Earlier this year, the Western New York Coalition for Progress issued a report (pdf) reviewing the various types of county governments permissible under New York State law. In that report, the Coalition made specific recommendations for amending Erie County’s charter, with the hope that the Erie County Charter Revision Commission and county legislature would consider them as they proposed amendments to Erie County’s Charter..

After long deliberations by the Commission, legislature and county executive, over 30 amendments to Erie County’s Charter have been passed and will be put before the voters of Erie County on November 7th as “County Proposition One” – a voter referendum to amend Erie County’s Charter. Some of recommendations contained in the Coalition’s report are included in this referendum.

The Coalition supports passage of the referendum, and is recommending that all Erie County voters vote “YES” in favor of the proposed charter amendments on election day.

As I stated on the Coalition’s behalf countless times last spring, we believe that the county’s fiscal crisis was the fault of our elected officials - not a structural flaw in county government. Major structural change was not needed. Just a nudge here and there.

So, be like all the cool kids and vote Yes on Proposition 1.

Bush is probably the funniest comedian, like, ever.

President Bush said terrorists will win if Democrats win and impose their policies on Iraq, as he and Vice President Cheney escalated their rhetoric Monday in an effort to turn out Republican voters in next week’s midterm elections.

Rochesterturning infiltrated Mrs. Bush’s rally for Tom Reynolds and Randy Kuhl in Rochester.

You’ll want to read all about how they made people stand for 2 hours, including 80-year-olds who were hunched over and uncomfortable. It probably looked better on camera to have the people on their feet.

Once the speeches got going, it was the same standard crap you’d get at any Republican rally (with slightly less uses of the word “Macaca”)… Our next governor this and stand with the troops that. Reynolds spoke about protecting our kids for a little bit, and Kuhl explained that Massa wants to privatize social security… I don’t think either of these statements is very valid. When they finished up, we were told that Laura Bush was on the way and we’d just have to sit tight.

and

When Laura FINALLY arrived, Kuhl and Reynolds walked back on stage with her. Lots of smiling, lots of camera flashes… not a lot of depth to her speech though. For the 5 millionth time, I heard how valuable reading is from the first lady. It never ceases to amuse me how Laura always encourages her audience to get involved in reading, but if half of them started reading real news, they’d probably would turn into Democrats. She went on for about 20 minutes, but in all honesty there isn’t much for me to report. She emphasized that we need these Repubs to stay in office to help Bush, so we can continue to “stand with the troops,” but that’s about it. When she was done, the Secret Service ushered her out and we were left to vacate the premises.

At the end of last night’s presentation, Jack Davis gave a closing statement.

In it, he assailed his opponent for, among other things, the Mark Foley scandal and the exporting of jobs by multinational corporations.

Davis closed by saying that the Buffalo News compares

Reynolds’ clout to Davis’ character.

Personally, I would always vote for character.

Will you?

The majority Republican crowd cried, “NO!”

I think I’ll remember that.

The Republicans supporting Tom Reynolds do not like “millionaires” and prefer “clout” to “character”.

You’ll see the video. Let that be ingrained in your mind for years to come.

1. Bob McCarthy’s article on last night’s Reynolds/Davis debate is here.

2. The New York Power Authority made a $166 million profit off of its operation of the hydroelectric plant in Lewiston, according to a state comptroller’s audit. Representative Brian Higgins asked for the audit to determine exactly how much Lewiston contributes to the authority’s overall revenue.

“The audit confirms that Western New York and our natural resources are being used by the power authority to subsidize abuse and inefficiency statewide” he said.

The power authority had a different take on Hevesi’s audit.

“The findings affirm [the power authority’s] sound and responsible management of the Niagara Project. [the authority’s] finances are an open record,” the authority said in a statement.

The audit criticized the power authority for failing to make public, via annual financial statements, its internal figures on the revenues and expenses of each of the 17 electrical generating facilities it operates.

The audit notes that the law establishing the authority requires a “full and complete disclosure of all factors of cost in the transmission and distribution of power. However, detailed information on the fiscal impacts of various power projects is not currently provided.”

The audit concluded that last year, the Lewiston complex cleared $165.8 million on revenues of $397.7 million. In 2004, its revenues exceeded expenses by $112.2 million.

The audit compared these profits against the authority’s overall profits of $58.5 million last year and $82 million in 2004, after subtracting payments to the state treasury and several economic development projects.

