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WPCNR CAMPAIGN 2005. News Commentary By John F. Bailey. November 8, 2005, UPDATED 11 A.M. E.S.T. UPDATED 11:51 A.M. E.S.T.: It is Election Day and the campaign for Mayor and Council is over. White Plainsians are heading to the polls opening at 6 A.M., and have until 9 P.M. tonight to vote and decide whether the Delfino Administration is to be extended for another four years, or to vote in Dennis Power, former Councilman, who has campaigned hard the last two weeks.
The weekend was punctuated by telephone calling and two Mayoral events, and the mailing of two brochures by the Mayor in a one-two punch. In the “Splat” brochure, he accused Mr. Power of distorting the facts, flinging mud, and saying the city’s finances are in great shape and that his opponents have nothing to say. The “Splat” brochure is a tecnique used with effect in November of 2001 and I believe November of 1997.
The Mayor followed that up Saturday with the “Together Brochure,” claiming among other things, he was bringing a 4-Star Hotel and 5-Star restaurant, a rubber-wheel trolley system, and a makeover of the West Side in his Phase IV renovation plan (which WPCNR was told a few weeks ago, the city has “no plan for.”)
The Mayor announced and held a Get Out the Vote Rally on Sunday, an unprecedented event in this reporter’s experience. The Mayor took the opportunity to ask his supporters to call friends and urge them to vote. Whether this means the Republicans lack volunteers to get Delfinoistas out to the polls, if they think they need them, remains to be seen.
But the Mayor was everywhere the last week — at the Youth Bureau celebration, at the Westco Gala. He is the consummate American politician in every sense of the word.
The Mayor’s Get Out the Vote Rally Sunday in Delfino Park. Photo by WPCNR News.
Then the Mayor pulled out the stops at the Common Council Meeting Monday evening in a brilliant heartwarming Common Council meeting. He staged a Rosa Parks event, inviting members of the African-American community to speak and an acquaintance of Rosa Parks to speak. He recognized a popular young man from Archbishop Stepinac High School whom WPCNR knows from Little League, Patrick Massaroni as Youth of the Month. He recognized a black woman, Dionne Lewin, Section 8 Administrator working for the city who did much for Hurricane Katrina victims in Houston.
He chose the occasion to celebrate the Finance Department getting an award for financial presentation yet again from the Government Financial Officer’s Association, cleverly orchestrated to indicate that the city’s financial reporting is beyond reproach. Most persons seeing this award do not realize the award is simply for looks, and presentation, not content comprehensiveness. If the budget were comprehensive we would have nothing to write about!
On the consent agenda, the Mayor had Rita Malmud and Tom Roach and Larry Delgado speak on various matters, doing “Star Turns” on the touchy-feely issues of the city and schools joint facilities agreement, and Mr. Delgado talking about affordable housing and a grant of funds to rehabilitate housing in the city. All demonstrated on television for the voters their hearts were in the right place and were wonderful people.
The Mayor touched all the bases. Will he reach home plate? Was he piling up insurance runs, or pulling it out?
Dennis Power did not finish his punches.
Power meanwhile sent out a powerful letter from former Superintendent of Schools Saul Yanofsky, taking the Delfino Administration to task for ignoring the plight of the school district and failing to achieve the growth he claims has come about from the downtown development. A final press conference by Power last Thursday repeated his theme that the city finances were in poor shape, and that citizens needed to be involved in planning future growth and future development of the city, and that he would do that.
Power sent out no other mailings to counter the Delfino drive to the finish. Power also made no appearances that we know of since last Thursday. Is he laying low because he has the lead, or is it considered that the election is lost? Or do they want him to lose. Come on, you got to finish! Be a boxer!
Wife’s Illness blunts Power’s Last Weekend.
WPCNR has learned that Mr. Power’s wife was taken ill over the weekend, forcing him not to campaign as vigorously as planned, according to a source with the campaign. However, this puts Mr. Powers’ Council running mates further to shame for “not taking up the slack” and carrying the good fight to the Mayor, perhaps even playing up the illness as a campaign issue for the sympathy factor. A slogan comes to mind: “Residents and Family Come First,” or perhaps: “White Plains: It’s All About Family.” But then I am a cynical person.
Power is to be commended for the media-grabbing Del Vecchio-Schulman endorsements and the Yanofsky letter.
Andy Reaches Out and Touches You, but Does Not Plug Power
Meanwhile Andy Spano, County Executive Incumbent, continued to reach out and touch all voters, as did Hillary Clinton, and Bill Clinton, urging us to vote for Mr. Spano, pass a bond issue, and what have you.
