The disappearing GOP

No
incumbents? No problem.

            People just shaking off the last
bits of holiday reverie might be surprised to find that the person representing
them in the county legislature is not who they elected to serve. Nearly a third
of the 16-member Republican caucus will consist of appointees before too long.

            The slow leak sprung in November.
Republican legislators Tracy Logel and George Wiedemer, defeating incumbent
supervisors, took off to run Chili and Penfield, respectively. Jack Driscoll
hoped to hop on that same train, but was left standing at the platform when
Henrietta voters decided to stick with their warhorse, Jim Breese.

            Logel and Wiedemer instead took
along Sean Hanna, who resigned after becoming regional director of the state
Department of Environmental Conservation.

            At the end of December, we learned
that lej president Dennis Pelletier planned to trade his $54,000 gig in the
legislature for a $132,000 long-vacant post as executive director of the Water
Authority.

            The latest buzz — deemed premature
by its subject — is that Pieter Smeenk is ready to bolt.

            “It’s no secret that I’m looking for
something else,” he says. “There’s other interests that I would like to
pursue.”

            All Smeenk will say is that he’s
looking for a position “in government.”  Replacements
for Logel, Wiedemer, and Hanna, are already in place. Replacements for
Pelletier and Smeenk are pending. Republican Legislator Wayne Zyra is
Pelletier’s likely successor.

Logel,
Wiedemer, Hanna, Pelletier, and Smeenk are just the preamble to 2005’s mass
exodus, when most legislators — Democrats and Republicans — face term
limits. Some Democrats say the Republican departures are part of a carefully
calibrated strategy, and that more early exits are on the way.

            “I think they probably won’t do any
more this year, but I think they’ll go further,” says Democrat Carla Palumbo.
“It’s like a chess game. I suspect that, eventually, all the seats that are
term limited will have people in them that aren’t term limited.”

            Filling the seats with appointees
prior to elections is a safer bet, Democrats say, then letting the original
incumbents ride out their terms.

            “It gives them a so-called
incumbent,” says Minority Leader Stephanie Aldersley. “It’s someone who hasn’t
been elected, but…has served in the role for a while. So they can say, ‘Keep
Legislator So-and-So’ instead of ‘Elect Legislator So-and-So.'”

            It’s a slim advantage, Aldersley
says, but an advantage nonetheless. The public also loses, say Aldersley and
Palumbo, because the new representatives are chosen in backroom deals and not
by voters.

            Hogwash, says Driscoll, pointing out
that the new appointees will have to run in special elections this fall to
serve out the remainder of the terms of the legislators they replaced.

            “Actually I’m kind of flattered that
they [Democrats] think we’re that smart,” he says. “The fact of the matter is
they have nothing at risk here. We’re going to have five Republican legislators
up. And the Democrats will have no one up. Control of the legislature is now at
risk in 2004, where it would not be until 2005. I’d say, ‘Advantage, Democrats’
on that one.”

            Republicans hold a 16-13 majority in
the county legislature.

Why would the
GOP risk control of the lej a year earlier than it had to? Democrats can speculate.

            “It may be that they’ve got some
marginal seats and they want to take every advantage that they can,” Aldersley
says. “What that tells me, in a district like Pieter Smeenk’s, is that perhaps
some Democrats have been winning out there. Therefore they have some concern
about being able to hold on to the seat.”

            She might be right.

            Smeenk represents the 11th District,
which covers portions of East Rochester and Perinton.

            In 2000, East Rochester had 3,899
registered voters, including 1,553 Republicans; 86 Conservatives; 1,132
Democrats; and 964 Blanks (voters not registered with any party). (Enrollment
has since declined to 3,626 registered voters, including 1,424 Republicans; 71
Conservatives; 1,059 Democrats; and 881 Blanks.)

            2000 was a presidential election
year. Though Republicans outnumber Democrats in East Rochester, the
Gore/Lieberman ticket carried the village handily. Gore/Lieberman defeated
Bush/Cheney in both Smeenk’s ER districts.

            Former First Lady Hillary Clinton
didn’t fare as well in her US Senate bid the same year, but arguably did post
respectable numbers. She lost ER by 22 votes — but finished dead-even with
Republican opponent Rick Lazio in Smeenk’s 6th District. She lost the 7th
District 214 to 192.

            “If it’s a vulnerable district, it [making
appointments] is a good strategy because you have an incumbent,” Palumbo says.
“Open seats tend to be more competitive than seats that have incumbents. An
incumbency brings with it a certain amount of ability to get re-elected.”

            R. Anthony LaFountain, who replaced
Wiedemer in the lej, says that, at least in his district, the viability of the
seat is not in question.

            Wiedemer, LaFountain says, was
elected Penfield supervisor by the “very same people that would have elected
him for county lej.” In other words, the seat would have in all likelihood
remained Republican.

LaFountain —
who describes himself as a “very conservative” Republican — left the Penfield
Town Board to take Wiedemer’s place in the lej. Immediately he was made
chairman of the Human Services Committee and vice chair of Environment and
Public Works.

            Other replacements have fared just
as well. Mary Valerio, Logel’s replacement, is now chair of Recreation and
Education and vice chair of Public Safety. David Malta, Hanna’s replacement, is
vice chair of both the Human Services and Intergovernmental Relations
committees.

            “I think that’s a huge issue,” says
county Democratic Party leader Molly Clifford. “People have no experience
whatsoever and they’re now chairing committees. There are people in the
legislature who have more experience and more leadership and frankly, you don’t
see Democrats as committee chairs.”

            “As much as Republicans want to talk
about working together and getting along, when it comes down to those critical
decisions, they’re more likely to give a committee chairmanship to a new member
with no experience than to a Democrat who may have been in the legislature
five, six, 10 years,” she says.

            The GOP says it’s a numbers game.
Veteran Republican legislators, they say, are already serving as chairs of
other committees or in leadership positions, and there are only so many
chairmanships to go around.

            “I mean, if the Democrats are
suggesting that they should get it because of longevity, it doesn’t work that
way,” says Smeenk, laughing. “We’re not going to put a Democrat in a chair.”

            Giving someone a committee chair
raises their profile, Palumbo says, and fattens their pocketbook. Base pay for
a county legislator is $18,000 annually. Committee chairs get an additional
$1,700 stipend, except for the Ways and Means Committee chair, which receives a
$3,000 stipend.

            “They’re bringing these guys in,
they’re brand new,” she says. “They don’t even know how to run a committee.
These guys get the experience they need so that come 2005, when everything
turns over again, they’re [the GOP] running experienced incumbents that are
chairs of committees.”

            LaFountain admits that he doesn’t
have a background in Human Services, but says he will work hard to get up to
speed. He does, however, have experience in public works as a five-year
employee of the Penfield Public Works Department. He was also chairman of the
town’s Public Works Committee.

            Being a committee chair doesn’t mean
anything, Driscoll says, in terms of visibility.

            “Nobody hears about them,” he says.
“I’m chairman of Ways and Means Committee. Who knows that?”

This article appears in Jan 14-20, 2004.