>> From WXXI News.

This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

Our connection this hour was made in 1916, in perinton, when a Democrat named Fletcher Diefendorf was elected Town supervisor.

Good old Fletcher Diefendorf had been elected before in 1890 and again in 1904.

His third election in 1916 would mark the last time a Democrat would be elected in the town of Perinton for 107 years.

That losing streak ended last night when Democrat Jenn Townsend soundly defeated incumbent Republican Supervisor Kieran Hanna.

The story in Perinton played out in many places across our region, like up the road in Penfield.

A couple of years ago, we first heard the name Kevin Barry on election night, when the vote totals showed that Barry had won a seat on the Penfield Town Board by one vote last night, Barry was elected town supervisor, the first Democrat to win in Penfield in more than 40 years.

Democrats won victories in Mendon and Webster and Greece, and they did it not by forging huge upsets by the numbers, but by building voter registration advantages in places where they used to be way behind.

Last night was the night that Monroe County really became a blue county.

Not purple.

Certainly not red anymore, but political success can be fleeting.

Remember one year ago when around 90% of American counties, including almost every county in New York state, moved politically to the right?

Last night was the opposite counties moving to the left in New York and Virginia and New Jersey and beyond.

For Democrats to build last night's wins into something more durable, they will have to govern well, and they will have to campaign, campaign effectively.

Now, Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, wins in New York City.

But in the suburbs and smaller towns of western New York, the Democrats don't resemble Mamdani at all.

Most were self-described moderates, and they will have to win again in just one year because of election law.

Changes in New York State starting in 2026, town races will be run in even numbered years, so these historic wins for Democrats will last 12 months, and they'll have to do it all again.

We're going to work through the results in different places with my WXXI colleagues this hour.

We're going to welcome your feedback later this hour.

We're going to be joined by the chair of the local Democratic Party, Stephen Duvet.

And I want to mention a little shout out to a man named Bill Perry as we start here.

Bill is the records guy.

Bill is the historian in the town of Perinton who helped me out, helped out, and thanks to John Banes, who was sending me some info as well.

But Bill Perry and Perinton, I love that there are local historians who can dig this stuff up.

Thank you Bill.

We're going to need them in places like Mendon and Russian and Greece.

We didn't know all these results were coming.

So let me welcome our guests in studio here.

Our guests are just my colleagues.

Jeremy Moule Brian Sharp Gino Fanelli all with us here.

Working last night, living on pizza.

Back on Connections today.

Hey, guys.

How's it going there?

>> Got home at 130 in the morning and now I'm here.

So early.

>> Late for an election night.

>> Standard, I think.

Pretty much standard.

Yeah, I just I'm getting older.

>> Yeah, well, so let me ask all three of you, you know, for a little bit of your own 30,000 foot view here.

I mean, did I overstate it in the intro, or was this the night that Democrats had hoped for for years on the local level?

>> So we've been talking about this for the past you know, a couple weeks of what to expect.

And I think all of us kind of had this idea that there was going to be some major Democratic wins, but I didn't expect it to be this sweeping.

I mean, every town supervisor seat in which it was a contested weight race went to the Democrats, save for Pittsford.

Pittsford was the only one that had a challenged seat against the Republican Bill Smith.

Kathy Kochikar, the town board member, failed to unseat him.

but even in that town, the entire town board flipped a Democrat.

So that's going to be an interesting scenario for Town Supervisor Bill Smith.

going forward, having the entire Democratic Town Board that he presiding over but yeah, overall, I think this was a massive night for county Democrats.

This was a sweeping victory.

And for the Republicans, I think it they're going to have to have some tough conversations going forward.

>> Yeah.

You know, Brian Sharp, I'm old enough to remember covering Steve Minarik back in the day.

And Steve Minarik presided over a pretty dominant time in Republican politics locally.

All of his predecessors, I mean, just to be blunt about it, from Bill Riley to David Denning, Bernie Angelo recently, Patrick Riley, now it's Peter Elder, a man who's not been on this program and is welcome anytime he wants.

In fact, Peter, if you're listening, call the show right now.

We can talk for an hour if you want, but I don't know if this is a rejection of the Republican Party brand.

I don't know if this is a trickle down of sort of the the reaction to to Trumpism nationally or if this is just mismanagement from Republicans locally.

But clearly, this has been a couple of decades brewing, and it is not good for Republicans locally.

>> Yeah, we've been we've been hearing, I think when elder came on, his message was very much the same as Riley before him of this is a time, you know, we need to be rebuilding and such.

He said the same last night.

But, you know, we've been covering for years the shifting enrollment numbers.

Townsend and Parenton said last night.

You know, this is beyond the enrollment.

You know, her comment was that this isn't just about the candidates here tonight.

there's a lot of work that's been going on for years.

And this is us basically riding the wave to shore.

>> Yeah, I think that's pretty well said, because, Jeremy Moule, if all you knew in a town like Perinton was no Democrat had won in 107 years in the supervisor's seat, you would not think Democrats have an enrollment advantage if all you knew in Penfield was.

It's been since the early 1980s, you wouldn't think that they have an enrollment advantage.

But the party has built brick by brick, and the Republicans have seen an erosion brick by brick.

So in that sense, it wasn't upsets per se, given the enrollment advantages.

