Last night, all nine candidates met with the student group Infoshare for about two hours of “non-hierarchical” discussion of the issues. About 25 student info-sharers took part, many of whom had been at the college forum on Thursday.
Perhaps sensing a liberal bias in this student group, Bob Wilcox opened the bidding by suggesting that the students could “send Washington a message” by electing the Democrat slate. Not to be outdone, Wes quickly pointed out that he and Hop were Democrats too. “Oh, I thought you were Conservatives,” responded Sally Wood.
Later to burnish his Democratic credentials, Wes promised the students that if they had a letter they wanted to send to Hillary, that he would “personally put it in her hand.” Puleeeze! What does any of this have to do with Geneseo’s Future?
Much of the evening was spent discussing the question of why students would want to vote in a local election at all. Patti Lavigne bravely pointed out that many people in the community don’t think that students should vote if they are not planning to stay here and live with the consequences.
Some of the students did seem to think that by voting locally they could somehow have a national or global impact. I suppose this gibes with Wes’s oft repeated claim that Geneseo needs to have a foreign policy, but I am more focused on having a domestic policy that will keep Geneseo growing and livable.
As we did on Thursday, a long time was spent discussing the Rental Housing Law, even though it has absolutely nothing to do with the town. This did, however, give Will the opportunity to assure the students that the landlords were there to help them. Puleeeze!
Fortunately, I believe that all this pandering was lost on this group of students who seem much too bright to be taken in by such transparent tactics. How’s that for pandering?
