As they watched Hillary Clinton’s presidential ambitions slip away last night, Monroe County Democrats still had something to cheer about. They held the Monroe County Clerk’s office and the 25th District seat in the House of Representatives.
Both County Clerk Adam Bello and Congresswoman
Louise Slaughter won by margins of about 56-to-44 percent over their Republican challengers.
Slaughter won a 15th term in the House over Gates Supervisor Mark Assini. It was a rematch; Assini came within fewer than 1,000 votes of taking the seat in 2014. This time, Slaughter put $1.3 million into her campaign, twice as much as two years ago. She coordinated with the Clinton campaign and had more than 600 volunteers working phones and the streets. Assini claimed to have walked 400 miles in the district and knocked on 12,000 doors.
Slaughter says she’s proud of the effort but calls it bittersweet. She says she’ll push for Rochester in Congress with everything she’s got.
For Adam Bello, the win over Greece Town Clerk Cheryl Rozzi was because he focused on doing his job and better serving the public. Bello essentially landed campaigning after being appointed to the vacant office in May. Republicans nominated Rozzi in a push to get back the job they’d held for 20-plus years.
Bello says County Clerk is a nonpolitical job, and if you take care of the office the politics will take care of itself.
Full Monroe County election results are here.