13WHAM Vote 2012

Obama Takes Public Oath Of Office

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 13:17:08 -0400

Washington (AP) – President Barack Obama is promising to uphold the Constitution in a public swearing in ceremony that signals the beginning of his second term in office.

Placing his hand on two Bibles – one used by President Abraham Lincoln at his first Inauguration and one used by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – Obama took a public oath of office on Monday, after he was sworn in during a private ceremony on Sunday. The Constitution requires presidential terms to begin on Jan. 20.

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts administered Obama's private swearing in on Sunday and the public ceremony Monday. He also swore Obama in during his first inauguration in 2009.

E.R. Board Breaks Tie In Justice Race

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 20:24:16 -0400

East Rochester, N.Y. --- Two weeks after the polls closed on Election Day the winner of the East Rochester Village Justice race is at last final.

David Bonacchi, the Republican candidate, was appointed to the position following a four-to-one vote of the East Rochester Village Board.

The vote was necessary because Bonacchi and Democrat Dennis Greco ended the election tied at 1,274 votes each. After all absentee, military, and affidavit ballots were counted the two men remained deadlocked and the village leaders went to the law books to determine how to break the tie.

The recommended course of action, as guided by state law, was that the board vote to fill the vacant seat with an appointment that would be valid for one year only. The seat is considered vacant since the election failed to produce an undisputed winner.

In November 2013 East Rochester voters will head to the polls again to elect a justice for this seat and the winner of that election will serve out a full four-year term.

"I don't think people really sometimes understand how important their vote is and this race demonstrates it,” Bonacchi said after the special meeting of the board. “I mean nobody in their wildest thoughts would've thought it was going to come down to a tie.”

"This just shows how important one vote can be,” Greco said. “People who say a vote doesn't count here's an example. One vote could've made a big difference in the outcome of this, you need to get out and vote and voice your opinion on things and be involved in the political process as much as you can.”

For Bonacchi this represents a return to politics after the former East Rochester Police Officer served as Village Mayor before losing in 2007.

Greco is best known as the East Rochester High School Football coach, a post he’s held for the last twenty years. After retiring as a social studies teacher last school year Greco decided to run for the justice seat while also coaching his team to a Sectional V Title.

After the meeting both men congratulated each other and their families on successful campaigns.

"I had 1,274 vote for a football coach to be a judge,” Greco said. “Think about that for a minute I mean I just feel very humbled that that many people came out and showed support for me and thought I could do the job, I'm a very fortunate guy.”

"One of the reasons why I was going to run for judge was it was always going to be a positive race and when Dennis said that he was going to run it was always going to be against a gentleman,” Bonacchi said. “Dennis Greco is a great guy he's been a gentleman, he's been a friend, he coached my kids in football I used to go over to his house for chili. This is this is hard.”

Bonacchi will begin his term as Justice in January. He occupies a seat vacated by recently-elected New York State Supreme Court Justice Scott Odirisi.

Greece Politics: Eyes Already On 2013

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 19:30:14 -0400

Greece, N.Y. --- Some homes still have political lawn signs out front from last week’s election and yet there are already moves being made with next year’s election in mind.

2013 is longtime Greece Town Supervisor John Auberger’s last year in office and in November voters will elect just their fourth supervisor in four decades.

On Wednesday one potential candidate to replace Auberger began to point fingers at Republican Party bosses that include another possible candidate next year.

Jeffrey McCann is currently a Monroe County Legislator and also serves as the town’s Chief of Staff under Auberger. Jerry Helfer is the town’s GOP Leader, a former town board member, and currently the Assistant County Executive under Maggie Brooks.

McCann is calling for a special meeting of the Greece Republican Committee after 33 new members were added in September. McCann claims their additions were “improper and unauthorized” and also that many “include Jerry Helfer’s immediate family, family friends, and the children and relatives of select politically-connected people.”

“They're really related to Jerry Helfer who is the Republican town leader there is also a number of people with the last name Reilich, and other people who are politically connected," McCann said in an interview Wednesday.

Assemblyman Bill Reilich, another person added to the committee, is also the Monroe County Republican Party Chairman.

"Clearly this is an attempt by a couple of political leaders in our community to try to control the Greece Republican Committee," McCann continued.

"I have to say I'm disappointed with the tact that Jeff has taken today,” Helfer responded. “I was with him as recently as last night's legislative meeting and he didn't express any concerns to me at that time."

Helfer said he believes all the rules were followed in appointing new members to the Greece Republican Committee because the Monroe County Committee’s bylaws supersede the town committee’s. He also said that the addition of new members is meant to bulk-up the committee entering a key election year where nine town-wide seats are up for grabs.

