In her first visit to Buffalo and upstate since trying to clear the field by clearing her throat on a phone call to the governor, Kennedy went on a "listening tour" by listening first to political insiders in private meetings.
You can't get any more "seasoned" than that.
No average Western New Yorkers expressing kitchen table concerns. Not much of a give-and-take with pesky reporters asking questions that working stiffs might want answers to. Instead, it's mostly private sit-downs with political pooh-bahs, just like a veteran insider.
It's that kind of seasoning that has cooked our goose as a region.
Her visit was arranged as Kennedy apparently leads the governor's shortlist to fill the seat Hillary Clinton will vacate to become secretary of state. But if the Democratic superstar wants to start at the top despite never holding office at any level of government, the least she could do is pretend to be a different kind of politician.
If she really wants to know upstate, she could adapt the model of the senator she wants to work with and the one she wants to replace. Both Chuck Schumer and Clinton made a point of visiting every county in the state. Kennedy could make a point of visiting every one of the 939 cities, counties, towns, villages, school districts and other assorted taxing entities in Erie County.
Constituents get all huffy sometimes, when you, like, ignore them.
Also (Adam): Dead on, as I'm one constituent who's feeling ignored. In the first place, she looked weak and indecisive when hesitating over whether to take questions after the Syracuse meeting, then deciding just to go to the car, yet taking questions after the Rochester and Buffalo meetings. In the second place, Byron Brown is an ineffective loser of a mayor who no one thinks has any idea how to fix anything in Buffalo. He will likely even get a primary challenge in 2009 from Hoyt, the Assemblyman from the city. If you're going to meet with anyone in Buffalo and invite the media and look good doing it, meet with Higgins (if he'll do it) or Slaughter or even Golisano. In the third place, the whole concept of meeting with mayors and pretending like you're trying to learn about the region is stupid. So she meets with Brown for 30 minutes, leaves his office with a stupid little Buffalo pin on her jacket and smiles proudly pretending like she just learned a damn thing about the area when everyone knows she's trying to gauge whether she can get Brown's support. People just roll their eyes, and Watson, who is a very respected BuffNews voice, called her on it.
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