Democrats take control in Albany

I think it just proved party-line voting. I've spoke to a lot of people about the candidates. Most of them seemed well informed and aware of the candidates positions. Unfortunately, the remainder just stuck to their party "regardless" of who was running. So even if those I spoke with were an (approx.) 70/30 ratio of informed or just party loyal the Republican shear voter numbers prevailed. I am in no way, shape or form complaining or trying to justify who won or lost. I'm just giving my opinion on what I encountered. Nothing scientific, just what I feel happened.

As far as where the blame lies. I think you could easily point to negative ads. The problem with negative ads is they stem from dishonesty from both sides. It would be tough to come up with those ads if candidates were more open and honest about what they've done, where they stand and why. The Kryzan campaign never should have accused Lee of shipping jobs to China when it wasn't true. It made for a great sound bite, but when it turned out to be false I think it really hurt her towards the end.

As far as Joe Mesi, I met and spoke with him a few times and I really like him. However, when he would give his speach about his brother losing his job and that was one of the reasons he got involved in politics it was a heartfelt and powerful statement. When it turned out he got his brother a job that took away from him and his empathy. All he needed to do was finish the story when giving his stump speech. If he had just said "I helped him get a job so he could provide for his family" then there would have been no fodder for a negative ad. He wasn't being dishonest, he just needed to finish the story. I think that is what hurt him in the end. Politics seem to be more about the appearance of impropriety than actually doing something wrong. Anyone of us would help our family if we had the power to do so. That's all he had to say.

By not being open, honest and accessible is fuel for negative ads. I think candidates should take more responsibility when it comes to PAC negative ads. If they don't put they're "I approve this ad" stamp on it it shouldn't be shown. If it is run and they don't like, they should stand up and say they don't approve it. Either you want that negative ad out there or you don't. Candidates need to stop hiding behind PAC ads by saying "I didn't do the ad, the PAC ran that ad". Silence about ads is as good as approving them in the publics' eye. Candidates need to stand up for what is right and what is wrong during a campaign and not always leave it up to the "handlers".

It definitely was party-line voting. We are now represented by a minority freshman in the State Senate and a freshman in the extreme minority in Congress at a time when we are facing extremely tough competition for both state and federal attention in many areas. Well played.

The loser-spin on the political shift will attribute Democratic gains to Obama's shirttails. The reality is that voters under 40 turned out in record number to register dissatisfaction with George W. Bush. Therein lies the doom for the Republican mandate. The Republican claim to ownership of fiscal responsibility was forfeit in the face of the largest deficit in US history. The fantasy herald of Republicans who tout family values was trampled by a disinherited generation reclaiming its birthright.
Flag-waving, apple pie and ethnic purity are not core values. The under-40s know this. Apparently the Republicans do not. Financial collapse coming on the heels of Clinton's remarkable budget surplus only served to accentuate the myth-buster. The bubble is burst, and the Newt Gingrich/Ronald Reagan era is at end. The next generation sees a planet being squandered. Icons of American success that the over-40 generations took for granted have been depleted, mortgaged and spent. The promise of old mother-Hubbard's shoe is no future.
Republicans cannot shift the blame. With the exception of Clinton's two terms, they have held sway in the White House for three decades and maintained majority in both houses of Congress from 1995 - 2005.

Your right about Bush,he had no clue and spent money left and right, with no idea how to stop doing it. However, you are spreading the myth of Clinton years. Remember, Clinton lied about a middle class tax cut, he raised middle class taxes in his very first year. He had no surplus until he lost control of Congress and was forced to so. Even then, the "surplus" was phoney, and you should know it. All they did is move many budget items "Off budget". That is where they moved the military budget and Social Security. Bush just kept doing it.

Obama won becasue of Bush's record and McCain being a terrible candidate. He was another Bob Dole. Now the weight is on Obama. He has two years to get it right, or he could lose control of Congress in 2010, like Clinton did. We'll see (hold on to your wallet).

I don't think you can say -- if that's what you're saying -- that Obama won only because of the failures of Bush and McCain. If that were so, the margin would have been much closer. Obama ran a great campaign. He inspired many first time voters. He excited the passions of the people who supported him. I don't agree with much of his world view, but I'm optimistic about his presidency. I'll give him a chance to show me what he can do before I pass judgment. Campaigning is over and now the work begins. Let's see what he does.

