By Daniel Pye<br><a href="mailto:pyed@gnnewspaper.com">E-mail Dan</a>
On Monday I attended the Town of Tonawanda and Kenmore Memorial Day Parade, as I have for the past two years.
But this year I went as a regular old citizen, freed from my duties of asking questions of people working hard enough to keep squirming kids from running into the street. And let me tell you, floats with people throwing candy into the road sure don’t help that cause.
Since I didn’t have to do any interviewing, I got to do the kind of people watching normal parade-goers enjoy. First out the gate, as always, were our local politicians running for reelection this year.
Right here those same politicians (if they’re nice enough to be reading my work) are probably thinking, “Great, he’s going to take a shot at me working the crowd.” Not so. I’ve talked to people over the years whose opinions have ranged from amused to irritated over politicians handing out their information, pads of paper, pens and all sorts of other things looking for name exposure and a vote, but that’s not where I’m going with this. I’ve got a few other observations that are a bit broader.
First, there were a fair amount of young people involved in disseminating campaign literature. I think that’s great, because it teaches a lesson in government and gets the kids involved before they’re even able to vote. While I cringe at the possibility of those young teens becoming hard-line party men and women, I’m still hopeful that the lesson of civic responsibility can be instilled without leaving a lingering taint of partisan hackery.
Next, I noticed that as far as Erie County representatives are concerned, it was only the Democrats who came out to pound the pavement. That might have something to do with our current legislators hailing from Ken-Ton and the challengers being from just outside the bounds, but I found it interesting. Seems like a wasted opportunity seeing as it’s the biggest assemblage of people likely to gather between now and November.
Finally, I felt downright bad for the fellow pushing the “KEEP KENMORE CLEAN” cart. He was on the street when I went out at 9 a.m. — two hours before the parade — and had likely been there long before cleaning the streets in preparation for the big event. Once it ended, the ground was littered with fliers bearing the smiling faces of political candidates, but I bet that guy wasn’t smiling when he put his broom back to the ground.
Dollars and sense
On a related note, I found something a little ironic about the beginning of the race for Erie County comptroller. Both hopefuls are claiming to be fiscally responsible, as should be expected. But when current County Comptroller Mark Poloncarz announced his candidacy, he did it after the endorsement meeting at Democratic headquarters. While the Democrats most certainly pay for rent and utilities in their building, announcing your candidacy there doesn’t cost anything extra — as far as I know anyway.
Republican challenger Phil Kadet, on the other hand, announced his bid in the Ellicott Room in Buffalo’s Hyatt Regency hotel. I wasn’t able to call early enough in the day to get a price on booking the room, but the hotel’s Web site puts the price of a standard room at $149 a night. I’m assuming booking a banquet hall runs a little more. So wouldn’t it have been more fiscally responsible to hold a press conference on the steps of Old County Hall, or across the street in front of the Rath Building where Kadet hopes to work? I get that it’s not taxpayer money he’s spending, but I still thought it was interesting.
