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In an open letter to Mayor Lovely Warren on Wednesday, leaders of one of the city's Democratic committees rebuked what they described as "bigoted, disrespectful and false statements" by City Councilman and Warren backer Adam McFadden.

Committees in each of the legislative districts in the city of Rochester meet to decide what city candidates should receive the party designation or endorsement.(Photo: Monroe County Board of Elections)

The dustup is the latest in an ongoing feud dating to last summer, when Rochester's Black Political Caucus called out what they saw as aneffort backed by New York State United Teachers to take over the city's Democratic committees that determine which candidates the party endorses. The committee in question did flip. And it is a notable one: The city's 25th Legislative District, which for decades was led by the late Willie Lightfoot.The 25th predominantly representsthe southwest side, east of Genesee Street.And it had, until the flip, beenin lockstep with the party faction aligned with Assemblyman David Gantt.

Now the committee is led by Beatriz LeBron, a candidate for city school board and a vocal supporter of mayoral challenger and County Legislator James Sheppard.

Lastweek,the 25th hosted a candidates night at the East End Tavern on Charlotte Street, and McFadden attended to speak on Warren's behalf. He later took to Facebook, posting "Willie Lightfoot is turning over in his grave," and elaborated in a separate post, saying the committee now waspredominately white with folks who don't live in the community or, in some cases, in the city.

"All in an effort to give James Sheppard the Democratic Party endorsement," he wrote, reiterating the charge against the union while noting that the committee met outside the district, in the East End. "I'm sorry if you are black and supporting Sheppard. Please be aware that he is working with a group of people who is purposefully disenfranchising black Democrats."

Black Political Caucus protests union 'takeover' in Rochester

There is much more to all of this, of course. Why it matters is that it strikes at the integrity of the process. Jamie Romeo, chairwoman of Monroe County Democrats, likened it to the questions and challenges that arose during the presidential primary. Then, as now, there is a need for introspection, she said, to be open and review established bylaws and practices. That is under way. There also is a need to make sure people understand and believe in the process, she said, adding: "That, at the end of the day, is my main responsibility that people trust this process."

But it would seem that to understandthe process, in this current circumstance, is to question its validity.

In their letter, also directed to McFadden, the 25th LD committee leaders countered McFadden's portrayal of the committee, stating that membership was 18.3 percent white while the population of the district is 30 percent white, and noted the diversity of its executive committee that includes a Latina and two black men. The letter calls McFadden's remarks at the meeting and on Facebook "shameful," intended to bully and intimidate committee members, and to inflame racial divisions.

"It is difficult to express how aghast we are that a current elected official made hateful statements aimed at community activists, many of whom are his constituents, with intent to delegitimize us," reads the letter that issigned by the executive committee, whose members include Paul Hypolite, a regional political organizer for NYSUT.

Not addressed was the residency issue.Like other committees on the west side, the 25th is populated with a smattering of residents living outside the neighborhood, mostly in the northeast.

Follow this link to an interactive version of this map.

Members of the city Democratic committee representing most of downtown inside the Inner Loop and areas immediately west and southwest.(Photo: Brian Sharp)

City districts are determined by county legislative districts, some of which have been redrawn to include a greater share of the suburbs, but membership is determined by state Assembly districts. This has been the case at least since 2006, and is why, to McFadden's point, not just suburbanites but residents from elsewhere in the city end up sitting on committees in the southwest while living in the northeast.

Overall, 40 or 4.5 percent of the 873 city Democratic committee members do not live in the city, Romeo said. Just .9 percent of the 25th committee live in the suburbs, however, while in the 26th LD, which extends along the city's western border, 19 percent live outside of Rochester. The issue of residency is being discussed by party leadership, and Romeo said she expects there to be a proposal made that would address the matter. But it would not affect the current nomination process, which has already begun.