According to Higgins, the numbers justify the settlement that NYPA struck with Buffalo and Erie County. Next, he wants to push NYPA for

A very significant block of cheap hydropower to give business that are here, and business we want here, to give Western New York a competitive advantage in the national and global economy.”

3. There is crime in the suburbs, too.

4. The News’ article about the toll removal is front-page material today, and Dave Swarts’ name is misspelled online.

I don’t really report the news. The news reports itself. The news is recorded by people who are trained to attend events, ask questions, and then boil a report down to the time or length their editors want.

I’m no pro when it comes to that. I can’t always think of a clever thing to ask, and I won’t ask the idiotic, “so how did you think it went” question.

What I enjoy doing when I do “report” on an event rather than merely comment on it, is give you a different perspective on it. Not being shackled by the rules of traditional journalism, I can tell you what happened, but also what I think about it.

Tonight I attended a candidate’s forum in my town of Clarence. It’s no secret that Clarence is a Republican town in a Republican district - no matter which district you’re talking about (except US Senator). The auditorium in Clarence Town Hall was, therefore, naturally packed with Republicans.

COUNTY CLERK
Shelly Schratz says Dave Swarts won’t serve 4 years and is instead gunning for a job with Spitzer to run the DMV. She wants to be “accountable” to the people and doesn’t think it should be a career. Schratz would not permit her deputies to be elected officials elsewhere (Kathy Hochul), and wouldn’t let her people contribute $5k to her campaign. She was soft-spoken, somewhat stiff and halting.

Dave Swarts took his largely ministerial duties and made a great case for himself and why he should be returned to office. He got passionate - loud - about such things as keeping DMV money in Erie County, rather than registering online. He said that he led the way towards automation, a paperless office, and was quick to embrace new technology such as the internet as it became available. He was sure of himself and did an excellent job substantively and stylistically.

ASSEMBLY 142
Mike Cole has been in Albany only about 6 months, yet his opponent Laura Monte wants you to think he’s been there long enough to be part of the problem, and he’d like you to think that he’s been there long enough to get some real change and reform going. Neither is true.

Mike Cole is a Republican tax-cuttin’ kinda guy. He cut taxes in Alden. He’ll cut taxes in Albany. He cuts taxes. He’s a tax-cutter.

Did I mention he doesn’t like taxes? Oh, and kids are leaving the area.

Laura Monte has an interesting proposal, whereby she pledges to accept only as much pay as the average person in the district earns - about $43,000, and she’ll put the rest of the money in a scholarship fund. She also sounded the tax-cutter horn, and decried the loss of young people from WNY. She also added that she’s for term limits, doesn’t like the negative ads that her opponent is running, and almost sounded at times like she was taking his jabs seriously and personally. Like he had hurt her feelings.

During closing statements, Monte said that Cole is “probably a nice guy”. Cole took that fastball and swung, replying, “She got one thing right - I am a nice guy”, and got a rousing laugh & applause from that.

On substace, neither candidate stood out. They sounded almost alike a lot of times, except for the negative attacks. On style, Cole won hands-down. Monte is in desperate need of a media handler and someone to help her through these types of debates. She didn’t do really well tonight and I had problems with her performance on Hardwick yesterday.

SENATE - 61
Mary Lou Rath is running for re-election. She thinks Medicaid is too expensive. She took credit for the $14 million in “Senate money” (isn’t it the people’s money?) that helped remove the tolls today. She thinks the state legislature is getting a handle on Medicaid, and she thinks that federal pork is important to receive. Rath is in favor of a bipartisan commission to do redistricting, and notes that she helped do that in the County legislature in 1980. She’s been in office since 1980?

Her opponent, Richard Woll, was extraordinarily unpolished and lost his train of thought at times. He’s a nice enough guy and told a nice story about his background, but he was outperformed on substance and style tonight. I did like his recounting during his closing argument about how dysfunctional Albany is, and how it’s run by three men in a room. The obvious subtext being that Rath has long been part f the problem, and it’s time for a change.

HOUSE NY-26
I took video of the entirety of this debate, together with most of the post-debate spin from Reynolds and Davis. Reynolds had the room stacked with his people, who were loud and raucous. Davis, too, had some partisans who piped up at times but were clearly outnumbered.

Reynolds answered questions running on his record. His 30+ year record in public office, gladhanding and gaining clout in the Leg, in the Assembly, and in Congress. He is a quintessential politician. Aloof. Arrogant. Humorless. Dismissive.