You’re not taking into account the gravity of an Obama win. This election was about economics. People didn’t go out in droves to elect an African American man whose name is Barrack Husain Obama (That’s for Jay Grasso) because, McCain ran a terrible campaign. It was a rejection by the nation as whole to the fabric of Republican financial philosophy. When you leave plumbers, and all the metaphors out of the discussion, there is one large difference between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to economics. Both parties redistribute wealth, the Republicans attempt to distribute money UP to higher income people, Democrats want to distribute it DOWN to lower income people.

McCain’s campaign was filled with the old GOP buzz words that Bush’s actions have proven to be pure deception. Republicans don’t stand for smaller government; they are just another political brand that survives on doing just the opposite from what they say. The majority of people just don’t buy that argument anymore. The majority in Genesee County might still buy the old Republican argument or they are just too used to pulling the Republican lever to change. It doesn’t matter.

Genesee County might be a red dot on a map but, we are in a sea of blue, surrounded by a blue ocean. We have severely handicapped ourselves in the last election. We are going to be sending two Republicans out into that sea of blue with no hope of being able to secure our share of fish. It’s irrelevant whether you like the political game or not, it’s a fact of life. What was our share will now be going to some other community that is represented by a blue dot on a map. Our share of road construction, sidewalk replacement, police funding, fire trucks and a hundred other things that we need will NOT be saved either. It WILL be spent, just not here in Genesee County. We will not get a tax break from the state or federal government either.

We will just not get anything from these people in Albany or Washington. Nothing, nada, ZIP...

Charlie, I think we should make earmarks the ongoing issue of the next two years. We should find some way of identifying what we need money for, what matching programs might fund those needs ... and keep a public accounting of what Genesee County agencies are measuring for ... keep a score card on our representatives ... report that score card before the next election.

The Batavian can be an organizing place for such an effort, but we could use some help getting it going. Do you think something like that would be possible, get support?

To me, it's not a partisan thing -- we pay our fair of taxes and should get our fair share of earmarks. If we're not doing that, people should know.

Howard, there is an argument that has brought up over and over again. The argument says that we as a community shouldn’t accept our fair share of earmarks. That somehow our suffering will make the world a better place. That’s not how the game is played. The state boys allot money for projects they deem important so, that they can all get credit for spending OUR money. That pie gets sliced up disproportionately based on the party representation of each Senator or Assemblyman. Having representation that isn’t from the controlling party probably gets your district 25% of a full share. That means for every sidewalk that is replaced here in Batavia, four will be replaced somewhere else in the state with the right representation. Compound this inequity on the national level as well and that is a problem we are going to feel.

This argument has nothing to do with the actual people we just elected. I’m sure they both will do a fine job working with what they are given. I don’t want to play this game either because; both parties do this for a reason. They don’t want you to choose a representative who isn’t of their party and want you to pay the price for your insolence. The system is broken and skewed towards the two party system. I don’t see a way of changing it either; I’m just trying to explain the problem.

Hey, if I had my way only local governments could collect taxes and then send them upstream ... the state and feds would be dependent on the Batavias of the US, not the other way around.

And at least on the Fed level, earmarks are a fraction of the budget.

As long as they're going to happen, we should get our fair share -- and more of it if we can ... and more of it if we can.

So my question is, how can we, the voters, join the fight, regardless of who is elected.

Fighting for Earmarks just got a lot harder, as was pointed out a few times, the majority usually gets more earmarks for their individual members, had Mesi gotten elected we could have easily expected more assistance for capital projects and expenses. Mesi also would have had some notoriety because of his boxing career and because he would have been part of the freshmen class that ended up giving the State Senate it's majority, for those two reasons (and the basic fact that he has a (D) next to his name) he would have been in a much better position to shift possible grant funding to our communities.

I wish Mike Ranzenhofer all the best, I hope that he's able to bring us help on the same level that Mary Lou Rath did, but battling for our fair share in this district is more difficult because of his election.

On the bright side though, many of the pickups were in upstate and including Bill Stachowski's defense in the 58th district, so that may end up benefitting our economy in a larger since.

@Daniel, so we just give up, or we fight?

