Storch wins despite demeaning demagoguery

Voters at Cook and Evergreen schools were treated to the display shown below as they entered the polling places.

Evergreen School Courtesy of Maria Pellum	Evergreen School Courtesy of Maria Pellum
Cook School Courtesy of Alexa Storch	Evergreen School Courtesy of Maria Pellum

As a small child, I was taken on a memorable visit to the Zoo in Buffalo, New York.

Besides exotic animals in viewing areas behind tall steel fences, there was an elderly, wizened Native American in a Plains Indian costume, complete with ceremonial headdress, who sat near the entry and posed for snapshots with zoo visitors.

• It was demeaning to the old man.
  
  
• It was an inaccurate portrayal of western New York Native Americans, who are Senecas, one of the Five Nations, and not from the Great Plains at all.
  
  
• It insinuated a silent sense of superiority in those who posed with the elderly gent by treating him and his heritage as a prop.

That long-buried image flashed immediately to mind when I saw the signs displayed by workers for Storch's opponent outside these polling places.

• They were demeaning to Park Hotel residents.
  
  
• They were an inaccurate portrayal of Storch's statements about the Park Hotel.
  
  
• They treated Park Hotel residents as mere props in a political campaign.

Storch, a mental health professional whose agency was recently recognized as one of the best in the state, has long and detailed familiarity with the Park Hotel facility.

What has Storch said about the Park Hotel, after the topic was raised by Assemblyman Jerry Green, in a bid to get the Council to back closing the residential facility?

• Storch said the facility was outmoded.
  
  
• Storch said that it could be renovated to properly accommodate about half the present population of 180 or so.
  
  
• Storch said that doing so successfully would require a substantial -- and creative -- investment by the State in smaller group homes.
  
  
• Storch said that all this would need to be done with minimal disruption to the clients and without their being allowed to 'fall through the net.'

His opponent's signs totally misrepresented Storch's position.

Nonetheless, incumbent Storch won the Democratic primary for the Ward 2 seat despite this last-minute demagoguery.

The unofficial tally is 329 to 174.

Storch will face GOP candidate Deborah Dowe in the November general election.

I guess you could call me a "fat, gruntled old man". If you wanted to.

-- Dan Damon

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