you and yours!
Does anyone remember what the monroe county democratic party was like before Joe took over? I do, it was broke. There was no money, no resources and unity. MCDC has come a long way in just a few short years. Sadly, when there is loss people start pointing fingers and often times it comes from people who havent done anything to support their cause. It doesnt have to be about money; it can be making phone calls, going door to door, talking to friends, getting neighbors out to vote, etc.
The democratic party is to blame in some instances but mostly apathy. How do you engage young 18 year olds (who voted for change in obama) to realize their future is in jeopardy if you dont vote. How do you get them excited about their local taxes when they arent paying school, county and town taxes yet?
Voters stay home if they think this doesnt really affect me. And in many towns across this county people stayed home because they thought things were going well. People thought, no way this person can lose, they dont need my vote. The message to get across for next time is WE NEED YOUR VOTE! We need your help.
At the end of the day what affects these voters the most is their taxes. They believe (and republicans and conservatives said this well) that democrats will raise your taxes, just look at the state and the country, is this what you want in your town. And it worked! Even in towns where taxes (town taxes) are just a minute portion of their total tax bill. Taxes (ie how this will effect my pocketbook) trumps scandals (robutrad, police corruption, etc) At the end of the day thats all it came down to, who will cost me more. The people believe that Democrats are the tax and spend party and when you see what Albany is doing to this state, how can you blame them?