Cuomo leads fellow Democrats in upstate campaign effort
New York State gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo holds a campaign rally at the Southwest Community Center in Syracuse. (Oct. 28, 2010) Credit: Charles Eckert
SYRACUSE - Travel half a mile in any direction from the Southwest Community Center here and this region's decades of decline are spelled out unmistakably in block after block of boarded-up homes.
But inside the gymnasium, Marshall Pam, 23, was cheering with abandon for the candidacy of Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and the rest of the Democratic slate here.
He and some 30 other participants in YouthBuild, a program that pays young adults to learn construction trades and earn their GED degree at the same time, had been brought to the center and handed Cuomo-Duffy lawn signs to greet Cuomo, his running mate, Rochester Mayor Robert Duffy, state Sen. Eric Schneiderman and Rep. Dan Maffei who came here to pump up their supporters' turnout in Tuesday's election.
"We just thought it would be a good experience for them," explained Melvin Baker, the program director.
Boosting turnout Tuesday is serious business for the Democrats. A McClatchy-Marist poll out Thursday found Democratic candidates hold the edge among registered voters nationwide in this year's congressional races - but Republicans have a clear advantage among those most likely to vote.
"This is the most important election of my lifetime - all the chips are on the table," Cuomo told the crowd of 250 here.
Cuomo Thursday received endorsements from a powerful assortment of law enforcement unions, including the New York City PBA, the Nassau and Suffolk county PBAs, police chiefs, state troopers, city detectives and Port Authority police.
But turnout remained the focus at later events with a more affluent crowd at a riverfront restaurant in Oswego and at a volunteer firehouse in Palmyra.
Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner joked about how "sick and tired" her volunteers were of the "cold coffee, cold pizza and warm beer" they'd been consuming as they toiled to get out the vote for Democratic candidates.
But she said after the speech that for all the door knocking, literature drops and phone calls they've made, turnout here is "not going to be like it was two years ago."
"People are discouraged and there's great hardship," she said, adding she hopes for slightly higher turnout than last year.
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
