A Message to Student Voters

A Message to our Student Voters

Welcome to the wild world of local politics. It has been my privilege to be your teacher and your partner. I would like to ask for your vote.

In so many ways you are fully engaged members of our community. You risk your lives to volunteer in the Fire Department. You make our cash registers ring. You bring life to our streets. You baby sit our kids. Many of you decide to stay here in Geneseo to raise your kids. I am one of those students.

I did my Geneseo degree back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. I was one of those students who had to work a job twenty hours a week to pay my bills. There is a myth out there that all Geneseo students are rich. The reality is not the myth. Paying for college is getting tougher every day. You need all the help you can get.

Many students have to pay a summer lease, but can’t stay in Geneseo because they can’t find a summer job.

During my eight years as Town Supervisor, we have worked together to expand employment opportunities for students. We have added jobs in all sectors of the market. We have more work to do. We are winning the fight.

We have also provided outstanding opportunities for internships. We don’t believe in internships that specialize in stuffing envelopes and making copies. Our student interns take a lead role in researching policy initiatives in the legislative process. We give resume lines that glow in the dark.

As chairperson of the Conesus Lake Watershed Council, I am deeply gratified for the ground-breaking work that our faculty and students have done in ecological research and open space preservation.

A student Democrat questioned me on my decision to accept the Conservative Party endorsement. There are twice as many Republicans in Geneseo as Democrats. I won twice as a Democrat because I can reach out to more conservative and moderate voters. You can’t get elected as a Democrat in Geneseo unless you can appeal to a broad spectrum. When the Democrats lurch too far to the left in Geneseo, they get tossed out of office because they lose the middle. I call it the Leiberman effect. Whether you like Senator Leiberman’s position on the war or not, he knew better than his party where his constituents were.

Did you know that fiscal conservatives don’t like the neo-cons? Fiscal conservatives don’t like profligate spending, invasion of privacy or foreign intervention that leads to nation building. In politics, there are always opportunities to build coalitions.

Unfortunately, our local Democratic leadership has lurched so far to the left that they have left the majority of Geneseo citizens out in the cold. Whether one likes the Lowes proposal or not, it is favored by a large majority of Geneseo citizens. The Democratic ticket is out of touch on this issue.

The Democratic ticket has also favored moving the Town Offices back to Main Street. The citizens of Geneseo approved the move to our current location by margin of 10 to 1. Why the Democratic ticket wants to swim against the tide of a 10 to 1 vote is something I do not understand.

For over a decade, I have worked to build the Democratic Party in Geneseo. But you will recall from Humanities I that Dante has a place in Hell for those who mistake the good of their political party for the good of their community. I make no such mistake.

I ask you to forget the party line and join us in pulling this community together. We need to hear all the voices, not just the loud voices. Look for Wes Kennison, David Dwyer and Hop Manapol on the ballot next Tuesday.