Watching all of this is another Democratic mayoral challenger, former WROC-TV reporter/anchor Rachel Barnhart, whose campaign manager Joe Rittler weighed in Wednesday, issuinga statement that read:"We respect the committee members and the designation process, but it's clear that there is a predetermined outcome. The designation process is not representative of voters generally. Nonetheless, we believe everyone has a role to play in our city, and all voters have a right to know where the candidates stand on issues. For that reason, we feel it is important to participate in this process."

McFadden, in an interview, said he made no mention of the 25th LD committee's racial makeup at the meeting but felt compelled to note it later. Heis the leader of the adjoining 27th LD representing the 19th Ward, and his City Council district includes the 25th. He acknowledged not being aware of the full membership of the 25th, but based his assessment on those who identified themselves as committee members at the meeting a group, he said, that was predominately white.

"I wasnt even trying to assess the blackness or whiteness of the room," he said. "When I saw who raised their hand, I made a mental note. ... (Willie Lightfoot's)whole thing was making sure people of color had a seat at the table and a voice in the process. I know, because I came up through that.

"There is no way I could walk away from that and not say what I saw."

The letter called on Warren topublicly reprimand McFadden. Warren said that she had not yet seen the 25th LD's letter and had no comment.

"It's all about the nomination for mayor, and thats what it's about, and that's wrong," Gantt said in an interview this week, having previously expressed his concern over similar issues with committees in the northwest."If you can't vote for a person (in an election),then you ought not be voting them on the committee."

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Where members of the northwest side city Democratic committees live.(Photo: Brian Sharp.)

Angie Rivera is a member of the 27th LD, and was one of the chief organizers of an effort last fall that resulted in a number of sitting committee members facing primaries. NYSUT supported that effort by assisting with the gathering of petition signatures. Rivera is president of Rochester Association of Paraprofessionals, representing about 600 teachersaides and assistants. In all, the effort helped placewhat Rivera estimated were 75 or more people, not all of them union members, onto city committees.She said at the time that the issue was grassroots, diverse, unassisted by any elected leader and not about the mayoral race, but education and labor issues, including the minimum wage.

"I believe that our voices will be heard moving forward," she said. "We are going to be involved in plenty of other races. It is not a one-time only. It is not about one issue. ... We want to be involved in the decisions, all of the decisions."

On the eastside, the committee membership appears more in line with district boundaries but exemplify another issue: Check the addresses of the combined 310 listed members of the three committees, and you find 58 duplicate addresses meaning more than a third of the membership is potentially related or at least are close acquaintances. In two instances, three committee members live at the same residence. In the northwest, with a combined 164 members listed, there are 25 duplicate addresses, with three residences each listing three members. Again, roughly a third of the total.

Warren and her husband both are members in the 21st District. Barnhart is not listed as a committee member, and was denied when she sought appointments. Specifically, she sought appointment to the 21st where she livesbut said the leader, Anthony Plonzynski, also Sheppard's campaign vice chairman, told her there were no seats available.

Barnhart's case highlights one of the problems with making the simple rule change Ganttsuggests. If a committee has no open seats, newcomers are denied the opportunity, or established members get knocked off. It also closes the door for people living in areas without an established committee. In Chili, for example, 23 percent of committee members, five in all, live in Ogden or other areas outside the town, Romeo said. There is nocommittee yet in Ogden, though the party wants to be more active there. This way, they can bring people into the fold rather than turn them away.

It is without question that the Democratic Party needs to find a path forward," Romeo said in formal statement issued in response to the 25th LD letter. "It is without a question that we have a growing number of voices, interest and ambitions from people all cross this community that are looking for ways to contribute in the political process. However, what also remains clear is that we as leaders of the Democratic Party must continue to prioritize and push for a constructive dialogue regarding our future. I will continue to urge our leaders to participate in our partys process to find our path to move this party forward.

BDSHARP@Gannett.com

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Where members of the east side city Democratic committees live.(Photo: Brian Sharp.)

