Day 1874: My foray into Politics

Today, the Chautauqua County Democratic Committee met in Mayville to endorse a candidate to run against Congressman Tom Reed.  All week I worked behind the scenes to promote Tracy Mitrano of Penn Yan.  She is an extraordinarily brilliant, qualified and skilled candidate.

I wrote a long letter evaluating all seven major candidates and sent it to the chair and many of the committee members.  It's a very strong field, except for the one who won.  I have been attending events since August and have met and spoken with all of them multiple times.  I've read their platforms, considered their positions and listened to their speeches.   In the letter, I highlighted all of their strengths and weaknesses both professional and personal and assessed their chances of winning against Reed.

Tracy has been an educator, lawyer, business person and public official.  She has PhD in American history, is a specialist in cybersecurity and information technology.  She set up a certificate program for unemployed factory workers to help them retrain in IT.  Her expertise is essential considering the assault on our democratic process by the Russians.  That's expertise we need in Congress right now.

During the voting process we had an opportunity to ask a question of all candidates.  I said, "We already know what you hope to do for our district, but what I want to know is what you have already done for your communities, your county, your state and your nation.  I want evidence that you can get things done."  I hoped the question would highlight Eddie"s shallow resume and it did.  The others had performed extensive service throughout their lives, but not Eddie.   Unfortunately, it didn't matter.      

The chair interjected comments pointing out the critical, strategic value of our county in defeating Reed and that finally swayed folks over to Eddie.  How on earth can people vote for someone simply because he's from our county?  I actually made a speech in favor of Tracy and pointed out that we need to consider what the nation needs too.  Competence, experience, insight and knowledge.  Not an endearing comic.

Did she win?  Of course not!  The Dems endorsed a 29 year old Jamestown man with absolutely NO experience in government at all.  It took four votes to get to that point, but we could see the trend.  Tracy finished second and Max Della Pia was third.  Another under qualified male defeated a super qualified woman.

I have been raging since it happened.  Time to think about other things tonight.  It's not over.  There are more counties and I don't think Eddie will be as successful in the eastern part of the district.

I wanted so badly to march again this year, but tomorrow is our Penelope Christmas party.  We set the date months ago because so many folks were away at Christmas.  At the time I wasn't thinking about the march.  I'm charged with cooking the turkey and I wouldn't let the group down for anything!  It should be quite a celebration.  It's the 35th anniversary of our group and it's the 30th anniversary for me.  In honor of our group, I've made a slide show of some of the photos I've taken over the years of our parties, meetings, poetry readings and funerals.

We're watching an intense, suspenseful movie tonight so perhaps I can let go of my anger.