No, we fight, but it became a significantly more uphill of a battle because we have a legislator in the minority and without seniority (unlike Steve Hawley).

Before anyone brings Steve up, by the way, here's the major difference, Steve has a smaller area to cover for investments and has proven himself to be able to be in close contact with the district. Mike Ranzenhofer has two towns in Erie County (Clarence and Amherst) with over 100,000 people in them and the town of Tonawanda, we're the eastern end of the district without a high population.

Again, I congratulate him and wish him well, but we just traded in our running shoes for hiking boots.

So my question is -- how do we help Mike, how do we help Chris.

Call me biased, but I think a site like The Batavian, where we can marshal our mutually interested resources, we can find a way to work together.

"how do we help Mike, how do we help Chris."

Howard,
They are supposed to help us.

Russ, I don't buy into the "we're helpless waifs" line of thinking. We have a responsibility for ourselves.

If we just sit by and hope that two elected officials trapped in minority parties are able to do something without help or pushing and prodding or ... something ... , we're only screwing ourselves, and we'll have nobody to blame but ourselves.

Look up, Howard. "Clueless" is written above your head.

You fart around on your personal website. You don't hand out lit, you don't do much beyond tapping keys. Tuck it back into your pants and back away from the keyboard.

Greet me when we pass as you and I go door-to-door. Show me your paper-cuts from passing out lit. We both love to think we're smart enough to see past the negative advertising.

Until you get out from behind your monitor and actually do dick, you're just a poser as far as I'm concerned.

Russ, are you really that bitter?

Howard,
Really? "Bitter"?

I slay me.

If you have a position, do more than just bark about it. Do more than just urge people to spew. Put your best walking shoes on and hike your ass out of your chair and do any-f'n'-thing.

Howard, instead of just posting an insinuation that I'm bitter, extend your effort enough to explain what I said that you could lazily infer to my bitterness.

Russ, your words speak for themselves. If you want to make it personal, take it elsewhere.

what is lit?

Howard,
Extolling you to take your opinions and beliefs beyond stroking keys isn't personal. Its encouraging.

I encourage people to do more than just pee on the Internet. If you scroll up and deem my comments to specifically address you personally, all I can do is to ask you to get over it.

Laz: Campaign literature as in fliers, brochures etc.

Russ is bitter: he would not even shake my hand. Harding and Jones may not agree with me, but they are quite civil in person. We all worked hard. Now we all get to work for the good of the community.

Jay, please pass my congratulations onto Mike Ranzenhofer. After a tough campaign where everyone worked hard to win every inch of the district he came out on top fair and square.

By the way, I was looking at the results and it appears that we won in LeRoy, surprising considering the amount of campaign resources spent there. Isn't that your legislative district?

Now that's the Dan I know. :-)

Sgt. Pepper Spray,
You silly man. I didn't shake your hand because I don't like you.

Remember we have two Democratic senators,Shumer and Clinton
does that mean we will get more federal money for this area..If we use Charlies thought about getting less from Albany because of republican representation in this area.i know senator Clinton claimed she couldn't deliver on her promise to bring 200000 jobs to this area because we didn't have a Democratic president that she could work with ..The way i see it, things should really be looking up around here..We will be getting our federal taxes cut by over 1000 dollars a year.Congratulations to all who won and lost .Joe Mesi and Alice Kryzan did a lot of door to door. That took alot of time and effort.They believed in there cause.Its more than many of us will do..I am glad they gave us a choice..I was surprized that the Sheriff ran unopposed..Can't wait to here who's running in 2012......

I read "idealism" in the fact that we need to find a way to help those elected representatives from our area. <p>
Yes, we could probably be the watchdogs and we could pro bably become the lobbyists for Batavia. But, do you honestly believe that, in the end, if more money comes to this area because of the 'help' from the 'people' that these same elected representatives are going to credit that bipartisan help in their ads two years from now? <p>
BRAVO is running The West Wing again. Every morning we are given two hours of how we wished politics really could be. A painless two hour civic lesson that includes a little humor and a human face. It is idealistic too.
Batavia, is just a spec on the map. Maybe we should be more idealistic. Maybe we should believe that we can make a difference. Wouldn't it be nice if this was the community that provided the roadmap for a different kind of politics.
Howard may be asking too much from our small group, but it is worth discussing.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that he ran a terrible campaign. Obviously it wasn't good enough. However I think unfortunately McCain never had any real shot at becoming the next president of the United States. Barack Obama was elected not because people disliked John McCain, but because they have grown so weary of the Bush administration and Republican party in general. it's unfortunate but the truth. I think that even though Bush's approval ratings are so low right now history will still look on him favorably. He definitely has not been the greatest president ever, but the fact that he pulled the country through what is arguably the single greatest tradgedy to ever take place on American soil, and his ability to keep the nation unified over that first four year span of his presidency is, I think, remarkable.