But you still got to go out and do it.

You still got to go out and win, right?

>> Right.

And what you mentioned, I've watched it happen over a long period of time.

You know, I was thinking about this wave, this last night and thinking about the only thing comparable I've seen is the wave that came in with Barack Obama in 2008.

Democrats have been working in a long, working a long time to make inroads into these towns.

And some of it started with the legislature.

Some of it started with town boards.

But I think what you see in, parenting, Pittsford and Penfield specifically, it's just they were they kept at it.

The enrollment and enrollment trends changed.

They tipped.

They tipped from Republican to Democratic.

And I think this is just kind of the that pattern continuing.

>> Now in in places a little farther away from downtown Rochester, all the way down through the Finger Lakes.

it's not a straight line to the left, but there's been leftward shifts everywhere in Geneva.

It's not a surprise that Democrats do well, but they had another big night, and we'll talk to them hopefully in the weeks to come about what's going on in sort of Finger Lakes politics.

But, you know, even in Canandaigua, I'm not talking about the village of Canandaigua, not the mayor in the supervisor race in the town of Canandaigua, which has plenty of rural area.

It is currently a one vote margin, 1708 votes for the Republican incumbent, 1707 votes for the Democrat, one Wright, one right.

Gino Fanelli, one write in.

>> Vote, which is the funniest result possible?

Yeah.

>> Can you imagine if you you went home and you're like, did you vote in the.

Yeah, I did, I wrote.

>> In Pac-Man for Canandaigua supervisor.

And it ends up being a one vote margin.

Would that be amazing?

>> It would be.

I would I would never stop talking about it.

>> But they still have other outstanding votes, I think absentees to count.

>> Yeah.

And that's not the only one that's that close to that tight.

I mean, in Webster, that supervisor race, the Democrat has ten votes that they're leading by.

And I think there's still some time to.

>> Ten in Webster.

>> Ten.

>> Yeah.

I didn't even mention Webster.

I mean, like, my head is in a million different places.

Ten votes.

>> So I don't we didn't call that last night.

It's just too close to call.

And we'll see in a couple of days how that pans out.

But, yeah, I mean, that's a really good message that every vote does matter because you can come down to a case where it's literally one vote that has dividing who wins and who doesn't.

>> Absolutely.

It's 45 votes in the county legislature.

Race in, out in China, where Marvin Stepherson the Democrat who has run a couple times before, challenged again and currently leads by 45 votes before they do a little bit more, counting there.

Right?

Jeremy Moule.

>> Correct.

And if Democrats pick up that seat, that's that's a get for them.

They add to their majority in the legislature and they take away what has been a reliably Republican seat right now that's held by Steve Bruce, who is the Republican conference or caucus leader.

>> Steve Bruce, caucus leader now in the minority, was a majority leader.

It wasn't that long ago that it was a big deal for the Democrats.

Every year or every time there was a legislature election to go, can we pick up any seats?

Can we get close to an even split?

Can we get close to 13, 14 votes?

And now they're in the majority and they're adding to the majority in a rural area where the Republicans were supposed to be dominating.

But again, I mean, I know the registration keeps kind of creeping, creeping, creeping Marvin Stepherson run before, but that's a big deal for this party that hasn't won there before, right?

>> Absolutely.

>> And Nazish Jeffery is another candidate who that was a more unusual race because the Democrat is running against a kind of a split conservative Republicans there, right?

Two, two other candidates there.

>> Correct.

But also not to discount this, but Henrietta has over time become really a heavy, heavily Democratic town.

I'm looking at this they're ahead by just under 4000 voters out in that town.

>> Yeah.

Which is, you know, you know, you've covered Steve Schultz and on issues like recreational marijuana.

He's been on this program.

He has a very blunt talker.

And every time I feel like I'm I'm too restrictive of the narrative of politics, I think of people like Steve Schultz because it would be easy on a day like today, to look at all of the national news and say, well, the headline is Mamdani.

And a lot of Democratic activists will tell you.

Yeah.

So the lesson is, if we want to win everywhere, it's Mamdani everywhere.

People like Steve Schultz, who are dominating in Democratic politics locally, are nothing like Mamdani.

No, it's a it's a wide range of what can win, right?

>> Yeah.

those are two people I would never think about in the same sentence.

>> They're both Democrats.

>> No Democratic lines.

One's a Democratic.

>> Yeah.

no.

No shade on either of them.

They're both.

I think Steve is the kind of leader that Henrietta does consistently vote for.

He's very he is very blunt.

He's very straight talking, very like every man kind of person.

he's.

I would consider him a moderate.

that takes kind of a position of like, okay, what can we do to like, you know, make roads better for people in town?

That's what people expect from a town supervisor.

So I think those are the kind of Democrats that are going to win.

And we saw a win in a lot of these races.

I mean, in Greece.

Jeff McCann, formerly a Republican running on the Conservative and Democratic lines, wins there.

Is he some kind of radical because he's a Democrat?

Of course not.

No, he's fairly moderate.

I would even argue not argue he is a conservative based on what's on the ballot.

So, so that's that's you know, it is tailored to each town, I think, with the Democrats are very good at and what they historically have been very good at is kind of on the ground politicking of going to the places I'm trying to figure out from grassroots efforts what that town or what that city or what that district wants and needs.