What was really glaringly missing from Mr. Spano’s telephone messages, or any Democratic message was any support for Mr. Power and the other Democratic Candidates in White Plains.
It’s easy to do that. The County Executive just cuts different recordings to feed to different communities. Why didn’t he do that? It goes along with WPCNR’s theory that no Democratic incumbent really wants Mr. Power to win this thing because it would upset the preordained line of succession.
More to the point, don’t you think Adam Bradley could have cut a telephone message for Mr. Power? After all Mr. Bradley is the man pulling the strings on the City Democratic Committee (Tim James and Liz Schollenberger, worked with him in his former campaign in Bradley’s Naomi Matusow ouster in 2002). (Jonathan Appel and Arnold Bernstein were Bradley’s Campaign Managers) Don’t you think Mr. Bradley could have helped Mr. Power just a little? A wince? Didn’t Adam want him to win?
And how about, Bill Ryan or Hillary or Bill Clinton telephone messages? Why didn’t they do something for Dennis on the phone. At the very least Mr. Power could have been in some of Andy’s TV Spots…no harm.
And how about Bill Clinton making an appearance with Mr. Power in White Plains. That would have gotten a few votes.
With Running Mates Like these, no one could win.
Why didn’t several of Mr. Power’s running mates and Democratic personalities campaign for him? Mr. Boykin, Ms. Malmud, Mr. Roach, Mr. Bernstein and Mr. Hockley never made any passionate speeches for Mr. Power. He was treated as if he was an invisible man by his running mates. The Democratic councilpersons were not good actors in this political drama. They went through the motions, very few motions, as a matter of fact.
Why did not those kind of credibility boosting appearances by the Clintons, and who knows who else, happen?
To be sure, Mr. Power is not the only candidate neglected by his running mates. John Carlson, the Republican Councilman was kept off the mike at the Mayor’s Get Out the Vote Rally Sunday, working the crowd. Admittedly, Carlson has been criticising the Mayor’s financial policies. Then today when Mayor Delfino’s telephone message went out to residents, he said to get out and vote for Larry Delgado and Franceso Marinaccio, but did not mention Mr. Carlson. What a gaffe!
U.S. Attorney’s Office, are you listening? Perhaps if Janet DiFiore wins D.A. she can institute an election fraud investigation, or maybe Tony Castro, should he win. Fraud, what fraud? The 2005 White Plains election reeks.
However, if Mr. Power wins today. This tears up the pea patch. Remember the Democrats were going to simply not run anyone against Mr. Delfino until Ron Jackson asked to run. Then BOOM! Dennis Power leaps to the barricades. Power did not campaign for three months, finally getting started in early September.
But, he has not beat up the Mayor on three big time issues.
Crime — Power refused to light up the Mayor on the Galleria Murder. He refused to pound the Mayor on the changing nature of the downtown at night, particulary the increase in assaults — instead he attacked traffic which he blamed on development.
7 Coverups — Power attacked the Mayor on not responding to phone calls, but refused to ream the Mayor on the coverups:
1. The sewer coverup of 2001.
2. The Silver Lake sewage spill coverup of 2005.
3. The witholding the Moody’s bond rating coverup of 2004,
4. The failure of the Mayor to meet the Budget and Management Committee for nine months last year Cover Up of 2004, when the city was facing tough financial decisions.
5. The coverup of financial figures on sales tax progress in 2005.
6. The coverup of the Performing Arts Center Fix in 2003.
7. The last coverup: the 2003 $27,245,000 Municipal Bond floated for LC White Plains by the County IDA which was never publicized. Coverups always play well.
Performing Arts Center Fiasco — How much is this theatre operation making anyway? Why is it nobody buys tickets and the tickets have to be given away or sold at half-price? How much is the city spending on it? Man, this is ripe for cherrypicking. Adam Bradley could have sliced and diced the Mayor on this issue alone.
At this point you wonder what might have been had Mr. Power ran harder to win, and not tried so hard to be a nice guy.
Of course if Mr. Power wins, then it was a brilliant, lowkey, strategic campaign, taking the high road all the way against an entrenched incumbent with a quartermillion to spend, and he ran it without, as I have pointed out, any help from the Spano war chest, not much any way. Bad job by the Democrats all the way around.
In politics you have to be able to do anything to win. It is like football. You have to out-tough the other team. Delfino knows how to do that.
