Category Archives for Elections

Mistaken Identity Can Be Hazardous to Your Business

Published in Golocalprov.com, October 24, 2014

Just three weeks before the City of Providence’s election for Mayor, Eastside customers of The Camera Werks, a long-time fixture on Hope Street, expressed concern over a recent letter to the editor (LTE) written by a Patricia Louise Zacks, who they surmised was the retail store owner. The small neighborhood retail establishment has operated for over 27 years, serving three generations of customers.

Unaware of the published letter, visitors and emails began coming in regarding the LTE, which left the shop owner. Patricia Susan Zacks, confused. Through conversations, she quickly learned that emails were circulating throughout the East Side neighborhood, linking her to the editorial letter that she never wrote. In sharp protest to the views of the editorial letter, longtime customers pledged to bring their business elsewhere.

Last week’s political drama came about because of mistaken identities. The October 15 LTE, was actually penned by Providence resident, Patricia Louise Zacks, who is now married to the retail store owner’s former husband.

The mistake of mixing up the two Zacks’ identities might not have occurred if Providence Journal newspaper readers had gotten the facts straight before they circulated the LTE to Eastside friends among the Summit Neighborhood. Each Zacks has a different middle name and reside in different cities, one is an East Side resident in Providence, and the other is a Pawtucket resident in Oakhill, just across the Providence city line.

Patricia Susan Zacks, the camera store owner, attempted to use Face Book to clarify that the author of the LTE was not her, but rather a Providence resident, stating “I am a Pawtucket resident who has been a Hope Street merchant for over 27 years and have proudly served my customers. I extend best wishes to all the candidates and look forward to working with whomever the voters decide for the future of Providence.”

Coming to Like Buddy, More

The LTE’s heading, “Journal’s fear of Cianci leads us to support him,” summed up Providence resident Patricia Louise Zacks’ personal journey to ultimately support the former Providence mayor, she says. The Eastside resident of 10 years who works for the State’s Department of Transportation notes that she and her husband “sat on the fence,” for a while not able to decide whether to cast their vote for Housing Court Judge Jorge Elorza or Cianci.

The couple knew of Cianci’s previous felony convictions (acknowledging he served his time and legally had a right to run for mayor) but that he was able to run a City and provide needed services to its residents. Elorza had “impressive credentials,” too, making their political decision, virtually “an impossible choice,” noted Patricia Louis Zacks. She also pointed out in her LTE that Cianci has little to hide, he’s an open book to the voters because of the coverage in the Providence Journal, editorials, op eds, and debates.

Finally, the LTE noted that the straw that broke the camel’s back was the continual attack on Cianci by the Providence Journal combined with an attempt by East Siders to secretly raise $1 million to defeat the two-time convicted felon.

Patricia Louise Zacks notes that after she went public with her household’s support for Cianci, several spiteful messages were left on her answering machine. One caller gave his support for her candidate, but others made typically insulting remarks.

“I expected I would get all sorts of flack, but I didn’t get upset or angry because I could just hit the delete button,” she said.

But, Patricia Louise Zacks also learned of the negative impact of her LTE on another person, one who carried her last surname.

Looking back, “What kind of world do we live in where I cannot exercise my constitutionally-protected right to express my personal opinion in a local newspaper without causing professional and possibly even financial damage to a woman [with the same last name] who owns a small photography and framing business, and is also someone I personally know, admire, and hold in high esteem,” says Patricia Louise Zacks, quipping. “How in God’s name can such a thing happen?”

Chiding those who punish merchants because of who they politically support, she believes offering a quality product or service at a fair price should be more than enough for any businessperson to offer. “Making that owner’s religion, sexual orientation, race, and gender – especially that person’s political ideology – a part of the transaction is, in my opinion, vindictive and small-minded,” charges Patricia Louise Zacks.

A Political Moral

Living in a democracy gives us many rights and privileges, including the entitlement to support a particular political candidate and the right to publically publicize that choice.

Over the years, political campaigns have become a blood sport, even more so in controversial campaigns like the Cianci-Elorza race. Patricia Louise Zacks voiced her support for Cianci, giving us examples of how she reached this decision (to the dismay of many Eastsiders) in a LTE printed in the Providence Journal, the largest major daily in the Ocean State.

But, it was Patricia Susan Zacks who faced the wrath of Eastside readers, many of her customers, because they mistakenly believed she was endorsing the former Providence mayor, a candidate that they were working hard to defeat. Circulating emails with this LTE attached only added fuel to the intense political drama in Rhode Island’s largest community.