And you know, putting up a candidate that kind of matches that.

But I would say that's not the Mamdani kind of effect held true in the city of Rochester.

I mean, the city council raised the highest vote getter with Kiki Smith, who ran on the very democratic, socialist aligned People's Slate.

Stanley Martin was also running on that slate.

So there are places, even in this county where that kind of rhetoric and that kind of political affiliation does have power, and people do want to vote for it.

The city not surprising that that's the case, but it's it is the kind of thing where like, yeah, you have to look at the kind of demographics and the kind of political messaging that's happening in these places.

And put up a candidate that matches that.

>> All right, let's grab that phone call that's coming in, because I. I see the phone starting to ring.

It's 84429528442958255263 WXXI.

If you call from Rochester 2639994, email me at wxxi.org and let me know what's going on in your little slice of the woods politically.

And if anything has surprised you.

There's so many great stories and Gino is making a really important point here.

we're going to talk about the moderates that happen in these, you know, really contested races.

But yes, in American cities Mamdani ism to to the extent that that's what you want to call it is is alive and well.

So it depends on your geography.

It, it's not a perfect smooth narrative everywhere you go.

And I want to listen to a bit of sound from last night with Jen Townsend, who is newly elected supervisor in the town of Perinton.

Let's listen.

If we have that.

>> I think it's clear that the people of Perinton have spoken.

they are ready to see some new people in charge, and we are beside ourselves.

It was it's been a full sweep for the town.

>> it's pretty big.

So being up here tonight is really meaningful.

What's something that we did that's different is we just came as ourselves.

We are who we are.

We've been ourselves the whole time through this process.

And the people are ready for genuine, authentic leaders who tell the truth, who listen to the people that are living in the community and want them engaged.

And I think that's the message that was conveyed here tonight.

And that's something that we're ready to do.

>> That's Jen Townsend, the next supervisor in the town of Perinton and the first Democrat to be the supervisor of parenting in 107 years.

Someone who knows Jen well is from Perinton himself and is a member of the Monroe County Legislature.

And he's on the line is John Baines.

Hi, John Baines, how you doing, sir?

Are you getting any sleep, John?

>> Great.

Oh, I got some sleep.

I just stepped out of Fox Valley over here on Winton Road to talk to you.

And I listened to the remarks that Jen made.

You know, she's my former student.

And of all of her wonderful characteristics and qualities, she's such a great communicator, isn't she?

>> Is there anybody who's not your former student?

Every time I talk to you, you're talking about a former student.

>> I was wondering the.

>> Same thing.

>> You've taught for a while.

Taught for a while.

John Baines.

And I know.

>> Go ahead.

>> I actually taught some of the.

I taught both parties, I so but I in this particular election, I only had two of the five candidates for my former students.

>> Well, I just want to ask you about one thing that that maybe stands out to you in parenting, because I know that you had mentioned in the last 24 hours the shift that you've seen going back roughly a decade.

So when people are trying to do the forensic analysis of what this means for Democrats, what it means for Republicans, how local these results are and whether they have anything to do with national politics.

It seems like you do see some through lines.

Can you talk about that?

>> Sure.

>> You know, of course, everything comes down to the candidates.

You have to have high quality candidates in the slate that ran in parenting were five spectacular, talented, hardworking people.

But you played golf, Evan.

I've seen you play golf.

It's a lot easier when you're playing.

When you're playing downwind.

And there are conditions that exist that both motivate people to get involved, motivate, motivate people to vote.

And there is no doubt in my mind that the last ten years in the United States of America has completely altered the town of Perinton in terms of its political culture.

And the numbers bear that out.

since Trump came to power and Trump ism and some of the behaviors associated with it, you've seen women move their party registration into the Democratic Party in Perinton.

So 60 over 62% of the Democrats and parents and are women.

And I think they're revolted by the way misogyny has come has been kind of woven through a lot of the messaging that we see and the behavior we see in Trump world.

And then secondly, I think that we we kind of have in the Trump era, a sense that I need to do something locally.

I mean, I can't I can't go to Washington, but I can get involved locally.

And so you're seeing our committee is more robust.

People are out knocking on doors.

People are talking.

And as a result, it's amazing what's happened because we had ten years ago of the maybe 22 elected officials representing parents and two of them were Democrats.

Louise Slaughter and Tim Sliz, who represented, was on the village board.

Now, every single person, all 15 elected officials in the town of parents and our Democrats, we elected an Assembly member.

We elected a state senator.

We elected a county executive.

We elected a county clerk.

None of those folks, none of those positions were held by Democrats.

So, I mean, I think that this the political shift, the enrollment has shifted by thousands of votes in favor of Democrats from Republicans.

And all of that is attributable, I think, not all of it, but a major variable is the rejection of the politics of Trump.

>> Okay, so two other quick things before I let you go, John, if if I'm Karen Hannah, I'm saying, yeah, but I'm not Donald Trump.

I'm governing a town locally.

We're dealing with a landfill.

We're doing trash removal.

We're trying to do the basics of governance.

Why am I getting tied to national politics?

John?

>> I think.

>> Karen should be saying that.

