The loss of their two brightest stars - Mayor Bob Duffy and DA Mike Green - would be a big blow to county Democrats, one that could take years to overcome.

Duffy is running for lieutenant governor and Green has been tapped for a federal judgeship.

Duffy's assets are obvious: he's charming, empathetic, good looking, a former cop - and he's tall. People like to put tall people in charge of things. It's reassuring. Given Duffy's upward trajectory and the way party leaders glom onto him like barnacles, it's hard to conceive now that Democrats once refused to endorse him.

The baby-faced Green is less of a cult-of-personality figure. But people know who he is. And the perception I had of him as a boy in his father's suit was obliterated when I watched him destroy Tyquan Rivera's mother on the witness stand. He's tough. (Rivera's the teen convicted of shooting Rochester Police Officer Anthony DiPonzio.)

Republicans typically practice homogeny and wait-your-turn loyalty, which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't (see John McCain as an example of the latter). Democrats tend to turn on each other and destroy the party from within, like ants fighting over the last crumb at a picnic.

What Republicans get right, though, is grooming. They start 'em young and bring 'em up through the ranks: Republicans often begin their careers at the County Legislature and then go out to run the towns or move on to higher office. Case in point: County Executive Maggie Brooks, who started off in the Legislature.

Anyone replacing Duffy is just not going to have his visibility and credibility with the public, at least not right away. And Green? Does the public even know anyone else in the DA's office?

Interestingly, both Duffy and Green are former Republicans. Maybe it was a GOP plot all along, to undermine the Dems.

Nah.