He touted his pork accumulations for the district and said that free trade would be a disaster. He came to life during a question about stem cells and abortion, and said he was for the “sanctity of life” (who the fuck isn’t?!) He is for embryonic stem cell research, but not with federal money - not because of anything having to do with morals or religion, but because the science allegedly isn’t there. He’s also for the sanctity of marriage, which is between a man and a woman. Huge applause. I felt like I needed to shower.

Now I know why Davis doesn’t like to campaign and give speeches. He’s pretty bad at it. He recounted the fact that he’s a patriot and spent some time trying to debunk the negative ads that Reynolds has been running against him. Davis made it crystal clear that, on the issues, he’s as conservative (if not more so) than Reynolds. Except that he’s pro-choice.

On the question concerning gay marriage, Davis scoffed, saying he didn’t want to talk about that, he wants to talk about important stuff. During the post-debate spin, Channel 7’s John Borsa called Davis on this - isn’t gay marriage important to a lot of people? Why would he dismiss it? Davis kinda eventualy acknowledged that it is important. Davis repeated that he was a patriot a lot, and he mentioned that we need to stop hemmorhaging jobs to China and that we need to shut our borders, and build a wall around Mexico or something. He is against amnesty for illegal immigrants. This was a sort of ugly side of Jack Davis; I don’t mind people being against illegal immigration, but there was something about how he went about it that stunk of xenophobia.

When you’re given a forum in front of potential voters, you’re not going to win just because you’re angry at your opponent and can look & sound it. You have to win us over. Give us a reason to vote for you. Yeah, free trade. OK. What else? Davis just didn’t seal that deal. Some questions gave him a couple of minutes’ worth of time to expound on his positions, but he answered them with one word instead. Yes, brevity is the soul of wit - but this is ridiculous.

The WNYMedia.net cameras consisted of one personal camcorder on a tippy tripod, and Davis’ people mistook yours truly for a Reynolds stooge. At one point, I asked why Davis answered a question concerning travel to Canada with a rant about building a wall around Mexico. His handler angrily asked me who I was with.

I looked him right in the eyes and proudly replied, “Western New York Media dot net”. That quickly sunk in, but by that time my question was somewhat drowned out by nonsense, so all I got from the candidate was a tepid, “I misunderstood the question.” The handler later apologized to me and WNYMedia.net.

After the debate was over, Reynolds walked over to Davis, shook his hand and said something to him that I couldn’t hear. I kept the camera trained on them, and I saw Reynolds say the word, “trust” to Davis. I asked Davis what Mr. Reynolds had just said to him, and it was “something about his grandkids.”

Seriously, it was the fucking curmudgeon hour.

The video will be up sometime tomorrow.

When John McCain was scheduled to campaign for Tom Reynolds in Rochester last week, he begged off because his mother-in-law was very ill.

Cindy McCain’s mother passed away peacefully on Sunday in Phoenix.

A tipster emails me an article from the Sacramento Bee.

Citing Hensley’s illness, McCain canceled a luncheon in Rochester, N.Y., for Republican Rep. Thomas Reynolds. He did campaign Sunday for Republican Tom Kean Jr. in the New Jersey Senate race.

He couldn’t go to Rochester for Reynolds, but he campaigned for Tom Kean, Jr. in New Jersey the same day that his mother-in-law died.

That’s odd.

Res ipsa loquitur

At Clarence Town Hall’s auditorium at 7pm, sponsored by the League of Women Voters.

More specifically, it’s a “candidate’s night”, so there also might be a Cole/Monte thing going on.

HT PoliticsWNY

The tolls are gone on the I-190. I saw it myself, with my own eyes.

Not being a real reporter, I traveled up to the Black Rock tolls for an early lunch break to watch the fun. Loads of people were there. Senators Volker, Maziarz, Rath, and Coppola. Assemblypeople Hoyt, Peoples, Tokasz, Schimminger, and Cole. County Clerk Swarts. County Executive Giambra. Some, like Brian Higgins, were conspicuous by their absence, and it was not lost on a few that it was Black Rock that was getting the attention, rather than Ogden Street.

Bill Leslie from the Thruway Authority confirmed that the tolls were gone, but the booths are still there. People should obey the posted 25 MPH speed limit to avoid accidents.

The contract to remove the barriers themselves will be finalized by spring, and the things should come down by the summer 2007.

