Democrat and Chronicle from Rochester, New York • Page A6

DemocratandChronicle.com Page 6A Wednesday, April 10, 2013 ed in the right direction. Given how active Richards was in the Duffy administration, it is difficult to separate him from the Duffy years, said Heidi Zimmer-Meyer, president of the Rochester Downtown Development and to separate Warren from either administration. Different perspectives Come Election Day, "You've got a vast public out there, with people who live in neighborhoods and work in neighborhoods that need a ence" between herself and Richards, she said, is this: "He is a businessman, and in business, it's always about the bottom line." "I'm running because I believe I can do both," she said. "It's about the people, as well as the finances." Richards is unwavering. Stabilizing finances is the greatest challenge facing the city over the next several years, he said.

Fail at that, and basic services as well as desired programs, from recreation to libraries, will suffer. "It's real important we don't pretend this isn't so, or just ignore it," Richards said, having studied cities that failed and found that to be a common mistake. Ultimately, contested political races are a good thing, Johnson said, because debate tests a candidate and their initiatives, requiring them to put down markers about what they will and will not do. Last week, Warren tweeted: "I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept." In the coming months, voters will learn more about what Warren would change, and what Richards wants to do next.

Of the next mayor, Zimmer-Meyer said: "You have to start creating an environment where middle-class people move back into the city. If you can't do that as a leader, you've got a problem. "You will begin to lose the ability to fund the kinds of services that will enable the city to stabilize and grow." BDSHARPi8DemocratandChronicle.com Twitter.comsharproc Rivals Continued from Page 1A "She's supported, really, almost everything I've done," Richards said of Warren, "as I've supported things she's done." That all depends on your perspective. "Let's be honest here," Warren said. "I have supported projects that were started with another mayor that he came in to finish.

There is not one thing that he came in and has done that wasn't started three, four, five years ago. Not one." When it comes to the brewery, Warren said the administration was "playing around," involved but not involved, and nearly blew it. "In the last couple years," she said, "the only thing the mayor has done is focus on someone else's agenda and not develop his own." In the race for Rochester mayor, Warren is the apparent underdog against an incumbent whose supporters say already has all but wrapped up the Democratic nomination. Party chairman, state assemblyman and Richards' ally Joseph Morelle calls it a "mathematical certainty" when the party convention is held next month. Half of Warren's fellow City Council members are backing him, as well, with three undecided and Councilman Adam McFadden in Warren's corner.

Not that the party nod means much. Before Richards, the last two party-designated mayoral candidates lost the primary and, ultimately, the general election. Still, the Warren candidacy seems a gamble, experts say, and a bit perplexing. "Usually, it would be the maverick member of the Council who is running (to challenge a sitting mayor)," said Paul Ferber, a political science professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, "and she has not played that role so much." Added Jim Bertolone, president of the Rochester Labor Council: "A lot of us are confused." Campaign clamor In political events thus far, Richards, 69, has been businesslike yet plainspo-ken, matter-of-fact and affable, while Warren, 35, has been both impassioned and strident, as well as soft-spoken and optimistic. Pundits say this race is about Warren's personal ambition or the latest outgrowth of a longstanding feud between Morelle and Assemblyman David Gantt, D-Rochester, Warren's boss and mentor who charged that Morelle broke a promise to support Warren this time around.

So far, there has been more clamor about the campaign than actual campaigning. Duffy also has gotten in the mix, drawing criticism earlier this year for suggesting Warren I wait, saying the Rich- VV ards-War- ren team is jfc "Jfj effective "aiBl and that it would be a Bill Johnson travesty for the city if the pair ran against one another. Former Mayor William A. Johnson Jr. notes that Duffy, too, initially was urged not to run for mayor.

"If Bob Duffy had followed that same advice in 2005, he probably would be head of corporate security for some company today," Johnson said, "not the lieutenant governor." The primary is not set but is likely to be Sept. 10. Local businessman Alex White is seeking the Green Party nomination, and awaits the winner. Duffy's jump to state office is what led to all of this. His departure triggered a controversial special election that ushered in Richards in April 2011.

He was Duffy's choice, having been a key player in some of Duffy's most complicated and high-profile initiatives. Warren supported Richards as well, touting his familiarity with development projects from Midtown to the Port of Rochester; calling him the people's mayor. Richards since has won praise from business and labor, gotten stalled or derailed projects moving again and taken steps to stabilize city finances. He settled union contracts, reached a new health care agreement and took advantage of low interest rates to accelerate projects including demolition of vacant and blighted structures. He also made failed pitches to keep Monroe Community College at the downtown Sibley building, and for a performing arts center to locate at Midtown.

Richards' job approval rating stands at 57 percent, but a Voice of the Voter poll last fall found 41 percent of respondents thought the city was head along with the autonomy (not eying future political office) to tackle tough questions. Looking solely at voting records, Warren and the rest of City Council would appear strong supporters of Richards. Votes are almost always unanimous. But that fails to account for debates, both public and private, that shape legislation before it ever reaches a vote. On schools, Richards and Warren both say they want to give Superintendent Bolgen Vargas time to implement his strategies along with state reforms.

Neither takes mayoral control completely off the table, though neither seems eager to revisit the debate. Both talk a lot about neighborhoods. But Warren alleges this administration is more focused on downtown and big business than small business and everyday issues. "I certainly don't accept (that), and what I can show is what we've done," Richards said. "I don't think anybody can deny there has been more development in the neighborhoods than there has been in a very long time." In four ailing areas of the city alone, a few blocks in each quadrant, the city has directed nearly $15 million and leveraged more than $56 million for housing, businesses, streets, street lighting, trails, gardens.

The program began under Duffy, and had invested $10 million and leveraged $35 million before Richards took office. Warren promises to do more for the community and involve residents while also addressing the city's financial strains. The "significant differ lot of care and funding," said who also serves as a member of the city's Plan- Heidi ning Com- Zimmer-Meyer mission. "Depending on where you live," she said, "your perspective is going to be quite different." Warren, a lawyer, notes her government experience, having worked 14 years for Gantt, currently serving as lead counsel and chief of staff, and serving on City Council since May 2007. Among the lessons learned in Albany, she said, is that all the city's mayors have been asking the wrong question: for the state Legislature to increase state aid.

Better, she said, would be to go to individual state agencies or departments. Richards, also a lawyer, touts his experience having previously served as president and CEO of Rochester Gas Electric Co. saying he has a unique skill set lary are, in essence, two sides of the same coin," she said. "As a child studies the spelling of a word and its etymology, he will discover its meaning. As a child learns the meaning of a word, it becomes easier to spell." Organizers said the timing of the rule change was deliberate to make it fair to all contestants, because all local Bee championships were decided by the end of March.

This year's 281 spellers come from eight countries and Department of Defense schools in Europe and the U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Some of the new ads appearing in today's classified section National Bee adds vocabulary test Quiz will be part of score used to see which spellers qualify ship finals, spellers will be judged on a cumulative score that incorporates live spelling, computer-based spelling questions and computer-based vocabulary questions, organizers of the Scripps National Spelling Bee announced Tuesday. Vocabulary evaluation will count for 50 percent By Doug Stanglin USA Today For the first time in the 86-year history of the National Spelling Bee, contestants will have to worry about what the words mean as well as how to spell them.

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