New York State is generally known as being a liberal place to live and it is with the general congressional representation being largely skewed in the Democrats favor, both Federal Senators being Democrats, and a Democratic Governor. However, in Rochester, NY, in large part thanks to gerrymandering, they are four congressional districts represented and three of them are Republican (James Walsh NY-25, Randy Kuhl NY-29, and Tom Reynolds NY-26), with the lone Democrat being House Rules Committee Chairperson, Louise Slaughter, NY-28.
What makes things worse is the Republican stranglehold on the Monroe County Legislature. Despite tremendous efforts over the last few years by DFA led activists, it has been extremely difficult to break the majority held by Republicans and get more Democrats elected. Although there have been a few instances, for the most part the efforts have gone without fruit. As a result of this, the Monroe County Executive, also a Republican, acts almost as a Queen since she rarely faces opposition to what she wants to do. Too often the legislature acts behind closed doors and leaves the democratic minority out of its decision making process.
What makes matters even worse is the sorry state of the town and village boards and councils in the outskirts of Rochester. The Democratic representation on all of these boards is similar to the level of Democratic viewer ship of Fox News. To make it as clear as possible, there are very few elected Democrats anywhere in the suburbs. My own town, Penfield, NY, has been without an elected Democrat since 1985.
Still, last night something wonderful happened. The town of Pittsford voted in its first Democrat since 1908. 1908!!! For the first time in a century there will be a Democrat sitting on the town board in Pittsford, NY. People, if you want politics that affect your daily lives, politics that you have real power over, then this is the stuff you need to help get involved in! Be inspired! More info is available via the good people at RochesterTurning
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