The reason Mesi barely won in LeRoy is due to the hard work of Lorie L. focusing on her hometown. I am not sure about large Ranzenhofer resources spent in LeRoy. There are three LeRoy voting blocks. About 1700 r's, 1500 d's, and about 1300 "blanks". Higher dem. proportion there, second only to the city of Batavia. It used to be all dem. We are gaining there. The Ranzenhofer focus was county wide and was "get out the vote based", geared towards the party base.
Gee Russ, have we met on a professional level? Sgt. Pepper Spray? Actually your failure to be polite showed a lack of class. Whatever. I promise I will never be that rude to you or anyone else.

Grasso: "The reason Mesi barely won in LeRoy is due to the hard work of Lorie L. focusing on her hometown. I am not sure about large Ranzenhofer resources spent in LeRoy. There are three LeRoy voting blocks. About 1700 r's, 1500 d's, and about 1300 "blanks". Higher dem. proportion there, second only to the city of Batavia. It used to be all dem. We are gaining there. The Ranzenhofer focus was county wide and was "get out the vote based", geared towards the party base."

Mr. Grasso, pleasure meeting you the other night. For the record, Lorie is the reason why a lot of candidates win LeRoy. Lorie is the reason why Jon Powers won Genesee County in the primary because if he didn't have LeRoy, he would have lost the county. Unfortunately, she can't be everywhere. She is a great asset to the Democrats in Genesee County. If only they had a few more like her who would make other towns more competitive.

Jay, you guys put a lot of your time into Le Roy, you said yourself on election day that you had volunteers in the field there and even sent in Steve Hawley a few times to campaign for Ranzenhofer and Jack Taylor. As you had pointed out to me during a conversation we had at the Halloween Parade, you won approximately 68 percent of the vote in LeRoy, if you obviously have a large level of popularity, why couldn't that popularity extend to a high ticket race?

The major party breakdown for the City of Batavia is as follows:
2884-Democratic
3648-Republican http://www.elections.state.ny.us/nysboe/Enrollment/election%20district/…

Therefore, your saying that Batavia is somehow a major Democratic stronghold is inaccurate. Batavia is a Republican town that appears to have voted for Joe Mesi. His message resonated in Genesee County, from my understanding pulling it within 2000 votes even with it being a "deep red" county that voted for McCain and a popular unopposed Assemblyman campaigning for his opponent.

And I'm with Robert, Lorie's leadership resulted in major victories in ward's and district's countywide, including a town council win in LeRoy for Tom Stella.

I never said Batavia is a Dem stronghold. Nor is LeRoy anymore. But for Genesee County, Batavia (city) and Leroy (village)have the most registered dems. Since I was not on the ticket, I am not sure what my LeRoy influence should have been. It is apples and oranges. It would be like me saying Chris Lee won LeRoy (he did, bigtime,2592 to 1177)beause of my influence. I do not think so! Mesi took a lot of votes because of his B-list celebrity status. Simple name recognition. He was likeable but clueless on policy and issues as they relate to Genesee County (see IDA, gay marriage, wind turbines, etc.). My focus was to get the vote out county wide, not focus on any specific area. It worked.
In 2009 I will be focused on one campaign, my own. However, that is a long way off. For now, I will be working to register Republicans county wide. While Genesee County is still very red, we will not be taking this for granted.
On the Stella race, Tom actually lost on head to head Rep. v. Dem. Tom won the race on the conservative line. Party line broke out just about even. Shows the value of having another line. Both candidates are good guys.
Robert: remember when you talked about having a slice of "victory pizza"? I told you not to jinx it! LOL! You guys worked hard and you got your national guy. We shall see what the "gang of four" does in the State Senate.

