No big secret that Molly Clifford would run.

Molly Clifford announced that she will be running for the northwest city council seat.
Big deal.
She's been angling for that position for over a year.
Clifford established her "residence" in Charlotte last January, in order to meet residency requirements.
Whether she really lives there is anyone's guess.
Clifford and boy-toy Ken Warner are two of the most divisive personalities in Rochester's Democratic party.
Leading the elitist wing of the party, she, Carla Palumbo and Cindy Kaleh control the northwest Democrats. Not because they are so good, which they are not. It's just that nobody ever had the balls to challenge them.
Carla Palumbo, the current incumbent, announced that she wouldn't run for re-election.
That has been an open secret for over a year.
It is also an open secret that she and Kaleh have been rooting for Clifford.
Clifford is best known for being on Duffy and Richards' city payroll; for screwing up NET so badly that Duffy had to create a new six figure job in the fire department for her; and for continuing to run Richards for mayor after he had been defeated by Lovely Warren in the Democratic primary in 2013.
That came with Clifford reiterating her Democratic "credentials," which need to be reviewed. Certainly, they are questionable.
The knuckleheads in her cheerleading squad will continue to shout that she has done so much good for Rochester.
She hasn't. Clifford has always been about Clifford, and has schemed and scammed to promote herself for years.
The sad fact is that there are no potential candidates to run against her.
Regardless, she won't get my vote

Election year 2015.

Every year is an election year for some office or another.
This year, the Rochester area will be concentrating on local offices.
The campaigns won't be very important, interesting or exciting.
That is because the results will be a foregone conclusion in most cases.
Monroe County is unequally divided into two camps: the Republicans, who control most of the county towns; and the Democrats, who control most of Rochester and Brighton.
Incumbents will be re-elected to office. In most cases they will be running unopposed.
In those cases where term limits apply, and the incumbent can't run again, someone from their own party will scarf up their seat.
Of course, this means that there won't be any changes, especially where the City of Rochester is concerned.
The city likes being flushed down the toilet.
The only new factor this year will be Dave Garretson, the recently elected chairman of the Monroe County Democratic Committee.
All Garretson will be providing is a new face.
As head of the Greece Democrats, he has been unable to win any elective office for himself, or run any successful election campaigns against Republicans for anyone else.
As a likeable oaf, he cannot provide any strong leadership for the Democrats this campaign season.

The County Executive Race.

Maggie Brooks has reached her term limit and can't run again. She will be succeeded by County Clerk Cheryl DiNolfo.
DiNolfo has long been understudying for the role.
Republican DiNolfo is prominent county-wide. The Democrats have nobody important or prominent to challenge her.
DiNolfo, a tiny woman, has great stature, which is evident when she marches in every parade wearing three-inch high pumps.
She will be a shoo-in ( or is it "shoe-in?" ) for the office come November.

The County Legislature.

All of the incumbents will win re-election, meaning Republicans will continue to be dominant in the County Legislature, but not having a "super majority" that would permit them to ignore Democrats entirely.
A loose-fitting stone in this structure is LD 26, which is mostly in  Rochester with some slices of Greece and Gates thrown in.
It has always been a swing district, changing hands between Republicans and Democrats every few years.
Its current incumbent is a Republican, who won by the skin of his teeth in 2011.
MCDC chairman Garretson has no suitable candidate to challenge the incumbent with ( Garretson has no suitable candidates to challenge anyone with ), so the incumbent will probably win by default. The fact that the incumbent is a moron will not harm his chances for re-election.

Rochester City Council.

The district incumbents will all win re-election. They will not be opposed by Republican candidates whose party only concentrates on the suburbs now.
Nor does City council have term limits, which has allowed numerous morons to have a comfortable second job for as long as they want it.
The work is easy, a few hours per month,  and they rarely show themselves to their constituents, except at election time.
They might have to fight other Democratic hopefuls during a primary election because the party is divided into two mutually antagonistic camps which hope to destroy each other.
They only question is in the Northwest district.
The rumor is that Carla Palumbo will not run for re-election. It was also rumored that she planned to resign this year and have longtime political ally Molly Clifford appointed to City Council and have her run for the office.
Molly Clifford has established residence in the Northwest, forsaking her expensive penthouse ( really? ) in downtown Rochester to meet eligibility requirements.
This was discussed in depth in the now defunct Smugtown Beacon.
That Clifford is a divisive factor in the Democratic committee is well known throughout Rochester, and her domineering elitism will be sure to provide an alternative candidate from the Gantt wing of the party to challenge her.
It will probably be the only interesting campaign this year.