Of Human Bondage

"Vote, Be Heard" Isn't About the School Board Election

We've noted before the cozy political relationship between Sandra Parker , CEO of the Rochester Business Alliance and Joe Morelle, nominal head of the Monroe County Democratic Committee.

Under Parker's leadership the RBA's main purpose seems to be providing political cover for Morelle and other elected officials of similar ilk:   the people upholding state policies that suppress upstate's economy and make life as difficult and expensive as possible for the business owners whose dues pay Parker's salary.

Now comes the RBA's curious "Vote, Be Heard" campaign, complete with offensive and even repellent graphic images of black children and adults in bondage.   Its stated purpose is to encourage City residents to vote in the School Board election in November.   (We'll reserve discussing whether it makes any difference to the pupil-victims of the City schools just who, or whether anyone at all, gets elected to the Rochester School Board.)

Why worry about turnout in a school board election in which, for practical purposes, the Democratic candidates are unopposed?

Parker & Co. can't imagine that boosting the vote will help Green Party candidates Howard Eagle and Wallace Smith.   The opposite is true.   The lower the turnout in this election, the better the Greens will do.

"Vote, Be Heard" has nothing to do with the election for school board.

It's Sandy Parker helping out her chum Joe Morelle in the county-wide races.   With no race seriously contested in the City, City residents have less incentive to turn out to the polls.   In the City, the Democratic primary is the real election.   Mary Anna Towler of City Newspaper nails it when she asks, "If the RBA ... were really pushing for more voter involvement in school board races, why didn't they do this campaign before the Democratic primary ...?"

RBA is focusing on the general election in order to produce more Democratic votes in what appears to be for Monroe County Democrats a difficult race to hold the District Attorney's office.   If City voters stay home, it hurts Democratic county-wide races for DA and County Court.

Ever the Party loyalist, Sandy Parker deploys RBA once more in the Party's interest.   Once more, money from the businesses that finance RBA pays for it all.

Business types can't be this masochistic.   Yet, evidently, when it comes to politics they can be this naive, this passive, and even craven enough to pay for the privilege of beng kicked in the gut again and again.   The duct-taped people in RBA's "Vote, Be Heard" campaign aren't the only ones in bondage.