Here ya go, Sarge.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/nyregion/07four.html?_r=1&ref=nyregio…

Oh, one more thing:

Barack Hussein Obama.

How's it sound now, baby?

Jay, what I was alluding to was that Mesi ran a strong enough campaign to be able to circumvent your's and Steve Hawley's popularity in LeRoy to be able to pull of a win there in two races. Ranzenhofer won the county overall, but the fact that it was within about 2000 votes (or 47 percent) for Joe Mesi shows that the Democrats were able to pull their acts seriously together. As far as Alice Kryzan is concerned, she didn't really have the large grassroots movement out here that Mesi did.

Regardless of Mesi's "celebrity", it couldn't possibly account for wins in the educated minds of voters in Batavia and LeRoy. I believe in the judgement of the people, even if I don't agree with them, don't you think that your constituents are smart enough not to just vote for a guy just because he was a boxer? I know that I do. They voted for Joe Mesi because of the kind of passionate fighter that he has been for WNY and because they felt that he was more in line with their families needs on the issues.

Saying that he's "clueless" is a cheap shot, you came across as a more classy person than to say something like that.

You did say that Batavia had a "higher proportion" of Democrats than anywhere in the county, the numbers indicate that statement simply isn't true as well. Overall, we pulled one heck of a race for Joe Mesi in Genesee County, we're running strong grassroots campaigns. We'll see how the local races go next year.

Yeah, clueless was harsh. Inexperienced, well coached and quick learner might better describe Mesi. He works a room well also. I still feel his name recognition helped. The top of the ticket (Obama) helped as well. Still, he could not win in a good year for Dems. I think you are only partially correct on the strong grassroots theory. If you were totally correct, Kryzan would have (should have?)done better.
With regards to LeRoy he only took it by 161 votes out of 2941 cast for the Senate race. Not a huge margin considering the large amount of Dems there and the huge effort by Lorie. His actual loss in Genesee County was by 2474 votes.
Local races are a different animal. Party means less in them. I think people are more willing to vote the person, and not the party in a local race.
Dan, we need to get a hobby! I tried to stay away from politics today and hung my Christmas lights in the good weather. Yet, here I am again!

A few things Jay:

I remember being told long ago that you don't mention IDAs in Genesee County because the IDA in Genesee County has done some good (supposedly, I beg to differ, but that's what I was told). Let's say that the IDA in Genesee County is good. Does that mean they are great in the rest of the state? No, definitely not. Same goes for Empire Zones. We need strong Empire Zone/IDA reform in this state and I was glad Mesi made that a priority of his. We do need those reforms.

Marriage equality was never an issue during the campaign. Everybody knew where Mesi stood and everybody knew where Ranzenhofer stood. That's where it should have stayed and that's where I think it stayed. These social discussions are only made into issues to divide us.

And for the record, the "victory pizza" reference was about Barack Obama. I would never assert victory when I'm never certain of the outcome. But I knew Obama was going to win.

6000+ more R's than D's in GC. So bringing this to a little over 2000 was very good for us no matter how it's spun. Of course we were doing everything possible to win here in Genesee. Realistically (with this kind of enrollment disparity) we exceeded our expectations by ending up at 47%. I promised Joe Mesi and the state Dem's LeRoy and the City and we delivered. Contrary to the higher Dem population assertions which was bantered about earlier -- we are behind in both Batavia and LeRoy. Maybe not for long, though, with a tide of blue sweeping across the reddest areas of the country. Can't imagine our area is not trending the same way.

We met our goals with two great field organizers (one from Stafford) and the best group of devoted, homegrown, Genesee County volunteers that I have ever had the pleasure of working beside. No outsourcing with out-of-district help -- we did the work with our own people -- right here. And I'm proud of that.

While we supported Alice 100%,like Dan said, there was no ground game here.

FYI -- Robert Harding is on Hardline with Hardwick tomorrow at 10:30.

Jay, again, as Lorie now pointed out Kryzan didn't have a ground game like Mesi did, it's why in this Republican County he got 47 percent of the vote and won Batavia and LeRoy. It really was a matter of mathematics more than anything else, we knocked on more doors for Mesi than for Kryzan, so we got more votes for Mesi.

Your right about local politics though, there it'll come down to the person regardless of party but outreach still will matter. I wonder if your going to be running for re-election?