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Re: “[UPDATED] Democrats endorse Tom Richards”
GARY WALKER?! LOL. Does that mean I get to share his salary now? Actually, I campaigned for Bill Johnson 2 years ago -- not something Gary Walker would have done (at least not if he wanted to keep his job).
Re: “[UPDATED] Democrats endorse Tom Richards”
Interesting change of messaging. From Morelle's original press statement:
"The OVERWHELMING support for Mayor Richards expressed by the City Democratic Committee is an indication that the people of Rochester STRONGLY APPROVE of his leadership these past two years," (emphasis added)
Re: “[UPDATED] Democrats endorse Tom Richards”
MJN, I should've been clearer. What I meant is that Richards is clearly the choice of the party machine, and the narrative Warren's campaign is using is that of someone who will represent people who feel disenfranchised: like they don't have a voice in city government.
Chris Fien
City news editor
Re: “[UPDATED] Democrats endorse Tom Richards”
"The loss might even work to Warren’s advantage by reinforcing her “outsider” status: the candidate of the people versus the candidate of the city’s business interests."
Will somebody please explain how Warren, who has been city council president for three years, and a council member prior to that , can run as an "outsider"?
Re: “[UPDATED] Democrats endorse Tom Richards”
@YeashuaAD :Thanks for the enlightenment. I always though Gary Walkers stage name was "Good Gov".....so obviously he has more than one. The point is he is now accusing others of playing the "race card" when in fact his boss and Joe Morelle in particular did so with their premature announcement that all but suggested the 3 committees not counted were a non factor since they represent the majority of minorities in the City of Rochester. The gloves will definitely be OFF from here on out. I hope smart voters are paying attention.
Re: “[UPDATED] Democrats endorse Tom Richards”
Morelle is getting pretty big for his britches. Just another example of how he serves his own interests and not those of the public—especially not the public in the 22nd, 25th and 27th LDs. Really disappointing that Richards went along with this. I used to think he was an honorable man, even if he was more than a bit out of touch with his constituents.
I second Yeshua’s point about Gary Walker—aka RaChaCha. Maybe CityNews should FOIL his computer logs. I’m sure I’m not the only taxpayer unhappy about him spending public dollars trashing city council president.
Re: “[UPDATED] Democrats endorse Tom Richards”
When Lovely Warren and a majority of African American leaders supported Tom Richards for Mayor in 2011, it was with the understanding that Richards would finish out Bob Duffy's term and step aside.
When Lovely Warren and a majority of African American leaders supported Tom Richards for Mayor in 2011, Bill Johnson had not yet entered the race. After Johnson entered the race, they KEPT THEIR WORD and continued to support Richards.
Richards and Joe Morelle have not kept their word. It is they who are holding the knives. Morelle has been playing the race card from the beginning.
The idiotic and unnecessary press release they issued today illustrates the incompetence of Joe Morelle as Monroe County Democratic Chair. It also demonstrates that Tom Richards is unfit to serve all of the residents of Rochester. That the two of them would get together and issue a press release giving the false impression that Richards is backed by 75% of the City when they know that to be untrue reveals this to be both a blatant attempt to dismiss the wishes of a large portion of the City's population and a desperate attempt to energize a campaign and a candidate who have no vision for the future of the City of Rochester.
BTW, everyone knows that RaChaCha is Gary Walker, the Communications Director for the City of Rochester. I hope he wasn't on City time when he posted here on behalf of his boss.
Re: “[UPDATED] Democrats endorse Tom Richards”
Lovely Warren strongly supported Tom Richards, even posing for a photo with him for campaign literature, in his first attempt at the office of Mayor. So when it benefited her to support Tom Richards and Joe Morelle's decision to support Tom Richards it was fine, but now it is some sort of knife in the back to city blacks for Joe Morelle to support Tom Richards this time? Tom Richards had a black opponent last time with Bill Johnson as he does this time with Lovely Warren. Seems as though Lovely will say anything to get elected. How unfortunate for this city to have this type of dialogue starting and not a focus on what really matters.
Re: “[UPDATED] Democrats endorse Tom Richards”
So the Warren camp is playing the race card early. Will it also be often? I'd say so, with Chris Christopher on board.
Whether intentional or not, Morelle's statement has elicited just what kind of campaign the Gantt/Christopher/Warren camp intends to run.
Re: “Self-serving Senate's failed gun control legislation”
"And senators, most Republicans and some Democrats, saw the 2014 election in front of them and voted for job preservation."
If you want to be a newspaper pundit when you grow up, here's a can't-miss rule of thumb: Half the time, attack elected representatives for IGNORING their constituents' wishes. Then the half of the time, attack them for FOLLOWING their constituents' wishes. Heads I win, tails you lose!
Oh, and complain about "partisanship" even when nearly a third of the majority caucus votes against its leadership (as with the semiautomatic ban).
