More often than not, readers’ comments in Freeman are more telling than the articles.
We learn from Freeman that Terry Bernardo has brought the privately-owned Catskill Mountain Railroad (CMRR) at the forefront of the County Executive race, that she has made the expansion of the railroad’s operation a major plank in her campaign, touting it as a significant tourist attraction in Ulster County.
Let’s see what we do learn from comments…
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Paula Sirc writes:
Bernardo’s only interest in the train is using it as an election ploy. Does everyone forget her tenure as Legis Chair and her abysmal record of cronyism, devisiveness and power-mongering. Her economic development plan should start by creating the jobs she promised (and failed) to create when she and her husband accepted IDA tax breaks for her 209 business. Don’t be duped!
Steven Lance Fornal writes:
C’mon, man! Y’all kept at it about the CMRR being THE issue. Y’all were sure it was a winning position for your candidate of choice. Now, you’re going to have to live with the CLEAR message sent with Hein’s victory.
Ms. Bernardo fell in with CMRR and based many talking points in that regard on the lies told by the CMRR lobbyists.
Ms. Bernardo fell in with the 2nd Amendment folk and based talking points on their complete misrepresentation of the Safe Act as ACTUALLY being a statute which disallowed gun ownership. That was a lie. And she ran with it.
Ms. Bernardo fell in with the Bike-Lane-is-costing-me-parking-spaces bunch even though that issue was immediately addressed and the plan altered to accommodate the small businesses along the route. So, she ran with another lie, that government was not responsive.
Ms. Bernardo used specious “facts” in an attempt to counter the reality of Hein doing a very good job. That was fudging the truth.
Ms. Bernardo kept leveling accusations of Hein being a bully based upon a few anecdotal bits of gossip. That’s not truth that’s playing dirty politics.
And, finally, how can anyone who actually knows the facts of CMRR’s lease breaches think they have a chance winning in court on the lawsuit it brought against the county?
We learn from Freeman that “the only upset in Tuesday’s legislative races came in District 21 (Rochester, Wawarsing), where incumbent Democrat Lynn Archer lost to Republican Ronald Lapp Jr. Archer won the seat two years ago by defeating then-Legislature Chairwoman Terry Bernardo, helping Democrats take control of the body. Bernardo, a Republican, lost Tuesday’s Ulster County executive election to incumbent Democrat Michael Hein.”
What do we learn from comments?
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Steven Lance Fornal writes:
District 21 lost a very good legislator, not to someone better equipped to do the job. Oh, no…District 21 lost Lynn Archer because the Dems didn’t come out. I know…I know…it was an “off-year” election. Thus, the irony. We don’t need Dems to come out in force during the Presidential election year because New York State is a blue state. When we need Dems to turn out is when the election is about HERE, our HOME!
No excuses. Because of Democrats’ laziness, we get someone with zero experience, someone that hasn’t attended a Town Meeting, let alone a County Legislative meeting.
So, to all you Dems whom had more important things to do yesterday than to set aside a small period of time to vote for a deserving candidate, you have zero right to complain over the next two years when “our” legislative representative conducts his on-the-job learning experience.
Mr. Fornal’s point on voters’ apathy applies to both parties throughout Ulster County. Look at the graph below… About 45,000 fewer people voted in the County Executive race this year!
Back to the comments…
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MKGNH66 writes:
Congratulations Mr. Lapp – a fresh perspective sorely needed in UC – the elimination of a legislator who was essentially a rubber stamp for the executive’s office will only provide for more diversity of opinion – no one should bemoan that kind of positive political dynamic.
Steven Lance Fornal answers:
Just how on earth could electing someone without any political experience or qualifications whatsoever be a good thing? Like picking a butcher for neurosurgery.
The real reason Mr. Lapp won was because in the Town of Rochester (District 21), when it comes down to an old time name running against a relative newcomer, old time wins, hands down regardless of anything else (like six years on the Town Board and another two in UC Legislature).
Ron Lapp may be a nice man, but he is unbelievably unqualified for a legislative position. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen him attend a town meeting and doubt very much that he’s attended county meetings. By the way, Lynn Archer was NEVER a rubber stamp for Hein. In fact, she often stood up to him.
But, then again, facts like these aren’t convenient for scapegoating Hein as the reason for CMRR’s own failures.
Looking at Mr. Lapp’s campaign ad, I challenge MKGNH66 to point out elements of the “fresh perspective sorely needed in UC.”
– Jon Dogar-Marinesco
Rochester Smoke Out 
I’d rather be a gypsy then find comfort in local political shenanigans, but the feeling of belonging is as comfortable as amorality. The word accumulated from either side of political line dance; Lynn Archer is a decent person, and by his own promo, Ron Lapp is nothing but Bernardo’s bitch.
What is more interesting is voters’ apathy, it is not because they are caught sleeping, contra, it is because they have awoken to the fact that all politicians are self-serving. But why not, we are mere animals, some with fleas, some without, and it is personal needs that makes the world go around.
Unfortunately; honesty, truth and common sense have been cut from the Hippocratic womb of life and if the parts can’t be sold they get flushed down the toilet to mingle with the other crap. We are no longer protected; our pledges are spit upon, icons destroyed, and history erased, leaving behind the hollow tinglism of narcissistic engineering, which ultimately seeks the Leprechaun’s pot of gold. We have degraded into fodder, used, abused, mislead and enslaved for the good of ideological worms that have rotted out the minds of an already self-severing bureaucracy. It is no longer the sweet ‘let them eat cake’, it has devolved into the bitter ‘Let them eat crap.’
“Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.”
From Hugh Reynolds Kingston Times article:
Unofficial returns show Democrat Mike Hein with huge pluralities over Republican challenger Terry Bernardo in Kingston, Saugerties, Woodstock and New Paltz. No surprise in those Democratic strongholds. Even in Shandaken, railroad country, Hein buried Bernardo 283-37. Favorite son Hunter Downie, a high school senior running on the Green Party line, polled 40. I didn’t include minor-party candidates. It would appear the trail people hit the campaign trail.
The hometown match-ups between major party candidates were more revealing. In Hurley, Hein took 56.8 percent of the vote, almost exactly his countywide margin over Bernardo. In Rochester, her hometown, he won by almost 5-1 (major party) in a town that turned out a Democratic legislator and elected a Republican.
Either I smell gunpowder (bullet votes for Hein) or Bernardo, a two-time legislator, is one of the most unpopular politicians in her town.
Hugh Reynolds’ Mea Culpa: “A few weeks after the polls closed, the county board of elections delivered unofficial town-by-town results for the executive race. Alas, I misread those results in declaring Mike Hein a near 5-1 winner against Terry Bernardo in her hometown of Rochester. I had mistakenly counted Hein’s Working Families totals as Bernardo’s Republican tally.
It’s still unofficial, but the close-to-real results show Hein with 588 on the Democratic line in Rochester to Bernardo’s 570. With minor party totals added, it appears that Bernardo carried the town by 29 votes out of 1,045 cast.
In Hurley, Hein prevailed by 53 votes with 1,753 cast. Rochester has about 1,000 more residents than Hurley does.”