I’ve been skimming the postmortems on last night’s Democratic primary for State Assembly with candidates David Gantt, Jose Cruz, and John Lightfoot.
The smart money was always on Gantt, but I don’t think anyone expected a blowout. The longtime incumbent earned more votes than Cruz and Lightfoot combined. Turnout was pathetic, but it always is.
What does it mean? Well, for starters, the job is almost certainly Gantt’s for as long as he wants it. This was his most substantial competition in a long time — ever? — and he destroyed them. I’d be surprised if he ever faces another primary.
Secondly: I covered the Town of Gates for many years and can tell you that the people out there really do feel shortchanged by Gantt’s representation. But given last night’s results and the fact that Gates Democrats backed Lightfoot in the primary, I wouldn’t expect much to change. Gates will just have to tough it out.
I think Gantt confuses a lot of people. They don’t understand how this curmudgeonly old-school pol who rarely feels the need to explain himself has attained and maintained such a high-profile public office. But the people in his district — apart from the Town of Gates — obviously feel like he’s getting the job done. And that’s what matters on election day.
This article appears in Show Time: The Rochester Fringe Festival.
“They don’t understand how this curmudgeonly old-school pol who rarely feels the need to explain himself has attained and maintained such a high-profile public office.”
Christine, it’s because Gantt isn’t the dean of Rochester’s state delegation, he’s the don of the delegation that uses Chicago-style machine politics and tactics to maintain an iron grip on power.
He has consistently used a combination of voter intimidation (like harassing petition signers for potential competitors) and a series of lawsuits over arcane rules covering petition signatures to drive anyone that wants to compete with him out of the race with the unspoken message that challenging him will cost you $$$$$ and time.
The fact that this is the key to his grip on power became crystal clear this year as he used every weapon he could muster against his competition, including a Hatch Act lawsuit against Cruz as well as petition challenges to both Cruz and Lightfoot. This is at least the third and maybe more election cycles in a row that he has used this approach.
He reminds me of Richard Nixon, a paranoid politican that uses over-the-top tactics (think the Watergate break in) to solidify a hold on power he would probably already have without engaging in said tactics.