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Democratic Party politics get messy in Rochester mayoral race - Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (blog)

Democrat Greg Pilkington of Indian Lake Estates has announced plans to run against U.S. Rep. Dennis Ross in the 2018 general election.

LAKELAND Democrat Greg Pilkington of Indian Lake Estates has announced plans to run against U.S. Rep. Dennis Ross in the 2018 general election.

He joins a short field of candidates who have filed federal elections papers to represent U.S. House District 15, which includes much of northwest Polk County and parts of Hillsborough and Lake counties.

That list includes Democrats Raymond Pena Jr. of Lakeland, and Cameron Magnuson of Washington, D.C. Others include Loretta Leah Lax Miller, a Republican from Clermont, and Jeffrey Rabinowitz, also of Clermont, who filed under no party affiliation. Under the Constitution, a person must be a resident of the state when elected.

Ross, a Lakeland Republican, was re-elected in November to a fourth two-year term.He defeated DemocraticJim Lange of Lutz with 58 percent of the vote.

Representativesare paid $174,000 per year.

Pilkington, 54, said he sees an advantage over Ross, who was closely allied with PresidentDonald Trump during thepresidential campaign andserved on Trumps transition team following his victory in November.

Pilkington said thatis certain to cost Ross some political capital among those Republicans and independents who are increasingly disenchanted with Trumps leadership.

He was one of Trumps earliest and staunchest supporters, he said, adding that Ross Tea Party leanings are out of step with an electorate ready for more progressive values.

Though a political ingnue, Pilkington, who grew up in Charlotte, N.C., was appointed to that citys mayoral International Cabinet, an advisory body to the City Council that provides input and recommendations on a variety of topics, including international affairs and promoting diversity.

His resume covers a broad spectrum of international experience, most recently as executive officer for budget and strategy for the World Customs Organization, an intergovernmental organization based in Brussels, Belgium.

He served in the appointed position for nine years. His resume also includes stints in international trade, serving as a global project manager for DHL Worldwide Express, and as a program management adviser for FedEx Express.

Pilkington received a bachelors degree in business administration from Pfeiffer University in 1999, followed by a masters in international business studies from the Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina in 2001.

He and his wife of nearly 30 years, Beth, have three grown children.

Pilkington lists several key issues important to his campaign, including strengthening and protecting Social Security without increasing age limits. He said additional funding can be derived by removing the maximum Social Security tax cap from $127,200 to no limit on earned income.

He supports a single-payer health-care system and is in favor of passing proposed legislation that would expand Medicare to everyone.

Pilkington says that if elected he would fight for comprehensive immigration reform. He views the expansion of a wall on the Mexican border as wasteful and ineffective.

Eric Pera can be reached at eric.pera@theledger.com or 863-802-7528.

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Democrat plans to oppose Ross in 2018 House election - News Chief

March 22, 2017, 2:15 p.m.

Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank) said in a statement he had "grave concerns" about revelations made Wednesday by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Tulare).

Nunestold reporters that U.S. intelligence agencies monitoring foreign targets hd incidentally heard communications involving members of the Trump transition team and that reports about those communications were disseminated around the government.

Nunes is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and Schiff is the panel's ranking Democrat.

Schiffcalled Nunes' decision to talk to the media and the White House -- before speaking to him and the rest of the committee -- a "profound irregularity."

Here is Schiff's statement:

"This afternoon, Chairman Devin Nunes announced he had some form of intercepts revealing that lawfully gathered intelligence on foreign officials included information on U.S. persons, potentially including those associated with President Trump or the president himself. If accurate, this information should have been shared with members of the committee, but it has not been. Indeed, it appears that committee members only learned about this when the chairman discussed the matter this afternoon with the press. The chairman also shared this information with the White House before providing it to the committee, another profound irregularity, given that the matter is currently under investigation. I have expressed my grave concerns with the chairman that a credible investigation cannot be conducted this way.