One well-placed Elorza supporter told this columnist that he saw no problem boycotting businesses if the owner was not in sync with their choice of candidates. But, in my opinion winning an election should not be based on a “torch and burn” mentality because of differing political views.

For those who want to use their economic clout to support their candidates, I urge them to get the facts straight. Here is a situation where people took action based on faulty information.

If people have differing positions on candidates or policy issues, they can just agree to disagree. When the dust settles after the upcoming Nov. 4 election, whoever carries the day, the sun will surely rise the next day. I can guarantee that one.

Herb Weiss, LRI ’12, is a Pawtucket-based writer who covers aging, health care and medical issues, who just happens to be the husband of Patricia S. Zacks. He can be reached at hweissri@aol.com

Gray Power Can Turn a Campaign Sour

Published in Senior Digest on October 2004

After 24 years on Smith Hill that included a 10-year stint as House speaker, John Harwood’s career came to a surprising end recently when 33-year-old former prosecutor J. Patrick O’Neill’s grass-roots campaign brought home the votes.  The lopsided victory, 758 votes for O’Neill to 352 for Harwood, propelled the political novice into the district 59 House seat.

Two years ago, Harwood barely kept his long-held House seat after a vigorous political campaign by write-in independent candidate Bruce Bayuk.  According to Joseph Fleming, of Fleming & Associates, a Cumberland-based polling and political consultant, seniors casting votes for Harwood at the polling place in Kennedy Manor on Broad Street, played a key role in his victory in that election cycle.

Fleming, who also serves as a political analyst for Channel 12 News said that senior voter support for Harwood was almost nonexistent in the recent Democratic primary.  Senior voters joined with anti-Harwood voters throughout the legislative district to give the former House speaker the boot.

“Harwood lost better than 2-to-1 at the polling place in Kennedy Manor,” Fleming said. “Seniors decided it was a time for a change.”

Over the years, political candidates have made pre-election day pilgrimages to Pawtucket’s senior high-rises.  In District 59, both Harwood and O’Neill courted voters in high-rises, providing food during meet and greet events.

“It’s a myth that a good meal at a senior high-rise will ultimately equate to a vote,” quips Fleming. “Seniors may go down to eat the food, but it doesn’t mean that you’ll get their vote.  Everyone feeds them, but they can’t vote for both sides.” Moreover, he said, the majority of older voters don’t reside in senior high rises.

“Seniors read campaign materials look at the campaign issues and vote for people who reflect their views on these issues,” Fleming says.

Darrell West, a Brown University professor and political pollster, notes that seniors are the biggest voting block in Rhode Island. “Not only are they a sizeable group in numbers, they also are more likely to exercise their franchise to vote,” he says.

Ken McGill, registrar for the City of Pawtucket, agrees with West’s assessment.  McGill says that in any election, political candidates can count on senior voters to turn out in high numbers.

“Seniors were brought up respecting the right to vote and how important it is. They know what is at stake and pay careful attention to the issues that not only affect them, but  issues impacting on members of their family, McGill says.

“Compared to young people, seniors are 30 to 40 percentage points more likely to vote, West said. “Seniors vote because they are invested in their community and come from a generation where it was considered any honor to vote,” says West.  He added that young people tend to be very cynical about politics and more likely to feel their vote does not matter.

West said that seniors voter as a bloc only when they see their issues directly at stake in an election. “If an election centers on Social Security or Medicare, they are more likely to overcome differences by gender, income and ethnicity and cast a ‘senior’ vote,” he says.

Adds Kathleen S. Connell, director of AARP-RI, “There are many reasons why candidates look to the senior citizens for votes. One of them being, the issues that affect the concerned seniors are the same issues that will also affect the candidates and their families now or in the future.”  Also, candidates know that seniors are the most reliable and informed voters, she says.

One of the questions surrounding the upcoming election is whether seniors will support the Rhode Island GOP in its efforts to increase the numbers in the General Assembly?

“Seniors lean Democratic because the elderly typically has seen democrats speak out most forcefully about the need to take care of seniors and protect Medicare and Social Security,” says West. However, Republicans have made in-roads with moral or ethical issues, he says.

Aging groups are gearing up for the upcoming November elections to send educated voting seniors to the polls, Connell says.

“This year, some of our volunteers are participating in presidential debate watches with Rhode Island College, and we are distributing voter guides for them to track the candidate responses to issues of importance to AARP members.  They can use these guides to further study the issues before going to the polls.”