That committee’s membership stood at 97 before the 33 additions. A simple vote of the members in that committee this spring will likely determine the Republican Party’s nominee for the supervisor’s race next year. Both McCann and Helfer could be vying for that vote which could begin to explain this clash a full 51 weeks before the next election.

"Running for supervisor is something I'm thinking about definitely,” McCann acknowledged. “But to me this is a bigger picture this sends a message to the community about how the Republican Party operates."

"It is something I'm seriously considering,” Helfer said of a supervisor’s run. “I've been meeting with Greece residents talking to family members and friends, political leaders, to take a look at this as a possibility. I have a great love for Greece I served on the Town Board for twelve years, but I feel we can do an even better job.”

Romney "Victory" Web Page Mistakenly Posted

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 19:29:02 -0400

(ABC) - Call it an "oops" of Presidential proportions.

A draft of Mitt Romney's victory website reportedly went live for a few minutes, after Romney was defeated by President Barack Obama.

Political Wire took screen shots of the website, which proclaimed the Rrepublican candidate the President-elect.

The site's homepage also touted Romney's vision for a "smaller, simpler and smarter" government.

The page was pulled within a few minutes of being posted.

Romney's campaign has not commented yet.

Buerkle Concedes In The 24th Congressional District Race

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 07:52:06 -0400

NY 24th Congressional District - Congresswoman Ann Marie Buerkle has conceded to her opponent Dan Maffei in the 24th congressional district race.

Democrat Dan Maffei has a 12,000 vote lead over Buerkle.

On Friday, Buerkle said that even with the absentee ballots that have not been counted, she does not think she could have won.

Buerkle would have had to win almost all of the remaining ballots to close the gap.

Lyons Votes To Dissolve Village

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 19:53:00 -0400

Lyons, N.Y. --- Voters took a step towards dissolving the Village of Lyons on Tuesday despite questions from Village leaders and others in the community wondering why this was necessary.

"How can you vote ‘No’ on something when you don't have any plan for what's going to happen?" Mayor Corrine Kleisle said Wednesday.

The proposition made its way onto the ballot earlier this year after a successful petition drive led by residents calling themselves OneLyons. Nearly 1,100 votes were cast in the village on Tuesday and the “Yes” votes to dissolve lead by 45 proper to absentee and military ballots being tallied.

Of the 99 known absentee ballots in the Town of Lyons it would take a considerable margin of those to reverse the 569 to 524 vote total; plus only ballots of village residents count for the dissolution proposition.

High taxes and debt are among the leading reasons given in support of dissolution and neither are entirely unique to the Village of Lyons.

The next step in the dissolution process calls for local leaders to study the specifics and propose a plan for dissolving. A second referendum vote could result after that proposal is presented to the public if a petition with support of 25% of registered voters is submitted.

5 Votes Separate Football Coach And Former Mayor

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 19:17:35 -0400

East Rochester, N.Y. --- Just a handful of votes separate the candidates in one of the more intriguing Election Day storylines in Monroe County.

Ballots still need to be counted in the race for East Rochester Town Justice but after the polls closed Democrat Dennis Greco led Republican David Bonacchi by just three votes.

Absentee ballots were counted late Tuesday night and that tally gave Bonacchi a five vote lead. On November 19th the remaining absentee, military, and affidavit ballots will be counted.

But until then East Rochester High School’s Head Football Coach (Greco) and Former Mayor (Bonacchi) will sweat out a few days of “political overtime.”

"At about 9:45 last night I'm down by three votes, at 9:46 I think I threw up, then at 11:46 or 12:46 I'm up by five so, welcome to East Rochester!" Bonacchi joked about his Election Night experience. "As soon as I learned I was behind by three votes I immediately polled my own family and it was good news they all voted for me...so they say."

Bonacchi is a former East Rochester Police Officer with electoral experience as the former mayor who lost a surprising race in 2007 to Democrat Jason Koon.

Greco is a recently retired Social Studies teacher who continues to coach the East Rochester-Gananda football team. Now in his 20th season Greco balanced campaigning with coaching a team that won the Section 5 title on Saturday.

"It was a great game beating Livonia in the Sectional Championships," Greco said of his busy week. "It has been really interesting the last few days I've had a good group of people work for us, get information out in the community and you know winning football games probably helped a little bit.”

“I knew I should've went out for the baseball position," Bonacchi joked. "I liked running for this position because it was two good people and the campaign was honorable, there was no negativity as you can see in this year's election negativity was awful."