"As to the substance of what the chairman has alleged, if the information was lawfully gathered intelligence on foreign officials, that would mean that U.S. persons would not have been the subject of surveillance. In my conversation late this afternoon, the chairman informed me that most of the names in the intercepted communications were in fact masked, but that he could still figure out the probable identity of the parties. Again, this does not indicate that there was any flaw in the procedures followed by the intelligence agencies. Moreover, the unmasking of a U.S. person's name is fully appropriate when it is necessary to understand the context of collected foreign intelligence information.

"Because the committee has still not been provided the intercepts in the possession of the chairman, it is impossible to evaluate the chairman's claims. It certainly does not suggest -- in any way -- that the president was wiretapped by his predecessor."

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Top Democrat on House Intelligence Committee has 'grave concerns' about handling of Trump team intercepts - Los Angeles Times

Debate over spending for the next two years honed in Wednesday on the states massive pension obligations, with one Wichita Democrat making a passionate case for Kansas to pay its bills.

Rep. Henry Helgerson expressed consternation as members of the House budget panel mulled holding back a few hundred million dollars in retirement contributions at this stage in the budget crafting process.

How many years have legislators been saying, Well deal with this later on? he asked. This isnt an enhancement, this is debt. You put this off, the state is financially vulnerable to bankruptcy.

Some members of the committee appeared torn, expressing agreement with Helgerson that the states pension woes are significant and urgent, yet citing uncertainty over available revenue. The panel voted 12 to 9 to review the matter later in the session, after revenue projections for the next few years are updated in late April and other factors, such as the cost of funding schools, are more clear.

Among those missing pieces of the puzzle, noted Erin Davis, R-Olathe, is whether the Legislature will reform the states tax statutes.

We have no tax plan on the horizon, Davis said. The tax plan that the House passed and the Senate passed was vetoed by the governor.

She was referring to a proposal that would have raised nearly $600 million next year alone. Lawmakers failed to override Brownbacks veto, falling short just three votes in the Senate.

Kansas has about $8.5 billion in unfunded retirement liability the gap between the pension systems resources and the retirement benefits promised to public employees.

In 2016, the state delayed a quarterly payment into the retirement system and will do so this year as well. Part of the debates in recent weeks over the 2017, 2018 and 2019 budgets concern when and how to repay those funds. For 2018 and 2019, a key sticking point is whether to keep state contributions flat or let them increase as indicated by law.

For two decades, the state has been paying less in contribution rates than needed according to actuarial assessment.

Gov. Sam Brownback has proposed keeping state contributions flat in 2018 and 2019.

At a separate meeting in the afternoon, he answered a reporters questions about the KPERS situation by citing progress on that point.

Where we were when I started we were 52 or 54 percent funded, and were 67 percent funded today, Brownback said. We are in so much better shape on KPERS today than when I came in as governor.

He was referring to efforts to reduce the portion of the states liability that is funded versus unfunded.

The House and Senate budget committees are working on dual versions of budget solutions for the next few years.

Troy Waymaster, a Bunker Hill Republican and chairman of the House budget committee, said Wednesday his goal was to pass a bill out this week, but it could take longer.

The Senate budget panel expects to pass its version out of committee on Thursday.

The Senate bill includes 2 percent raises for most state employees, many of whom havent seen pay increases for about a decade.

The Houses bill doesnt include raises at this point. Given the Senate panels proposal, Waymaster said it could be a topic that surfaces later.

Meanwhile, the Senate budget committee voted Wednesday to include some measures to help alleviate a 4 percent cut to higher education from last year. Part of the amendment brought by Sen. Vicki Schmidt, R-Topeka, includes reducing the cut by a quarter in fiscal 2019.

It is not a full restore it is putting the decrease back to 3 percent, Schmidt said. From my perspective, thats a step in the right direction.

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Kansas House Democrat makes impassioned plea not to withhold ... - Topeka Capital Journal

Democrats typically have trouble recruiting candidates for Statehouse races, but now they're having trouble keeping up with all the people who want to run.