Karen, Karen is a very good person and he and there are many other people, high quality public servants who are not part of the Trump world, who lost, who are going to lose.

But on the other hand, they benefit from the Republican Party.

If you benefit from a party, you own that party as part of your, you know, people say to me, oh, you're a Democrat.

I won't vote for you.

I'm like, okay, and so, you know, the when did he repudiate?

Did any of these candidates who lost yesterday repudiate Donald Trump?

No.

Did they say, I reject because because they can't do that because they want to win?

Well, you also, if you don't do it, you're not going to win.

If you're in a community like parenthood.

>> And lastly, when Jen Townsend was on this program with Supervisor Hannah, and by the way, I appreciated both of them for coming on together.

Some of the only ones to do that in this campaign cycle.

And I really respect.

>> Both high quality, they're.

>> Both high quality people.

>> Yeah, I really respect both of them for that.

Jen Townsend I mentioned to her that if you went on her website, you wouldn't see the word Democrat, and she acknowledged that she's been a long time independent.

I've got it on pretty good authority that Republicans would have loved to recruit her to run as a Republican, not necessarily for supervisor, but she has not been a lifelong Democrat.

And she described herself as a moderate, as a centrist, as someone who feels more at home in the Democratic Party, obviously, than the Republican Party.

But this is not someone from the activist circles.

This is not someone you know, with with decades of work in the Democratic Party.

And that's the story in probably in Penfield and in Mendon and in Greece.

Do you think that there are lessons for centrists?

For moderates?

Do you view it that way?

John?

>> I absolutely do.

I think that look, if you're in a political party and you're and you're hyper ideological, you're telling people how to live, and I don't care what party you're in.

And in fact, the Republican Party starts telling people how to live in this country and or when the Democratic Party tried to do it, members of the Democratic Party, Americans will reject that.

It just is not consistent with the American culture and identity.

It's not consistent with Emerson, Thoreau, all the texts I taught or the Constitution.

So you come along, you're running for town supervisor, start talking about parks, start talking about roads, start talking about opportunities for our elderly.

This is what this is the work.

And there's not a lot of room for ideology other than a kind of commitment to care and also to be fiscally responsible while you're doing it.

So, you know, is that moderation or is that common sense?

I mean, you know, like I tell some of my friends at the county, we get our revenue from taxing property, and that itself is a terrible thing because we have elderly citizens trying to live in their houses, and we're taxing them.

We have to be really thoughtful about what kind of government we are.

We're not.

We don't print money like the federal government.

We don't have access to taxing people's income like the state government.

So we have to stay in our lane.

And I think that if you want to be a represent a village, you want to represent a town, you got to stay in your lane.

And that lane is quality of life for the members of your community, their public safety.

And, you know, whatever amenities you can afford to enrich them.

And I think that's not moderation to me.

That's just common sense.

>> John, nice to talk to you.

I know we'll talk again soon.

>> God bless.

Thanks.

>> John Baines is a member of the Monroe County Legislature.

As you heard, longtime teacher.

No students of his in this room right here.

But John will tell you they're students of his everywhere.

And he's very proud of the results.

As a Democrat last night.

Let me just ask our my colleagues in the studio, Jeremy Mull, Brian Sharp Gino Fanelli.

We have to make decisions when we interview candidates, because every time I have local candidates on, I'll get emails from listeners who say, ask him if he voted for Trump.

Ask him what he thinks about Mamdani.

So if it's Democrat, ask him about this.

If it's a Republican and I, I understand that and we try to reflect what the people want us to talk about.

But at the same time, local politics is pretty far afield from national politics.

It was designed that way in this country.

John Baines is saying it.

You still people still want to know, and there's still a real price for it locally.

Is that I mean, do you view those questions as fair?

Gino?

>> Ooh.

>> That's a tough question.

I think it's it's fair in the sense that what I saw from a good amount of the Republican campaigns that have been happening over the past year is a lot of the same rhetoric that has come out of The White House over the past year.

that is less about policy position and more about fear mongering ideological positions and this kind of moral policing of like what needs to be done to you know, preserve your way of life, the American way of life.

we talked a good amount of this in Pittsburgh.

saw pretty much every race that had a Republican running.

There was some level of this and it is the kind of thing where there's does it have any merit or bearing here to say you know, there's an invasion of illegal or undocumented immigrants coming into the country and they're stealing our way of life and ruining the economy.

Like, how does that affect a town supervisor?

See, like, dude, like, your job is to, like, fix the roads, like.

And it does feel like there's less on the table coming from that kind of rhetoric of what I can offer you as a citizen of this town and more.

That party that I am running against is bad and evil.

And if you vote for them, you are bad and evil too.

And I think voters are, especially on the local level.

And this was a very local race where you had the most informed voters that are voting.

That's the way it tends to go when you have races like this.

They're getting tired of it and it's blustery.

It doesn't really have much substance to it.

It, panders to the lowest common denominator and it panders on fear and anger and rage.

And like all these things that like a town supervisor doesn't need to be doing, like, you just don't need to have those kind of ideological positions to run your race.

>> One other side note, and before I get your colleagues and then we're going to bring in Steven Duvet from the Democratic Party, I do think you're right to say in quote, unquote, off year, I don't like down year, whatever non-national election years.

