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Additional Endorsements (& endorsement summary)
It should come as no surprise, given Willa’s involvement in the Rochester chapter of the National Organization for Women that her chapter PAC has endorsed her.
Likewise, given that Working Families Party, RTA and BENTE endorsed her, it should come as no surprise that Willa received the Rochester Labor Council endorsement.
Interested in Spreading the Word?
A lot of folks are visiting this website after reading our materials to offer us their yard for a lawn sign, or to convey other messages of support and encouragement. What more can you do, and what more can we do to make it as easy as possible for supporters like you to spread the word? To access hotlinks to PDF versions of our materials, click here: Front and Back and print your own keycards.
Responses to the D&C non-endorsement
The title of this post is plural. Willa was entitled to a rebuttal letter as a result of non-endorsement. Her submission appears in the Letter to the Editor section of the September 9 publication.
In addition, a harsh critique of the D&C’s endorsements and non-endorsements appear in the Smugtown Beacon.
If you need to remind yourself what the D&C had to say, you can go to the bar at the top of the page and click on NEWS and scroll until you find the posting titled “Unbroken Record” or click on the heading of this post to for a recap.
Fair Campaign Pledges – too little, too late
“All the good intentions of the Fair Campaign pledge and all due respect to the organizations that work so hard to get candidates to sign them, but last year, pledges became part of the campaigns in an unhelpful way. Whether candidates signed pledges, and what pledges did they sign. Somehow the Fair Campaign pledge was just too little, too late. There are ways to make it more relevant, and I’ve submitted my suggestions.”
Willa signed the pledge, but also submitted a letter of concern pointing out that the signing ceremony occurs too late for races where the primary is the real contest.
Unbroken Record
The Democrat and Chronicle editorial board has never endorsed Willa, and their record remains unbroken with this week’s recommendations.
The good news is that she has gotten elected to the School Board three times without it. So the question is, have city voters already discounted the D&C editorial board as out of touch with city constituents? Or are D&C readers so few that that their opinion doesn’t reach city voters?
And the Media Weighs In!
A thoughtful endorsement that includes a description of our candidate’s husband, a leadership expert, concurs with. “The competing attributes seem to be interpersonal skills verses domain knowledge. The ideal leader has both.”
While Willa acknowledges that her interpersonal skills aren’t as strong as most public officials, she tells us, “I’m happy to see that my expertise and experience are obvious (domain knowledge). I’ve always known there were folks that could speak the hard truths and not suffer politically (interpersonal skills), but I’m not one of them… yet.”
A Little Trouble in Who-ville
A City Newspaper blog posting (August 31) suggests some trouble is brewing, and it looks like Willa has stepped right into the middle of it.
Did RTA look for Vargas supporters? City Newspaper online, August 31
outlines the issue. Be sure to read the comments on this, including Willa’s response. She specifically asks readers to listen to her answer to a similar WXXI Voice of the Voter Interview question.
Voice of the Voter – Willa was on Fire!
If you weren’t listening to the Voice of the Voter interviews on WXXI’s 1370 Connection (aired August 26, Noon-2 PM), the show is available on the WXXI website.
Click on the heading of this article to access a hot-link.
You can’t tell from the measured tenor of her voice, but Willa has this to say about her interview: “I was on fire! I don’t know what got into me that day, but I can’t remember when I was able to articulate the issues so suscinctly.”
Want to zero in on Willa’s interview? Click on the post heading to access the hotlink.
Recent Candidate Forums
There have been a number of Candidate Forums already. Click the heading of this post to see details.
Upcoming forums include:
the Metro Justice Candidate Forum on September 7 at 7 PM at School Without Walls, 480 Broadway St, and
the School 12 PTSA Candidate Forum on September 8, at 6:30 PM, at School 12 on South Avenue across from Highland Hospital.
The Endorsements are Coming In
I suppose the first endorsements of this campaign season were the Democratic Party designation, followed by the cross-endorsement of the Working Families Party. I did not seek the Independence Party (I’m not so sure of their independence) or the Conservative Party endorsement. That’s not who I am. I am an un-abashed liberal. I am a fiscal conservative, to be sure, but if we expect children to become productive members of society at the other end of the education pipe-line, we must make the investment. Otherwise, we will be feeding the classroom-to-prison pipeline.
