UPDATE: The Friends of Lovely Warren campaign group says it has nothing to do with the telephone poll.
ORIGINAL STORY:
What in the world is going on here? A telephone poll making the rounds asks respondents their opinion of a number of people, including Governor Andrew Cuomo, City Council member Adam McFadden, and Rachel Barnhart. Wait, what? Why is a TV journalist part of a political poll?
“I had no idea I was being polled,” Barnhart says.
OK, our astonishment is a bit of a feint. We heard that Barnhart, who is with WROC-TV8, may be considering a run for State Assembly member Harry Bronson’s seat, but were having a hard time believing it.
Bronson’s a Democrat. It’s not clear whether Barnhart would run as a Democrat or a Republican, but every other person mentioned in the poll is a Democrat.
Barnhart says that she was approached about the Bronson race – she declined to say who approached her — but that she’s committed to WROC through the end of her contract in May 2016.
“I can’t keep my day job and run,” she said. “And I don’t want to compromise my integrity when I may remain in my job for years to come. It’s nice other people want to plan my life, but I’m the one who has to live it.”
The poll will undoubtedly further fuel speculation about Mayor Lovely Warren’s plans. A recent TV ad campaign featuring the mayor caused some to wonder if Warren is gearing up for a run for higher office, although the group that paid for the ads, the Friends of Lovely Warren, said they are just a way to draw attention to the city’s progress.
Interestingly, the telephone poll asks how likely the respondents are to vote to re-elect Warren, if they’ve seen the TV ads, and if the ads changed their opinion of the mayor. It also asks people to rate the job that Warren has done in improving Rochester’s schools and in bringing in new jobs.
This article appears in Dec 2-8, 2015.
“It’s not clear whether Barnhart would run as a Democrat or a Republican, but every other person mentioned in the poll is a Democrat.” Good grief. Her Twitter feed which documents every minute of her life has had her voting in Democrat primaries in the city of Rochester before, so maintaining this facade that she is some kind of political independent is laughable.
She would be a distinct improvement over Mr. Bronson.
An improvement over a guy who was instrumental in getting College Town rolling in the South Wedge among other things? She may be a nice choice but it’s hard to imagine anyone doing more than Bronson has to improve his district.
Really Gary? Part of the corrupt Albany system is the ability of incumbents and insiders to buy some good will with projects like you cite, and escape competitive elections by piling up money, usually from people who want things they shouldn’t get. Harry is a rather typical product of this, moving from the staff to an assembly seat. It is notable that despite a huge financial advantage, and the support of a closed and anti-democratic local Democratic party establishment (which has all but destroyed the party’s viability locally) he would not have won his first primary had he face one opponent rather than two. His support for mayoral control (after hiding his position in that primary) is not forgotten either. Is it hard to imagine anybody better, or is failure of imagination another shortcoming of some of our leaders? I don’t agree with everything Rachel has said or done, but has done more than her share of the only real journalism still done in Rochester. She shows two qualities in short supply in Albany right now: Courage & Integrity. I’d be surprised if she ran, but if she did, she’d wipe the floor with him. Albany needs new blood, and Harry is exactly the sort of hack we need to replace.