You do have very committed people voting and they vote in smaller numbers than the national years, but they're very committed.

I don't love changing local elections to even year, which is what they're doing in a year.

I like to see who wants to come out in the quote, unquote off years.

I want to see people dedicated.

And I, I think it changes the dynamic when you put it with congressional elections.

>> That's true.

And I think that races like this again, you see, the most committed voters that are showing out for them and they're impactful and they're important races.

And everyone should vote in them.

But if you're running a campaign in one of these kinds of years and you're just, you know, shooting for the lowest common denominator, you're.

Yeah, you are probably running a doomed campaign is the way I see.

>> It, Brian.

>> Fair to ask.

local candidates about Trump, Mamdani, et cetera.

>> Well, the thing that I was thinking of, I called up one of the final last day mailings.

If you were in Greece, was a mailing mailer paid for by the state Republican party, linking town board candidate Amrit Miller to Mamdani.

>> Yeah, that's right.

>> Good catch.

It was just it was odd, you know, and that and I think she she posted them all on, on social media and was like, I've never met the man.

so that was and how that how New York City politics play into.

But you heard that from some folks.

You heard that concern of I'm trying to I think it was in Greece.

That then Hochul and and Mamdani were going to be bringing those politics into Greece.

so I think it's yeah, I mean, in all politics are actually local.

it should stick to probably the local issues.

And as far as asking them who they vote for I, I don't know.

I don't know that that that really matters in their, in their day to day business.

>> Okay.

>> Jeremy Moule I'm kind of of two minds on this to Gino's point, if you're a town supervisor, you know, your focus is the roads, the parks, the water infrastructure, you know, the basics of government.

At the same time, if you're an elected official, you are supposed to be responsive to your constituents.

And if they are concerned about how you may feel about something, they maybe have an obligation to answer that.

>> I think that's actually pretty well said, too.

I mean, I ultimately Brian's right.

Local government is not the same thing as national government.

If your constituents feel like we're in a national emergency and want to know where your party or where you are based on the actions of your party, then maybe you should tell them.

>> And we.

>> Shouldn't hide your vote.

>> We are in a politically volatile time, and I think this is something that is important to at least some people.

>> Let's let's take our only break of the hour, and we're going to welcome Steven Devey, chair of the local Democrats.

And we're going to talk about how he sees what was a historic night for the Democratic Party in elections.

Coming up in our second hour, astrophysicist Adam Frank joins us.

One of the great science communicators in the country today.

And we're talking about what it takes to become a scientist in 2025.

There's a lot the public does not understand.

And Adam and his students will join us to talk about what that entails and how we can all be better served by trying to think like a scientist.

That's next hour.

>> Support for your public radio station comes from our members and from Mary Cariola, center, proud supporter of Connections with Evan Dawson.

Believing an informed and engaged community is a connected one.

Mary Cariola.

>> This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson and the outstanding WXXI News team.

My colleagues are with me in studio Brian Sharp Gino Fanelli Jeremy Moule covering the elections.

And this is the proof.

This.

There is no down year elections.

These all matter.

A year ago, Republicans felt buoyant.

They felt they were going to be on a march.

They had every county in the country was moving, right.

Not every county like 90%.

It was a huge number.

And it was happening in New York state.

It was happening in blue states.

It was moving right.

Last night, almost everything moved back to the left.

Now that's politics.

It's never staying in the same place for too long.

And I'm sure that the chair of the local Monroe County Democrats understands that.

But at the same time, Steven Devey, welcome to the program.

And I have to feel like this is a big one for you.

Long time coming.

How are you feeling today?

>> thank you for having me, Evan.

And I'm feeling pretty good today.

So as a lot of candidates across the county.

>> Are you.

>> Surprised we talked about 107 years in parenting, 40 plus years in Pennfield.

God knows.

I mean, is there ever been a Democrat in Greece?

Gino Fanelli do we know.?

>> The last time I was Greece, Democratic supervisor?

Yeah.

as far as we know, never.

I went back over a century.

>> We went back 100 years.

>> Yeah.

And I couldn't find anyone there.

There was no one.

>> Back there.

Stephen.

>> What we found out was, if your town needs a town historian to tell you if the Democrat has ever won.

It's been a long time.

That was the case in parenting.

That's how we.

That's how we found out it was Fletcher Diefendorf, the great Fletcher Diefendorf in 1916.

The last the last elected parent and Democrat.

So for you now Stephen, is this a surprise or is this the result of voter registration drives?

finally, an electoral advantage that can be durable.

How do you chalk this up?

>> Yeah, I think it's a combination of kind of really several things coming together.

Right?

It is.

Mcdc and the local Democratic Party with our town committees and all of the work that's been going in, we have been putting in that effort to reach out to voters where they're at in their communities, reflecting the ideals that they have over the last several years.

And we've been building and showing up and showing out and starting this process of flipping, you converge that with the fact that, you know, I heard you say before, there are no off year elections, it's really vital that folks turn out.

You add what's happening at the national level with people paying attention more and seeing directly the impact that that has voters turned out.

and, you know, as we were looking at results coming in throughout the day you know, we were hopeful you know, our guest turnout numbers coming in throughout the day.

we like what we were seeing.