Richard Bidwell, executive director of the Rhode Island Gray Panthers, also sees the value of getting educated senior voters to the polls. With the backdrop of the upcoming elections, the Senior Agenda Consortium (SAC), founded by the Gray Panthers and now comprised of 20 aging groups, is working to improve seniors’ knowledge of issues and develop strategies to pressure candidates to support SAC’s legislative agenda.

 As it did two years ago, SAC, which is funded by the Rhode Island Foundation, will organize three regional forums, to prod the candidates to support its legislation positions on issues ranging from ensuring access to low-cost prescription drugs, better funding for community long-term care services and protecting RIPTA bus routes.  The results will be released to the media.

AARP Works to Get the Vote Out

Published in the Pawtucket Times on October  21, 2002

AARP is flexing its political muscle.

While it’s not endorsing political candidates from either the Republican and Democratic ranks, one of the nation’s largest membership groups is moving swiftly to educate its members on key aging issues and directing  resources to get the vote out on Election Day.

AARP CEO Bill Novelli has begun the mobilization of his 35 million-plus members to hold all political candidates accountable in the upcoming elections. With the bipartisan gridlock that keeps a law from being enacted to lower skyrocketing drug costs and to provide drug coverage in Medicare, Novelli and his aging rank and file are just plan tired of promises. I can just imagine hearing him shout from AARP headquarters in Washington, D.C. “We are not going to take it anymore!”

This month, AARP begins to take steps to prod the political candidates to become more responsive to aging issues before Nov. 5 elections.

Over the next two weeks, AARP will begin a first-ever national voter education campaign on television. Aimed at voters age 50 and over, the advertising campaign’s get-out-the-vote message calls for the need of a Medicare drug benefit and the importance of Social Security to seniors.

On the issue of Social Security, the message says: “After all you’ve done to earn a paycheck, make sure some of it will be there when you retire. Know where the candidates stand on the future of Social Security and vote.”

Meanwhile, 50 candidate forums, like the one recently held in Warwick by AARP Rhode Island have already been held to enable older votes to directly question local candidates. AARP plans to hold an additional 20 events before Nov 5.

Here’s the rationale for AARP hosting the forums – seniors want detailed information and no longer want to learn about a candidate’s position and priorities in a 30-second sound bite or in a paragraph on a glossy campaign brochure.

Additionally, all congressional candidates will be asked to sign a new Medicare prescription pledge, promising that if they are elected, they will enact a benefit that is voluntary, stable and affordable in 2003.

A warning to the incoming politicians – keep your word. The names of candidates who do – and don’t- agree to sign this Medicare drug pledge will be made public, too.

More that 8.5 million AARP voter guides will be printed, detailing up-to-date information where candidates stand on senior issues. Localized election information on state and national races nationwide will also be made available on a comprehensive website  at http:/www.aarp.org/elections2002.

AARP will even fund Election Day polling, where voters in selected districts will be asked about the defining issues that influenced their votes. The results of this polling will signal to those  elected to Congress what priorities they will face when they begin their new terms in January 2003.

Finally, phone banks where an estimated 500,000 telephone calls will be made will assist AARP’s efforts to get out the vote on Election Day.

If AARP is successful in getting its political savvy and educated membership to the polls, political candidates had better listen to their concerns.

“Older voters participate in elections at a higher rate than any age group,” said AARP Director of Grassroots and Elections Kevin Donnellan, noting that the mid-term elections, where overall voter numbers are low, the percentage senior voting is higher.

Furthermore, Donnellan said in the 1998 mid-term elections, more than 60 percent of the voters were 45 and older. More than 70 percent of AARP members typically vote, he added.

AARP grassroots efforts might even become a factor in tight races, specifically deciding who goes to Washington and who stays at home, Donnellan says.

“Now that we are down to the wire to Election Day, AARP Rhode Island joins AARP nationally to urge Rhode Island seniors to demonstrate once again that they are the most dependable and consistent group of voters,” says Kathleen S. Connell, state director of AARP Rhode Island told All About Seniors.

“It is important that seniors exercise the power of the ballot box to convey the message that the time for action is now,” adds Connell.

The political fate of gubernatorial, congressional and state-wide candidates may well rest in the hands of AARP Rhode Island, which is now mobilizing its 125,000 members to get out and vote next month.

Combine the successful Senior Agenda/Election 2002 Project, recently spearheaded by the Gray Panthers of Rhode Island, working in collaboration with the Rhode Island Minority Elder Task Force, and hundreds of thousands of Ocean State seniors have become a knowledgeable and educated voter block.

Understanding the immediate and future needs of Rhode Island seniors may well become the ticket to statewide or national office inside the Capitol Beltway, when the dust settles after the  Nov. 5 election.