By Tim Marren<br><a href="mailto:tim.marren@lockportjournal.com">E-mail Tim</a>
Thankfully, we’ve seen the end of another election season. Don’t get me wrong, every newspaper guy loves Election Day, I just think there comes a point when you’ve seen enough mud fly through the air to last you for few months.
I was personally proud of the great job our Editorial Board did this year and the new endorsement process we undertook. As I wrote in a previous column, we brought both candidates, per race, in at the same time to try and win our endorsement. If they outshined their opponent while in the same room, they got the backing of the newspaper’s Editorial Board.
The goal of endorsements is to select the candidate that would best represent the voters — and readers — we serve. While we don’t endorse based on who we think will win, just to look good, we are happy that we had just one endorsement/winner wrong.
It shows the value readers put in our selection process and the trust they put in the research and questioning we’ve done.
That, or we just got lucky.
In the end I think the voters made the right choice in most races. Come Jan. 1, it’s time for the winners to back up their campaign promises.
Probably the candidate who irked me the most was Dave Mongielo. While I should probably just let this guy ride off into his “mylockport.com” sunset and away from anymore ink, he’s just asking for a column mention this week after the shenanigans he pulled at Town Hall on Wednesday.
In case you missed the LCTV broadcast, Mongielo basically stood up during the public comment period to talk politics. Not the time or place.
Mongielo blasted the voter turnout, saying he expected more voters because of his mylockport.com sign campaign. Huh? Is he serious? Has anyone actually looked at that site? It’s a mess. It’s one of the most unorganized, unprofessional sites I’ve ever seen. I couldn’t stay five minutes because I was so confused as to what I was seeing. It’s a waste of perfectly good bandwidth.
It was nice that he pilfered a number of our stories and posted them on his site. Any link to our work is always a good one, but I’m starting to wonder if we really want our stories on his site.
Still, he thinks his annoying signs, which spread into the city (does he know he was just running for TOWN supervisor), were going to influence a higher voter turnout.
With the trouncing he took from incumbent Marc Smith, Mongielo should be happy no more people turned out. Smith may have beat him by 70 percent.
Anyway, he showed up Wednesday, blasted non-voters, this newspaper, other media and Smith for the amount of money he spent.
He basically said this newspaper and Smith were in cahoots because Smith spent money to advertise. That’s why he got our endorsement, that’s why he won the election, etc.
No amount of advertising will win our endorsement. Just ask Donna Pieszala.
Smith got the endorsement because the Town of Lockport, under Smith’s leadership, is doing fine. It’s why voters put him back in overwhelming fashion.
Mongielo is the sorest loser I’ve ever seen. After our endorsement of Smith, Mongielo called one of our reporters at home to whine. Yes, at home. On a weekend. He also called my work phone to ramble something about the Bill of Rights that made no sense whatsoever and then get one final jab in before hanging up. This was all on my voice mail, mind you. Childish.
I just don’t get it. The voters spoke. They saw right through him. He had no platform other than his sign ordinance, which he continues to break day in and day out.
At 9:01 p.m. Tuesday, I expected we’d never have to worry about covering Mongielo and his political aspirations again, but then he made a run-of-the-mill Town Board meeting into a political showdown on the taxpayer’s time and on public television. He put himself out there once again, and again his true image shined through.
We’ve had other challengers get romped by incumbents because the challenger just wasn’t fit to take on the incumbent. Maybe the incumbent was doing a fine job and deserved to get voted back in. We’ve also had newcomers — including some this year — knock off long-time incumbents. In all of those cases, no one was as sorry in defeat as Mongielo.
If he collected his thoughts, took a deep breath and stopped blaming others for his pitiful run for office, he may be a productive gadfly in the town. But he’s filled with too much spite and misinformation to offer anything at Town Hall.
Good thing the voters agree.
Tim Marren is the managing
editor of the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal. Contact him at Tim.Marren@lockportjournal.com or 439-9222.