Re: “Lovely Warren says city schools would be her first priority as mayor”
.Ms. Warren has had three years as city council president to focus her attention on the city school situation and to convince her colleagues on the council that this area should be their first priority. But for some reason she neglected to do this. Nor, when one reads her biography and personal "mission statement” on the city council’s web site, does she give the condition of Rochester’s schools even a passing mention.
Such overnight conversions may be genuine if one is St. Paul on the road to Damascus. But when claimed by politicians running for higher office they tend to appear cynical and disingenuous.
Re: “Lovely Warren says city schools would be her first priority as mayor”
This is going to be an awesome campaign season. Cover it all, City! Cover it all.
Re: “Self-serving Senate's failed gun control legislation”
MJN - My sarcasm meter jumped into the red zone with your post.
Your point is understood, well-made even.
However, even with the element of common-sense you bring, I can't get worked up in favor of any additional restriction - no matter how practical, reasonable or common-sensical - to any of our freedoms.
We have lost too many in the last few decades. Freedoms of communication (Patriot Act), against unreasonable search and seizure (TSA), loss of property to eminent domain (Kelo), federal minimum sentences and others... all these and more have led America away from being the beacon of liberty she used to be, and into the "modern" world of limited freedoms (in a macro sense) we live in today.
We may have plenty of day-to-day freedoms left (thank God for the 1st Amendment), but in a full understanding of where we've been and what we've done, we're less free today than we've been in a long, long time.
Until we regain some freedoms for Americans who aren't bankers, politicians or lobbyists, giving up ANY freedoms is a sacrifice no one should be willing to make.
Re: “Self-serving Senate's failed gun control legislation”
Even commentators sympathetic to Prof. Obama are pointing out his incompetence on this one. A smarter politician would have focused on getting background checks done before the Newtown hysteria dissipated, rather than getting wrapped around the axle over bans that would never pass. Instead, thanks to his ivory tower cluelessness, the professor loses juice with nothing to show for it.
Of course, that analysis assumes he actually wanted to get something done. The fact is Obama said nothing about gun control either time he ran for president. His histrionics on the subject now is nothing but theater. And it is a particularly execrable example of victim porn, cynically calculated to agitate his lunatic fringe base for the midterms while shaking down his Hollywood sugar daddies.
Re: “Lovely Warren says city schools would be her first priority as mayor”
So Mrs. Warren, after her dis-honest fumbling of the issue of gay marriage (the only thing on her twitter feed other than self promottion are quotes from Rick Warren, champion against gay marriage in california), now has sided with Jeb Bush and the so called education "reformers" who believe that privatization , union busting and more endless testing are the solutions to urban education. The identity politics alarm system at City newspaper must be shooting sparks! By the way, if Ms. Warren's full time job is working for David Gantt, does anyone think she is working full time in his office only in that capacity? Isn't she then basically running for Mayor full time while being paid by Gantt? So isn't David Gantt essentially paying her to run for mayor right now? I'm not accusing her of running for mayor for monetary reasons, but isn't kind of weird that David Gantt is paying her salary while she runs? Alex White is running his own business whilst running for Mayor and Richards spends about 100 hrs a week being Mayor. Weird. And no one will ever ask about it.
Re: “Self-serving Senate's failed gun control legislation”
Yugoboy - Good news! Despite the propaganda, misrepresentations and out right lies spewing from the NRA and their right wing accomplices, your freedom to purchase a firearm is not, and never was, in danger. The Constitution, including the Second Amendment is alive and well. Only those with a fevered imagination view it as being in the slightest shredded.
Neither Obama, nor Congress nor any state government has proposed or will propose that all firearms be banned or that those in private hands be confiscated. Your right to be shot by a friend or family member remains intact, as does the right of any citizen, law-abiding or not, to buy as much firepower as they can afford ij order to be able to and take out their wrath on innocent bystanders in schools, movie theaters and college campuses.
Re: “Lovely Warren says city schools would be her first priority as mayor”
Mrs. Lovely ought to be running for RCSD board President with those visions.
Re: “Lovely Warren says city schools would be her first priority as mayor”
I applaud the focus of Lovely! Rather than telling us what we cannot afford and what we cannot do, she, is rolling out a plan with a solution to the most pressing problem we have! I do not know enough about school issues to say this will work...but, you never find answers without trying to find solutions. I, for one, will support someone with vision, not someone who tells us what we cannot do...we have that now!
Re: “Self-serving Senate's failed gun control legislation”
Kathryn Quinn Thomas - that's not democracy... it's freedom.
Re: “[UPDATED] Democrats endorse Tom Richards”
Ms. Fien - Thank you for the clarification. But I see that you didn't update the article itself and so unless someone reads your comment here they will receive an inaccurate view of the event.
Shouldn’t the statement now read,...
“The loss might even work to Warren’s advantage by reinforcing her campaign narrative of being an “outsider”: the candidate of the people versus the candidate of the city’s business interests.”?