Candidates are already coming out of the woodwork across the country, thanks to a backlash against President Donald Trump and a newfound recognition on the left of the importance of state legislatures to counter GOP control in Washington, D.C.

The surge of potential candidates has been so unusual that, for the first time, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee felt the need to coordinate its recruiting efforts with all the groups that work to find candidates.

On Tuesday afternoon, representatives from about 20 organizations, including labor unions and influential outside groups like Emily's List, gathered at the DLCC's headquarters in downtown Washington for the first "Combine" a reference to the NFL event where teams check out potential recruits.

Democratic officials have had to add extra candidate training sessions to keep up with demand and increase enrollment in existing ones. One major training group, Emerge America, reports an 87% surge in candidate applications over last year.

The women's group Emily's List says nearly 10,000 women have expressed interest in running for office since November, including for state legislative seats. Meanwhile, Run for Something, which is focused on recruiting millennials, says its heard the same from almost 8,000 young people.

The enthusiasm turned last month's special election to decide control of the Delaware State Senate into a national battle for Democrats. One thousand people signed up to volunteer while millions of dollars poured in from online donors. Democrat Stephanie Hansen, who ended up winning the race, thought she was being prank called when former Vice President Joe Biden rang to offer his support.

"Everything has changed," Jessica Post, the DLCC executive director, said in an interview in her office.

Things have been rough for Democrats at the state level. Republicans control more than two-thirds of partisan state legislative chambers 67 of the 98 total after picking up 27 chambers since 2008.

With 7,383 state legislative districts nationwide, there was lots of talk at the organizing meeting Tuesday of spreadsheets and databases.

Around the room, participants discussed how unusual it is for candidates to be coming to them, rather than the other way around.

"Literally, the day after the election, we saw a huge increase in the number of women who wanted to run for political office, and we've been extremely busy since then," said A'shanti Gholar, the political director of Emerge America.

Post is used to having to sell grassroots activists on why they should even care about state legislative races. But last week, she found herself being asked for selfies after a speech to local Democrats in St. Louis.

"It used to be an effort to persuade people to put their name on the ballot," Post said. "Now, the candidates are calling us up and they're saying I want to run. Point me in the right direction...They're looking at Trump and saying I want to do something."

RELATED: Democrats Beware: Sanders Movement Turns to Midterms

Clearly, Democrats have rediscovered the importance of Statehouses this year, after losing over 900 state legislative seats under President Barack Obama.

Obama has thrown his weight behind an effort, lead by former Attorney General Eric Holder, to win them back ahead of redistricting in 2020, when lawmakers will redraw congressional maps.

And the Democracy Alliance, a group of major liberal donors meeting later this week, has decided to make state campaigns a top priority.

When Amanda Litman, a former Hillary Clinton campaign aide, launched Run for Something on Inauguration Day, she was planning to spend a lot of her time hunting for potential candidates.

"We thought we would have to struggle to find 100 people who would want to run," she said in an interview.

More than 1,000 people signed up in the first week.

"Barack Obama inspired a generation of people to get into public service out of hope. Trump could inspire a generation of people out of fear. And that's horrible, but can also be valuable," Litman said, calling it a "Trump bump."

Of course, many of the people expressing interest in a run now will not follow through with it. Campaigning is much more difficult than attending a training session. And there's no guarantee that more candidates means more victories.

And Ellie Hockenbury, the spokesperson for the Republican Legislative Campaign Committee, said the GOP has already found strong candidates this year's races, though they're just getting started on next year's midterms.

"We are still in the early stages of identifying and recruiting state-level candidates for the cycle, as filing deadlines are still a ways away," she said in an email. "The level of GOP success in the states over the past eight years leaves us optimistic that it will be another good cycle for recruiting and supporting impressive candidates across the country."

The first test will be in Virginia, which is one of only two states to hold major elections this year (the other is New Jersey, where Democratic control is not much in danger).

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Thousands of Would-Be Democratic Candidates Flood States in Trump Backlash - NBCNews.com