It won't have the drama and appeal of the Obama-Clinton-McCain races, but campaign season for a big local election is about to start. At stake: three of the seven seats on the Rochester School Board, five of the nine on City Council, and control of the Monroe County Legislature.

Republicans and Democrats will both hold their nominating meetings in May, and Democrats will start their selection process next month, with district committees throughout the county meeting to hear potential candidates.

Given the city's heavy Democratic voter registration, it's likely that a Democrat will continue to hold every seat on City Council and the School Board. And there could be almost no change in the cast on either. On City Council, where five at-large seats are up, every incumbent except one is expected to be running again. Council Vice President Bill Pritchard announced last week that he won't seek re-election; the city's former Parks and Recreation commissioner, Loretta Scott, is said to be running.

Other Democrats may announce their candidacy in the next few weeks. But while a couple of the incumbents are not strong Council members, it's tough to knock out an incumbent who has name recognition. And Democratic Party Chair Joe Morelle says he hopes to avoid a primary.

The School Board race might be expected to produce fireworks, given public concern about the district and City Hall's open animosity toward the board. Incumbents Van White and Tom Brennan say they'll run again, and although Cynthia Elliott says she hasn't yet decided whether she'll seek re-election, she talks as if she will.

Mayor Robert Duffy has become increasingly vocal about his dissatisfaction with the School Board, most recently saying that he would like to appoint three members. He could, of course, field his own slate this year. But he said last week that he doesn't plan to do that. His idea for appointing his own members, he said, is to add those three to the board, not substitute his appointments for three existing seats.

Despite the importance of City Council and the School Board, most of the energy of the two major political parties - and most of their money - undoubtedly will be directed at the County Legislature, where Democrats say they think they have a good chance at becoming the majority.

The legislature is closely divided: 15 Republicans and 14 Democrats. Fifteen seats are up this year - eight Republicans and seven Democrats - and to take control, the Dems need only to maintain the seats they have and win one more. There'll be one open seat in each party: Democrat Jose Cruz and Republican Doug Dobson have served 10 years and can't run again. Party leaders say they assume that all of their other incumbents will seek re-election.

The Democratic incumbents seem much safer, since almost all of their districts are in the city and Brighton (where voter registration is heavily Democratic).

If Democrats won control of the legislature, they would provide a counterweight to County Executive Maggie Brooks, assuming that they could keep their caucus together and focused (something that notoriously has not been the case when Democrats controlled the legislature in the past).

The Dems might have substantial ammunition in this year's campaign, given the publicity around the Republicans' actions in selecting a public defender and a new president of MCC, and in embracing Brooks' FAIR Plan, which threatened to take money away from suburban school districts. But all three of those issues have receded into the background. And voters, who seem to have short memories anyway, tend to vote for individual legislators, not for a party.

County Chair Morelle was sounding aggressive last week, though. The party plans to invest "a significant amount of our resources," Morelle said, "in making our case to the public that Democrats ought to be in the majority, there ought to be a split government, there ought to be real oversight by the County Legislature of the executive."

The Dems' leader in the legislature, Harry Bronson, echoed that. "Republicans have been in control of the legislature for a very long time," Bronson said. "And I think there's a lot of dissatisfaction in the direction that the county is going."

Democratic registration has been increasing in the traditionally Republican Monroe County suburbs, and that has begun to pay off in elected offices. In addition to the Town Board in Brighton, where Democrats have long been in charge, Democrats now control the Town Boards of Irondequoit and Mendon.

Morelle singled out Republican seats they think are particularly vulnerable: Perinton (represented by Ciaran Hanna) and Chili (represented by both Steve Tucciarello and Mary Valerio). He also mentioned Legislature President Wayne Zyra (Sweden, Clarkson, and Hamlin). Based on voter registration numbers in his district, Zyra's seat is probably safe, but the Dems could cause trouble if they can paint him as the ringleader in such dramas as the MCC and public-defender selections.

Morelle sounded particularly feisty about the Zyra seat. "Wayne may be consistent with voters in his district," Morelle said. "They may want heavy political interference in the selection of the president of MCC. They may want someone to cut off debate routinely in the County Legislature. They may want someone who picks a public defender without going through a merit-based process. It's possible. But I have a lot more faith in the voters in that district."

Republican Majority Leader Dan Quatro acknowledged last week that his party will have to "work hard," but he didn't sound worried. "We're going to campaign on the ideas that have made us successful until now," he said. "We're very conscious of the way that taxes affect people in this community, and we have to continue to do everything that we can to innovate in this very difficult environment for job creation."

"Those are going to be the foundational issues of our campaign, as they have been for a long time," said Quattro. "We're going to stick with the same message, because it's what the people want."

Tim Louis Macaluso contributed to the reporting for this article.