A reader sent in a report from a Zeller reception yesterday at Bully Hill Winery. It's a mixed report. He was impressed by Zeller, calling him "young", "ambitious" and a "nice guy". The overall impression was that he's "[v]ague, non-committal and busy learning".
Zeller's campaign manager thought that the Reed Pittsford office, which just opened, is a waste of money. Overall, my correspondent says that Zeller needs to "get an act together by Labor Day".
On the Volk front, Reed press man Tim Kolpien responded to a number of criticisms made by supporters of Janice Volk on the local Glenn Beck/Teabagger forum, "We Surround Rochester". Kolpien's response is more detailed than the short back-and-forth in yesterday's Star-Gazette coverage.
As part of his response, Kolpien points out that Reed is the candidate in the special election this Fall no matter what. Volk, Campini and Reed are battling for the Republican nomination for the Fall general election. If either of those candidates beat Reed, Reed would still be on the ballot in the special, and he might also run on the Conservative and Independence lines, depending on who those parties nominate for the general. This is similar to the mess that's developing in NY-23, where Doug Hoffman has a challenger in the Republican primary who's on the Independence party line. If Hoffman wins the Republican primary, the conservative vote will be split yet again in that district.
Comments
This is politics, so I take this with a grain of salt. However, in NY-23, Doheny has stated that he will endorse whomever wins the GOP nomination. However, Doug Hoffman has not. So, presumably Doug Hoffman wins the GOP primary and there is no other challenger on the right.
Then again, Dede was suppose to endorse Doug Hoffman, so as I said, take as a grain of salt.
I hope that Tom Reed would stay in the race on the Conservative line if for some reason Republicans picked one of the other two candidates.
Endorsements help, but there's always going to be some set of voters who didn't get the memo, and they'll pull the lever for that line, no matter what a candidate says.