We were hopeful.

but it was a bigger night than I think anybody would have expected.

>> I got a couple questions for you, and I'm sure my colleagues want to jump in here.

for for you.

Can you just give me a quick characterization?

I know it was a huge night in all the places we've talked about.

We haven't talked a lot about Pittsford.

The entire town board is going to be Democratic in Pittsford.

But the Republican supervisor, the incumbent Bill Smith, wins reelection.

Despite this, it was split tickets.

It was Pittsford residents were voting for Democrats on the town board and the Republican for the town supervisor.

It was a relatively close race, but it wasn't 45 votes.

Wasn't ten votes.

Like Webster, it wasn't one vote like Canandaigua.

So was that just a a weak candidate?

Is that is that reflective of a strong and well-liked supervisor?

What happened in Pittsford?

What's the story?

>> Yeah, it's Pittsford is one of those spots where split tickets have been a thing for a little bit.

in that space.

It's not the first time that we've seen success in the town board race, but our supervisor candidate hasn't been successful.

it is not a reflection on Kathy.

I think that the effort that Kathy put in knocking doors and sending out that message and really pushing for things that Pittsford needs as part of the reason we were successful on the town board level.

you know, she was able to help and carry part of that slate to get them across the line.

but it is something, Bill.

Bill Smith has, has really strong name I.D.

in Pittsford.

it is not the first time, like I said, that they have split and it for sure will not be the last time that we run really solid candidates in Pittsford as we continue to push to have that supervisor seat.

>> You got a question on the grease race there, Gina?

>> I do, I think the grease race is kind of.

That's the crowning achievement for Democrats this year.

That's flipping a the county's largest suburb.

And and first time a Democrat has been in that seat probably ever, as far as we can tell.

But it's also kind of a weird one where Jeff McCann, a former Republican now running as a Democrat, ran on two tickets.

The Democrat and conservative, which I think for most people listening are wondering, how are these two parties connected to each other?

>> They're not.

Yeah.

They're they.

They seem.

>> Ideologically opposed to one another.

So Stephen, I want to kind of pose that to you.

Of you have a Democratic candidate running on another party line that seems opposed to all the ideals of Democrats.

>> Most Trumpist line.

>> Yeah, the most Trumpist line.

how how do you square that?

Like, how does that kind of make sense for, for the average person seeing that, how do you kind of reconcile that?

>> Yeah.

You know, it's part of New York State.

And the fact that we have fusion voting where candidates can appear on multiple lines we could probably have an entire program with lots of folks talking about fusion voting and what should be done with that kind of across New York State.

But, you know, specifically looking at Greece, part of what happens when Democrats are focusing in on these spaces and in, in these seats is we win when we reflect the community.

And I'm from the West Side originally being from Hilton and Parma.

I know the style of politics and the things that folks are talking about out there.

and Jeff McCann was the candidate that reflected Greece reflected the things that needed to happen there.

And ultimately was successful.

there will be a lot of conversations on that conservative line endorsement.

and ultimately, the decision for them to endorse him is really a decision that they made.

it didn't change anything about Jeff.

It didn't change his policies.

He's still aligned steadfast with the big tent of the Democratic Party.

and so that's a question that they would have to answer about why they elected to do that cross endorsement.

>> But does it make you feel like, weird at all, like watching one of your biggest candidates get that, that, that win?

And then now you're affiliated with a party that, again, is just diametrically opposed to everything the Democrats stand for.

Like, do you do you have any kind of feelings on that going forward or you're it's probably not the last time we're gonna see that.

It wasn't even the only one in this race.

Sheriff Todd Baxter ran on both those lines to also unopposed.

But do you think the future of the Democrat Party is here is working together with the Conservative Party to defeat Republicans?

Or is there more delineation that needs to happen here?

>> Yeah, I think that as we continue to show up, as Democrats continue to show up in every election, you know, primaries, odd year elections, even year elections and everything else, we will continue to show that that vote advantage is something that we can put our message out there without any need of a cross endorsement.

again, fusion voting allows it.

So it's probably not the last time that we're going to see a cross endorsement across it.

We've seen it in previous years.

We've had judges who have ran on all four lines in previous years and countywide races where that's happened.

And nobody questioned it at that time.

There is a focus on this race for some reason, but the part where it doesn't make me feel uneasy is the fact that I know Jeff, I've had a chance to have conversations with him, and I have no doubt where he stands with his values.

>> So real quick on that.

Before I let Brian and Jeremy jump in if they want to.

Was there any talk about Jeff or the sheriff rejecting the Conservative Party line endorsement?

>> that would be a question for their specific campaigns.

there wasn't any talk.

you know, here at headquarters from that it'd have to be a question for them.

>> Are you comfortable with the sheriff as a Democrat?

He's running as a conservative.

He is running as a Democrat as he's done in the past.

Is he is his work reflecting where you think Democrats are right now on these issues that undeniably do get tied to national politics, immigration, et cetera.?

Are you comfortable with Sheriff Baxter under the Democratic Party line?

>> Yeah, I think that, you know, Todd Baxter, there's there's a big tent that we encompass.

And when you look at a role like the sheriff, there's a lot that they do every day.

And is he going to check every box for every Democrat across our county every day?

No.