The village justice serves a four year term.

The Cost Of Winning The Presidency

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 19:06:02 -0400

Cleveland, Ohio - Winning the election comes at a cost to one's health.

Studies from the Cleveland Clinic show that Presidents typically age twice as fast as the rest of us.

Researchers have been looking at this trend since Theodore Roosevelt was in office.

They say one of the major factors for accelerated aging is a lack of friends to talk to when things get stressful.

NY 25th Congressional District: Will Brooks Run in 2014?

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 18:28:12 -0400

Rochester, N.Y. - In the end it wasn’t even close.

Congresswoman Louise Slaughter sailed to an election victory to secure a 14^th term in congress. She handed Republican Maggie Brooks her first-ever election defeat.

“We’re not standing here tonight with the outcome we had hoped we would have,” Brooks told her crowd of supporters Tuesday night.

One year ago, Brooks became the first person elected as Monroe County Executive for a third time. the first candidate ever to do so. “Tonight we make history,” County Republican Chairman Bill Reilich yelled, holding her arm up in victory.

One year later, Brooks was defeated decisively in her first run for office in Washington, losing to Slaughter by 14 percent of the vote.

“This was not a personal rebuff of Maggie Brooks at all,” said Curt Smith, a former speech writer for George H.W. Bush and local professor. He has followed many campaigns from the inside.

So what went wrong here?

“I was running against an incumbent in an election year in a blue state,” said Brooks. “Even though we have success here in Monroe County, it’s an uphill battle.”

Smith agreed, but said it is part of the story. “This was Maggie’s first big league outing, and I think this is not the same as running for county executive,” he said. “She was slow to realize that,” she added.

“She’s one of the most talented candidates I’ve ever seen. I hope she runs again,” said Arnie Rothschild who runs Normal Communications and is a Republican strategist.

He said in hindsight, the Brooks campaign never developed an out-front message. And once they did, it was obscured by attack ads. He said there are lessons here for both her campaign, and for voters.

“I think she’s (Brooks) a real force," he said. "I also think that voters are going to be more sophisticated at drilling down through some of these allegations that are made.”

We reached out to Monroe County Republican Chairman Bill Reilich for comment. A spokesman at his office told us he did not have time to be interviewed for this story.

Brooks has three years left in her current term as county executive. She could run for congress again in two years, without having to give up that job.

A run in 2013 might turn into a rematch, should Louise Slaughter also choose to do the same.

“I think I have to take a step back,” Brooks said in response to the question of whether she would run again. “We’ll just keep moving forward and see where the road leads.”

N.Y. Senate Control Still Not Decided After Election

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 09:05:43 -0400

Albany, N.Y. (AP) — Deciding who has enough votes to control New York's state Senate could be two weeks away until absentee ballots are counted in some races, and it could be weeks after that before senators select a leader.

In the Assembly, Democrats easily continued their supermajority.

With most precincts reporting in unofficial results, it appeared two Republican Senate seats would switch to Democrats leaving the chamber tied 31-31, but that's subject to counting thousands of absentee ballots that could erode razor-thin winning margins. A new seat created by the Republican majority to help seal its control was still too close to call late Tuesday.

Democrats had sought to win the majority promising a progressive agenda that included raising the minimum wage. Republicans sought to hold the majority on a platform of jobs and fiscal control.

A Senate majority leader will be chosen by the next class of sitting senators. But that decision is complicated by the four-member Independent Democratic Conference that broke away from the Democratic minority and has often sided with Republicans over the last two years.

In addition, conservative Democrat Simcha Felder was leading Republican David Storobin in the 17th district in Brooklyn, and Felder said he might sit and vote with the Republicans if elected.

In Rochester, Democrat Ted O'Brien defeated Republican Sean Hanna. That seat had been held by another Republican, Sen. James Alesi, who had voted for same-sex marriage.

A new seat pitted Republican George Amedore against Democrat Cecilia Tkaczyk in the 46th Senate District, but that race was too close to call with thousands of absentee ballots yet to count.

Republicans went into Tuesday with a 33-29 majority in the chamber that requires 32 votes to pass any measure.
Both sides claimed victory, despite the tense weeks of vote counting ahead and potential legal challenges.

"We are confident that once all the votes are in, we will retain our majority," said Scott Reif, spokesman for Senate Republicans.

Sen. Michael Gianaris of Queens, who led the Senate Democratic campaigns, also expressed confidence.

"It's a great night," he said.

Copyright 2012 Associated Press