Big problems with Conservative petitions

Detailed objections filed by attorney Mary Conway Calabrese Monday with the Livingston County Board of Elections allege serious problems with the Conservative Party designating petitions filed by the Geneseo incumbents recently. According to affidavits filed with the objections, some of the signatures were not actually witnessed by Jane Dulmage, even though she signed a sworn statement at the bottom of the petition that she had.

According to two of the signers, their signatures were gathered by councilman Hop Manapol acting alone and Jane Dulmage was not present. In a third case a registered Conservative denied that it was his signature on the petition, even though his address was listed next to the signature. Dulmage also certified that she had witnessed that signature.

Dulmage is a membered of the Conservative Party which is required to pass the petition and she is also employed by the Town of Geneseo as a clerk in the Water Department. The petitions were submitted to the Board of Election by Supervisor Wes Kennison who signed the cover sheet.

Falsely swearing to a written document or filing a false document with the government are both serious crimes under the New York State Penal Code. It is likely that a police investigation of this matter will be triggered by the filing of these objections.

Calabrese also objected to the fact that 7 of the 8 signatures on the petition had the dates altered in violation of the Election Law. The two Commissioners of the Board of Elections, Republican Jerry Smith and Democrat Susan Guenther must now rule on the validity of the objections.

4th time around

I’m having a lot of fun now that my campaign has finally returned to the village. I spent the first six weeks working in the town outside the village where I had done very little work before (and which was also a lot of fun). In the last two weeks I’ve been working mainly in the village.

For a lot of village homes, this is my fourth time through. I ran for village board (as a Republican) in 2004, and then for Mayor last year (as a Boiled Frog). Both times I tried to get to every home. In between, I also made a pretty thorough canvas of the village taking the first PDDG petition around in the fall of 2005.

Even so, I find that I am still meeting a lot of people for the first time. The average door-to-door campaign is grossly inefficient. Some people you just can’t find at home, even if you go back two or three times in a single campaign. Other people are starting to feel like old friends because I’ve caught them home every time.

I have a number of disadvantages in this campaign that I hope my strenuous door-to-door efforts can overcome. Unlike my competitors, I did not grow up in Geneseo (although my mother did), and I have really only lived here full-time a comparatively short six years (although my business has been in town for a dozen). Therefore my children also did not grow up here, and since they all went to Allendale-Columbia School in the city, I have not benefited from associations they might have had.

Although owning the newspaper has given me great name recognition, I often find I need to overcome certain impressions of people who only know me (or of me) in print. Also my recent efforts through PDDG to slow down the Newman project have made many people think of me as anti-growth.

It is only through long one-on-one sessions that I have any hope of overturning these preconceptions, which is why I have devoted so much time to my door-to-door campaign. Of course the other reason is because I love doing it! Some people may suspect that I prefer to lose elections because then I can campaign more often.

There might be some truth to that, but the issues are so important this time around that I think its time I graduated to the perhaps not so fun business of governing.

Land of Beautiful Vistas

Someone remarked to me yesterday that I have the most beautiful view in Geneseo from my back porch. I used to think so, but after my recent travels around the town, I’m not so sure. The truth is there are many beautiful vistas in Geneseo, and some are in places that you wouldn’t suspect.

Last week I stopped at the home of Richard McKelvey on Lakeville Road. Nowadays we tend to think of sprawl and traffic tangles when we think of Rt. 20 A, but I was stunned when I got out of my car and saw his view west across the valley. Here, just a few miles from the Super Wal-Mart and the proposed Lowes, was a gorgeous vista that had not been affected by development at all.

Other remarkable views are to be found throughout the town. The families who live on Elm, North and Servis Roads (just to name a few) have breathtaking vistas. And those who live in the Hunt Country, west of Avon Road have the added security of knowing that their vistas can never be taken away from them because so much of the land has already been preserved by conservation easement.

Others have not been so lucky. At one time, the people on the east side of Crossett Road in the village enjoyed a beautiful vista. Now, the people in the new houses on the west side of the road have pretty much usurped it. That tends to happen when you live in the village, but it can happen in the country too.

In 1970 I took a break from college and moved to rural York County, Pennsylvania. I bought a small farm in the middle of nowhere with no neighbors in sight. By the time I moved to Geneseo in 1975 to resume my education, development had begun in my little neighborhood. On a recent trip there I counted 8 houses on the surrounding hills that have a good view of my formerly private front porch.

Preservation of open space is an important goal if we are to maintain the beauty of our town. On the other hand, as one who has had some experience in being land poor, we must recognize that one man’s vista may be another’s retirement plan.

The best way to preserve the view is to own the land. Beyond that, we can consider programs that will allow the development rights to be purchased, either with state or local funds. What we can’t do, is preserve open space at the expense of the landowner who has been paying taxes forever to keep the land open.

Endorsements are odious

I’ve never liked the endorsement game and I generally refused to play it when I was in the newspaper business. Since people know I am pretty much a straight-line Republican voter, I never saw the point in making formal endorsements. I believe in the 18 years that I published The Clarion I only made political endorsements in four races, and only two of those were local.

The first time was during the height of the first Wal-Mart battle during the early 90s. It may surprise some people to know that I was pro-Wal-Mart in that more innocent time. I didn’t so much endorse a candidate as say that people shouldn’t vote for incumbent Republican Mike Bishop since he had been abstaining from key votes because he owned land next to the proposed site.

I felt the 2-2 deadlock on the village board at that time needed to be broken. I don’t really regret that decision, although I did oppose the move to a Super Wal-Mart a dozen years later, when Wal-Mart had mutated into a much different company.

Two years ago, I broke party lines again to endorse Democrat Butch Curry over incumbent Mike Tenalio for Geneseo town board. This decision was again also based solely on the Big Box issue, but by that time I was firmly in the Smart Growth camp. I knew that Butch couldn’t win, but it was a matter of principle because I also knew that Mike was planning to fast-track the Newman proposal.

Incidentally, I also endorsed Patti Lavigne in that race. I believe my judgment in that case has been borne out by her excellent work on the Planning Board, and I would happily endorse her again, (for town board!)

I was somewhat disturbed, however, when reports reached me that Patti was claiming to be endorsed for Supervisor by the Geneseo Republican Committee. I knew that wasn’t true because Chairman Paul Schmied had assured the candidates that the committee would not make any endorsements before the caucus.

When I challenged Patti on this she responded that she believed she had the support of the majority of the committee, although she admitted that no formal endorsement had taken place. While I have no doubt that Patti may have supporters on the committee, it is not right to claim an endorsement where none has been made.

When Chairman Schmied was apprised on the situation, he issued the following statement:

“The Geneseo Republican Committee will not endorse any candidate until after the caucus. I believe the committee has encouraged all of the candidates to continue to campaign actively, contact registered Republicans and urge them to express their choice with their vote at the caucus… The Republicans, not a small committee, should make the choice for the Republicans.”

Amen, brother.

Schedule change

I apologize to you early birds who have gotten used to reading this column first thing in the morning. My schedule has changed and I’ve been posting later in the day recently.

This is mainly because I am now campaigning on weekday evenings for the final run-up to the caucus. Getting home after 9 p.m. every night doesn’t leave me much time or energy to keep up with blogging in the morning.

There may be another blog entry later today (when the newspaper comes in), but I just wanted to let you morning types know what was up!