The removal of the tolls this year is coming from $14 million in Senate economic development funds that weren’t being used for anything. The removal of the tolls in out years is coming from a reversion from the Thruway to the State DOT of maintenance of the I-84 from Connecticut to Pennsylvania.

When asked whether reversion of the I-287 to the State DOT might result in the tolls being pushed back to Auburn or Albany, Mr. Leslie had no comment. Senator Volker laughed and thought that was a good idea, and that if someone could come up with $3.9 billion, we could get rid of the whole thing altogether.

Clerk Dave Swarts has been banging the toll-removal drum for many years, before it was cool. He was very satisfied with the outcome, but still wants the Lackawanna and Williamsville toll barriers to be moved back, outside the local commuting range.

The tolls themselves were officially switched off at 11:45 pm today, and I saw Giambra, Carl Paladino, Attorney Mike Powers, and Senator Volker walking briskly towards the barriers themselves. Marc Odien and I followed.

The four piled onto the back of an Ellicott Development pickup truck and toasted their victory on the back of the pickup truck; somewhat surreal to see these powerful guys in that situation. The truck then drove away at an excruciatingly slow rate of speed towards one of the toll barriers. They were going to be the first people to officially go through without paying a toll.

When asked if this meant the court action had been discontinued, the four laughed.

As the truck went through the barrier, we turned to see that the troopers had stopped traffic southbound on the I-190 to enable crews to unveil the “No Toll” sign.

Charlie Garber, who drives a truck for Weatherpanel was happy to be the first commercial vehicle through the toll-free I-190. He noted that their 8 trucks go through those tolls at least 10 times per day, which adds up. It will make his deliveries easier and quicker, and save the company money.

At least one person mentioned that this is all pre-election shenanigans. One must question the timing of this event - coming one week before the election - and it’s significant that it is these tolls that are removed, and not a pushback of Williamsville or Lackawanna. If you move Williamsville, you piss off Newstead. If you remove Breckenridge & Ogden, you piss off no one.

Donn Esmonde was interviewing Volker, and Esmonde was questioning why Volker was taking credit for this event when it was the lawsuit that really built the momentum to this point. Volker said the lawsuit was going to fail. Esmonde then called Mike Powers over and said, “Mike, the lawsuit was going to fail.” Cue laughter.

Powers said that he and the Senator had agreed to disagree on that. Volker continued to get questioned about the timing, and the Senator dismissively said that Esmonde hates all government. Esmonde countered that he likes good government. The Senator was displeased by this remark, and you’ll be able to see just how much later on when WNYMedia.net posts video of it.

Everyone was smiles on a day where everybody wins.

The Thruway Authority has voted to permanently remove the tolls on the I-190 in Buffalo. More to come.

The teams leave Kuwait City, and make their way to Mauritius (via London(!)), a tiny island in the Indian Ocean. It’s been unfortunate that I missed a couple of weeks’ worth of the show due to the storm and other reasons.

Things I learned today:

The Nissan Micra is a cute car.

Mauritius is a very French island, right down to the license plates.

Yet the French lost the island to the British in 1810, so English is the official language and they drive on the left.

And that’s part of the allure for me - to be able to see these relatively exotic places at eye-level in a context that doesn’t involve news and sadness, but friendly competition and travel.

Anyone else in the 26th getting the robocall from Jim Kelly, which touts how awesome Tom Reynolds is and how wonderful his tax cuts have been for the economy?

I remember before the Bush began his excellent adventure in Iraq, Times columnist Tom Friedman declared:

Think of it this way: If and when we take the lid off Iraq, we will find an envelope inside. It will tell us what we have won and it will say one of two things.

It could say, “Congratulations! You’ve just won the Arab Germany - a country with enormous human talent, enormous natural resources, but with an evil dictator, whom you’ve just removed. Now, just add a little water, a spoonful of democracy and stir, and this will be a normal nation very soon.”

Or the envelope could say, “You’ve just won the Arab Yugoslavia - an artificial country congenitally divided among Kurds, Shiites, Sunnis, Nasserites, leftists and a host of tribes and clans that can only be held together with a Saddam-like iron fist. Congratulations, you’re the new Saddam.”

Iraq was, by its very nature, artificial. Sunnis and Shias have been fighting far longer than Croats and Serbs; the split in the Muslim world took place in the 7th century. The Great Schism happened in the 11th. It took a dictatorship under King Alexander or Tito to hold it together. It took British colonial rule under a League of Nations mandate, a King, and Saddam to hold Iraq together - another post-WWI invention, created out of three Ottoman provinces.