But he has come out and said actively that he will not be working with Ice.

When he was seeking designation.

He has talked about the fact that he's doing things like bringing the county clerk into the Monroe County jail in order to get folks IDs.

So that way when they're, you know, done with serving their sentence, they're able to reintegrate with that I.D.

he's doing stuff like bringing services into the jail.

He has a lot of issues that do align steadfast with what we believe as the Democratic Party.

so I feel comfortable with that.

But no, nobody is going to check every box every single day.

And if you only focus on those boxes that he's not checking, I can absolutely understand why you would be upset with it.

But he is doing a lot of things that do align with our values.

>> The sheriff ran unopposed.

He is a very popular figure.

We should really try to get him back on this program soon.

It's been a while.

So, Mr.

Sheriff, if you're listening, anytime you want to come back, we'd love to have you back.

Brian and Jeremy, anything you want to add here?

Go ahead.

Brian.

>> Well, I was one point I was going to make just hopping over to these towns races is, is when these folks won and Penfield perinton Greece, these weren't squeakers, as we've been talking about.

I mean, they won by easily ten percentage points or more across the board.

But my question, I guess, for Steven is we had talked he had you and I, Steven, have talked.

going into this about somewhat of the political fatigue about trying to get the volunteers about about getting the donations, the Democratic Party, I think you said, has for the first time, you know, brought on someone specifically for outreach, given that we're turning around next year and doing this all over again, I'm wondering what your thoughts are, what challenges does that present to the Democratic Party to hold on to these seats?

>> Great question.

>> Yeah, yeah.

I mean, in the next elections is starting today.

and we're getting to work.

One of the things that we were really intentional about here at Mcdc was setting up an infrastructure that could be repeated.

And so when we look at the fact that we worked with the supervisor, candidates, local committees, town board candidates, et cetera.

to support them with design help or messaging or setting up a digital infrastructure here at Mcdc so we could run ads on their, you know, behalf and target into their districts to turn out voters.

we did all of that work knowing that we were going to have to replicate it in 26 and 27 and 28.

We built that infrastructure so that we could immediately get started on the next cycle.

and next cycle is going to be a busy one.

There's going to be more eyes.

I think there's going to be a lot more energy and volunteers as as we talked about that people are going to be turning out, but we know that we have to help and support to get that breakthrough into these supervisor races so that their one year term, where they have to set up and work to serve in the first year of being an elected supervisor, also then have to run.

We know that we have to do a lot to support them.

and we look forward to doing that.

>> Do you.

>> Are you comfortable with switching these local races to even years?

I mean, I want to endorse Gino Fanelli observation that in the odd numbered years it is very committed voters.

It's smaller numbers.

It's very well informed people.

It's going to be a different dynamic.

My guess is it was for cost saving.

I don't know if that's correct, but are you comfortable with change?

Steven?

>> Yeah, there's a lot that needs to still, I think, be kind of figured out with it.

I will say that it is going to be hard, for local candidates to break through when you're running against state level and federal politics.

I think that is where us setting up the infrastructure that we've done is going to support those local candidates, and getting that messaging out there, fundraising, really pushing everything out there.

The challenge and the part that I do still think needs to be addressed is the fact that it does not include some really critical races in this, even year push judicial races are not included in the switch to even years.

city and villages are not included in that.

So there are still going to be elections every single cycle.

and I do have, you know, some concerns with how do we turn out, folks and how do we get that message out there when there's a limited number of people on the ballot?

>> Yeah.

>> Jeremy.

>> Hey, Steven.

I'm when I look at the towns where you guys had some really big victories last night, I'm looking at towns where there's a very close registration difference between the Republicans and Democrats, but there's also an equal amount of unaffiliated or blank voters.

And I'm wondering, how do you sustain momentum in that sort of dynamic when you have voters who are not part of your sort of I guess, party and mailing lists and call lists and all that?

>> Yeah.

And so when you look at some of the blanks in this area, you know, I want to be really clear, they were a part of our call list.

They were a part of our targeting.

We were reaching out to them.

When you run to be supervisor or town board member, whichever seat you're running for, you're not just running to be the Democratic supervisor, to only represent the Democrats in a space.

When you are successful, like a lot of our candidates were, you are representing the Democrats, the Republicans, the blanks, the conservatives, the Working Families Party.

You're representing every single person that lives in that town.

So we are pushing to reach out to them.

We are ensuring that the message gets out there.

We are ensuring that they're receiving mail and texts and digital ads.

And I do think that that is a part of how so many of them knew the candidates that were there, they knew what they were fighting for, they knew what they wanted to push.

They knew what they wanted to do in those towns.

so it is a vital, vital part of our you know, strategy and process to make sure that we're engaging with those blanks.

>> So as we let you go here and you've gone along for us, you're very generous with your time, Steven.

Thank you.

First of all, tell your colleague Peter Elder he can come on this program anytime.

He can come on with you.

He can come on on his own.

I'd love to.

I'd love to meet him and talk to him.

but let me close with this.

We know that there is research, and the New York Times has covered this recently that the Democratic Party brand nationally has been in the tank, that if you are running for Congress, if you are Sherrod Brown in Ohio, one of the more popular politicians in Ohio history, you can lose to a car dealer because there's enough of a penalty for being on the Democratic Party line in these national races.

