On October 19th, 2012 when Bill Clinton campaigned for Louise Slaughter. And a Socialist at the public market

On October 19th, 2012 when Bill Clinton campaigned for Louise Slaughter. And a Socialist at the public market

In keeping with our Presidential visits to Rochester series, on October 19th, 2012, former President Bill Clinton attended a rally for congressional Representatives Louise Slaughter and Kathy Hochul at the Main Street Armory.

According to the Democrat and Chronicle, about 3,000 attended Clinton’s rally for Democratic congressional Representatives Louise Slaughter and Kathy Hochul re-election campaigns.

kane-slaughter

Yard sign in Brighton October, 2016

Defeating Maggie Brooks, Slaughter would win her 14th term. Hochul lost to Christopher Collins. Hochul is currently the Lieutenant Governor of New York.  Still going strong, Louise in currently running for her 16th term against Republican Mark Assini.

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4/04/16 Photo: Democrat and Chronicle

Having visited Rochester on August 22nd, 2012, President Obama would win a second term and Hillary Clinton would become Secretary of State.

A year earlier in 2011, Clinton spoke at the University of Rochester’s Meliora Weekend.

On April 4th, 2016, Clinton attended a rally for Hillary’s successful primary campaign.

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20 Oct 2012 Sat Main edition

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Sat Oct 20 2012 page B4

The same day the D & C reported on Clinton’s 2012 visit, in “Presidential hopeful at Public Market” Erica Bryant looked at 2012 third party candidates, including Peta Lindsay, the Party for Socialism and Liberation‘s candidate for President. That day, Lindsay met voters at the Public Market.  Depending on the source, Lindsay would receive either 7,791 or 9,388 votes. presidential-ticket-page0001

Interestingly, Lindsay was ineligible to be President as she was only 27 years old.  Her candidacy did become part of a constitutional legal dispute.  During the 2012 election, California did not permit Lindsay’s name on the ballot. The two disputed issues were: (1) does someone have the right to run for office even if ineligible to serve and (2) only Congress, not individual states, could determine ballot eligibility.  In Lindsay v. Bowen (Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals). Lindsay lost on both accounts.

Rochester has known controversies surrounding voting eligibility.  Although women at the time were prohibited from voting, on November 5, 1872 Susan B. Anthony cast a ballot in the presidential election for Victoria Woodhull, the Equal Right’s Party’s candidate. Two weeks later Anthony was arrested, and the following year, she was found guilty of illegal voting.

West Brighton, September 2016. Stein sign in background.

stein

West Brighton, September 2016. Johnson sign in background.

Woodhull was deemed eligible to run for office even though she could not vote for herself. In an odd twist, Woodhull also was too young to be eligible to serve as president. Had she won, Woodhull would not have turned 35 until six months into her administration.

As seen in the above vote totals, third party candidates were not a significant factor in the 2012 election. The Libertarian Party’s Gary Johnson received 0.99 %; while the Green Party’s Jill Stein received 0.36%.

This year Johnson and Stein are again running. Earlier in the campaign, both — especially Johnson — were polling noticeably higher than the historical norm for third party candidates.

Recently, their poll numbers have declined.  Depending on the poll, Johnson stands at about 7 %; while Stein is at about 2%. Some pundits think if a Clinton victory is virtually assured, a greater number of voters will choose Johnson, Stein or another third party candidate.

I did find a home in West Brighton that appears to support both Johnson and Stein.

SEE ALSO

On Clinton era nostalgia, Rhode Island style

Memories of presidential visits on Election Day in Brighton

The Presidential Visits Series in its entirety: James Monroe to Joseph Biden

About The Author

dkramer3@naz.edu

Welcome to Talker of the Town! My name is David Kramer. I have a Ph.D in English and teach at Keuka College. I am a former and still active Fellow at the Nazareth College Center for Public History and a Storyteller in Residence at the SmallMatters Institute. Over the years, I have taught at Monroe Community College, the Rochester Institute of Technology and St. John Fisher College. I have published numerous Guest Essays, Letters, Book Reviews and Opinion pieces in The New York Times, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, the Buffalo News, the Rochester Patriot, the Providence Journal, the Providence Business News, the Brown Alumni Magazine, the New London Day, the Boston Herald, the Messenger Post Newspapers, the Wedge, the Empty Closet, the CITY, Lake Affect Magazine and Brighton Connections. My poetry appears in The Criterion: An International Journal in English and Rundenalia and my academic writing in War, Literature and the Arts and Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. Starting in February 2013, I wrote for three Democratic and Chronicle  blogs, "Make City Schools Better," "Unite Rochester," and the "Editorial Board." When my tenure at the D & C  ended, I wanted to continue conversations first begun there. And start new ones.  So we created this new space, Talker of the Town, where all are invited to join. I don’t like to say these posts are “mine.” Very few of them are the sole product of my sometimes overheated imagination. Instead, I call them partnerships and collaborations. Or as they say in education, “peer group work.” Talker of the Town might better be Talkers of the Town. The blog won’t thrive without your leads, text, pictures, ideas, facebook shares, tweets, comments and criticisms.

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