What American troops are left as, in that case, is acting as a buffer between two groups that desperately want to engage in a full-fledged religious civil war. At this point, we’re just in the way. Cannon fodder.

Hodgepodge puts it succinctly:

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki made very clear today that “I’m not America’s man in Iraq.”

He is absolutely right.

And neither should we be the suppliers of his army or security forces.

If al-Maliki can’t get his oil pipelines running or get his army and police forces going, that’s his problem. If he can’t stop the Shia from engaging in ethnic cleansing against the Sunni and vice versa — that too is his problem, not ours.

The Iraqis are going to fight each other whether we’re there or not. Let them do it. and let’s get out of the way. Declare victory (again) and redeploy our troops in Afghanistan or elsewhere to disrupt newly emerging terrorist camps and to truly make America safe - not to get shot at in the middle of a vicious civil war.

RandomThoughts101’s Dan got married yesterday. Congratulations to him and his new wife, Dee. Red took a picture of the unique wedding favor.

1. Front Page: profiles of Reynolds and Davis. People remain weary of Reynolds’ involvement with the Foley scandal, and believe that Mr. Clout should have worked to protect kids above all. Davis has Wes Clark coming next Sunday to campaign for him. That’s something I may have to check out.

2. Bob McCarthy talks with John LaFalce, and they wonder whether it might be a Dem rout on the 7th.

3. The Buffalo News officially endorses Eliot Spitzer for Governor. They have nice things to say about Faso, but he’s mostly a stopgap; the stop Spitzer candidate, and little else.

4. An interview with the new owner of the Eastern Hills Mall, who wants to bring Nordstrom here. That might be as likely as Bass Pro building an eZone, a golf course, and a zoo on the waterfront, but you never know. They did bring a Brooks Brothers 346 and Dave & Busters here.

Stephen Watson has a good overview of how the web - especially blogs and youtube - have helped to shape this year’s election season.

Imagine how nuts it’s going to be in 2008.

Tom Reynolds vs. Jack Davis is indicative of Matt & Trey’s “giant douche vs. turd sandwich” metaphor. The Buffalo News itself, which usually doesn’t hesitate to endorse allegedly clouty Republicans and/or pork-bringers, can’t bring itself to endorse either one. The 26th Congressional District of New York is going to lose any way you slice it.

So, when you go to the polls in the 26th, ask for a write-in. Write yourself in. Write me in. Seriously, you could do a lot worse. I’m a former Republican, just like Jack Davis. I work in the insurance industry, just like Tom Reynolds did way back before he was Denny Hastert’s best pal. I have a political science degree, and I know how to use it. I’m fiscally conservative, but socially liberal. I wouldn’t give Bush a blank check like Reynolds will, and I have lots more than just one issue about which to talk, as is indicated by the archive of this blog.

Davis is a DINO who would rather stay home in Akron and run his company anyway. I’d go in there and add to the new Democratic majority.

Yes, this is a goof, but seriously - a little voter nullification wouldn’t hurt anyone. Here are some bumper stickers for youse to use:

What if everyone acted like Rush Limbaugh?

Buffalo News to Reynolds and Davis:

You both suck.

Well, that’s obviously an oversimplification.

The incumbent has a practical edge in this race, and the challenger has a moral one. This has been a critically impaired campaign, and the choice for most voters will be highly individual and anything but easy.

$6.8 million to elect either the ethicaly challenged incumbent or the Buchananite conservative one-issue challenger. Imagine what $6.8 million could have bought, or how many it could have fed.

If ever there was a need for a caption contest, now is it:

The Canadian Immigration Court held a hearing on the case of Malcolm Watson (Cheektowaga. Buffalo Seminary teacher. 15-year-old student. Fondling. Galleria. Hours.) who was sentenced to probation to be served in Canada.

Watson has landed immigrant status (green card equivalent) in Canada, and lives with his wife and kids in St. Catherine’s.

He was deemed to be a low risk, and he was ordered to stay put.

Under Canadian law, permanent residents can be deported for serious crimes that would garner jail sentences of 10 years or more, including crimes that are considered misdemeanours in the United States.

Meanwhile, Harper’s Conservative government is proposing to raise Canada’s age of consent from 14 to 16. (New York’s is 17).

Which just goes to show you. Don’t fondle your 15-year-old student in your car whilst parked at the Galleria.