And it's it's it's very difficult to be a Democrat in these moments with that kind of penalty.

It does not look like there is a local penalty.

And I'm curious to know if you think going forward, that you can maintain sort of the growing bigger tent at a time when you're going to hear from activists, you're going to hear from people on the political left saying, we need Mamdani everywhere.

A lot of the people who won for you last night were not Mamdani at all.

how important is it to have a big tent and how diverse does the offering need to be for your party?

>> Yeah, I think it has to be, especially in a county like Monroe.

We are not a city, only county.

We're not a rural county.

We're not a dense area.

We are a hybrid county.

And that means that we have the city of Rochester which is Democratic and can have, you know, some more of those progressive policies.

Well, at the same time, we have farmland throughout Rush and Wheatland and Pittsford that are really building up rural areas and have rural issues that they're focusing that national politics.

And the difference that I think really hits here for us in Monroe County is that when we run candidates that reflect the community, they can build that trust by going door to door.

They can build that trust by getting that message out there, by talking about issues that are impacting their local, you know, every single day community in their they're able to build that trust.

They're able to build that messaging.

And I think that's the results that we saw was candidates that reflected their community.

Getting that message out there and now trying to get to work.

>> Briefly, as we let you go, you comfortable with the Webster situation?

I mean, that's real tight.

Ten votes last we saw, what's going to happen there?

>> Yeah, we're going to keep an eye on it.

we're looking at what the outstanding potential absentees are because absentees could could have been postmarked through yesterday, and they can be received for up to ten days.

at the Board of Elections.

So we're keeping an eye on that.

You know, I want to say I don't think anybody would have thought that we would have been within a head by ten votes at the end of Election Day, in a town like Webster.

Alex ran a fantastic campaign up there, really getting his message out there.

And we're going to be with him every step of the way to support through this process, to go through the affidavit reviews and the absentee ballot reviews that the Board of Elections and we are very hopeful.

>> Thank you for making time.

And I know it's been a busy evening.

I'm not sure how much sleep you got, Stephen Duvet, but thank you for doing that and we'll talk to you again soon.

>> Of course.

I'm happy to be on.

Thanks for having me.

Evan.

>> Chair of the Democrats.

And I don't know, guys, if there has been a more successful party chair since I have gotten to Rochester than Stephen Duvet.

If you just look at the results, the registration, the numbers.

>> Hard to argue with.

>> I mean, I don't know how you'd make that argument otherwise.

I know that I think Joe has been waiting to jump in, so let me go ahead and do that.

Hey, Joe, go ahead.

>> Hey, Evan.

I had a question, and I was wondering what your panel and your thoughts are on.

Maybe the effect that the Sandra Doorley situation had on the local elections in terms of, you know, I think it was Steve Brew, the head of very cynical response to that whole thing about how the Democrats had a new a newfound interest in.

>> Law enforcement.

crime in respecting law enforcement.

Yeah, yeah.

>> Yes, yes.

Thank you.

And I think perhaps people just thought, you know, enough is enough.

And just wondering what your thoughts are on all of that.

>> It's a very interesting question.

What do you think, guys?

It's hard to tell.

That's not an easy thing to measure.

>> Yeah, it's impossible to measure.

I, I think it's worth noting Sandra Doorley was the top elected Republican in the county.

as the district attorney.

no longer there, but I, I think there is a potential that it did hurt the credibility of the party here, but I can't say for certain whether it did or not.

>> It certainly doesn't help.

>> We know that.

Yeah.

>> Definitely doesn't help, maybe for some people, but most.

>> People I don't think most people.

>> I think you're right.

It's hard to measure, but probably gentlemen, that's when we think about Sandra Doorley ten years from now, that's probably the first thing I would think of that incident with the police officer is that is that unfair?

>> No, I don't think that's really the thing you want to end your career on, but I think it's going to stick with people.

>> Yeah.

So, Joe, I don't know that that swung elections.

I don't know if that moved hundreds or big numbers of voters.

It certainly didn't add anything positive in a place like where this happened.

Webster.

Yeah, happened to Webster.

We were just talking about Webster.

Webster.

Okay, so now, Joe, I don't know.

Ten vote margin.

>> In Webster.

Maybe.

Now, you said that.

Yeah.

>> That's a really interesting point.

guys, I just want to thank you all because I know the people in this room work so hard.

I really hope that everyone who listens and tunes in and reads and consumes content and news from WXXI understands that at a time when newsrooms are shrinking around the country, but around the world, this is one of the best groups I've ever seen, and it's the best, the highest quality group of journalists I've ever been around.

So on election nights, it's a lot of work.

But they are here doing that work for you and it's because of the support from the community.

So this is it's the best.

Thank you guys.

We'll be looking for more of your on various platforms.

go.

Please take a nap.

Maybe I can't tell you to take.

I'm not your boss.

I would say take a nap.

Is that all right?

>> What's the plan?

That's the plan.

>> Great stuff.

Jeremy Moule.

Thank you sir.

>> Thank you.

>> Brian Sharp.

>> Thank you, thank.

>> You Gino Fanelli.

Thank you sir.

>> Thank you.

>> Great stuff.

More Connections coming up in just a moment.

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