Does Mayor Lovely Warren's ad campaign signal Congressional ambitions, or is she just building buzz for the city? Credit: FILE PHOTO

Rochester
is a mid-sized city with a small town’s zeal for gossip. So when a mayor who is
not up for re-election until 2017 starts running TV spots, people take notice.

The
commercial shows Mayor Lovely Warren with a child — her daughter, Taylor? — and touts some of the things happening in the city, such as
the project to fill in part of the Inner Loop.

It’s a
good spot; the mayor is friendly, optimistic, and comfortable in her leadership
role. It also feels very much like a campaign ad. So what’s going on here?

A
statement from Friends of Lovely Warren, the group that paid for the ad, says
that Warren has initiated a public awareness campaign to draw attention to the
city’s progress “as a way to promote the city as the best place for people to
consider living, working, and playing in our region.”

If you
wanted to be suspicious, though, you might cast a glance over at the 25th
Congressional District, currently occupied by Democrat Louise Slaughter. Slaughter
was considered essentially unbeatable until out of nowhere, Republican Mark
Assini, currently Town of Gates supervisor, nearly did just that last year; he
lost by fewer than 900 votes.

Assini
and Slaughter say they’re going to go at it again in 2016. But what if Warren
plays the spoiler? City has heard for a long time that Warren may be eyeballing
Slaughter’s seat. So the ads could be the first step on a path that leads to a
Slaughter-Warren primary showdown.

Why
not? Slaughter has shown herself vulnerable, Warren has the money, and the
mayor is clearly at odds with the leadership of the local Democratic committee,
so she probably doesn’t feel obligated to support Slaughter.

The ad
campaign could be a personal branding effort for the mayor, or maybe it’s just
what Warren says it is: PR for the city.

This article appears in Nov 11-17, 2015.

I'm City's news editor, which means I oversee all aspects of our news-gathering operation. I also sneak in to an occasional City Council meeting and cover Rochester's intriguing and eclectic neighbors....

12 replies on “New ad campaign touts Rochester — or Warren?”

  2. That’s kinda the point of the statement quoted in the story, Curious. And I have asked her directly in the past, but, as you might imagine, she didn’t give anything away.

  3. Ok, that’s clear. I think it’s building for her re-election. With the uncertainty in the party it makes sense to start early to protect herself and put a more positive take on the City in residents minds.

  4. A friend of mine was involved in the ads and says she is not running for anything but , rather, reminding people of who she is and what she plans to do.

  6. so, how much did that cost to make, and who picked up the tab for it? the city of rochester?

  7. Mayor Warren’s first year in office did not go as one would hope it to go. Speedgate, cronyism, the war on the homeless, trying to lead a protest on the Ferguson development, the lakefront controversy, the FB scandal, her recent non-support for fellow Democrats. A lot of damage control is needed here if she wants a future in politics. This is quite obviously a campaign ad.
    I really wanted this mayor to succeed and bring fresh new ideas to the table. It’s going to take a lot for me to climb back up the hill that she pushed me off of.

  9. Whatever it is, it’s brilliant. You could have a faceless, generic voiceover, or Loverly. It kills two birds with one stone. She can plausibly say it’s not a campaign ad, but her face/name is all over it.

    Louise is vulnerable. I think I’d rather have LW in Washington. Democrats need to keep that seat. I’m neither a city resident nor supporter, but I don’t have a problem with the spot.

  10. All those trips to Washington, DC in the first couple of months of her election were not for nothing. I think there is at least a chance here that there may be some agreement worked out with Slaughter that she will decide to back out of her latest re-election effort at some point. Lovely may be testing the (polling) waters to see if this ad campaign moves the needle at all. If it does, it makes it all the more likely that we see a run for Congress sooner rather than later. I don’t think the timing is a coincidence given the recent Mark Assini announcement as well as Louise launching her campaign. I would not be surprised if Louise does a 180 and packs it in at some point. Nobody seems to be raising this as a possibility.

  11. What does the mayor have to tout as accomplishments? That would be a better example than advertising. I do think the city is improving, and even growing, but mostly due to projects from previous administrations, UR and private developers. I’m still willing to give Lovely more time. Please don’t disappoint me.

  12. This ad campaign is about advancing the career of Lovely Warren. If she wants to run for congress, who’s going to stop her?

    I’m sure the mayor is continually weighing career options. It’s never too early to air campaign/public relations ads. Other politicians do this all the time. Look at Governor Andrew Cuomo with all those Start Up NY ads. At least give Mayor Lovely Warren some credit for not using taxpayer dollars for her ads.

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