What an Election Day 08. My first story brought me to the spaghetti supper around noon, with my other 15 classmates as well. Going in I had no idea what to expect, and when I got there, I realized I was somehow going to have to think of something. I did love the old time Italian music though and the smell of spaghetti and meatballs. Because I did not necessarily know what the politicians looked like, I thought it might be an interesting angle to do a story about the actual event itself. In my wrap I include a sot from Father Paul Angellichio, and one of the volunteers who helped prepare the event.
I really learned a lot about the history of the event and the amount of preparation that goes into making it a sucess. The event has gone on for 58 years at the Our Lady of Pompei Church. It takes approximately 2-3 months to call all the volunteers and gather all donations. I even spoke to the singers, who both said that they have been performing for over 50 years! They each said their favorite part of the event was just singing for the people and watching everybody have fun. I left with enough sound, but more importantly an appreciation for the event and what it stands for.
Fast forward 8 hours to 9:00 p.m for my second story. It brought me and Jon Erwin to the Empire Room at the State Fairgrounds for the Democratic election night party. This time, it was just me and Jon who made the trek. In the beginning, there were not a lot of people inside. Those that were seemed to be gravitating more towards the bar. Again like the spaghetti supper, I didn't know a lot of the faces, so what I did was when News10 would interview someone live, I would go to the television and read the graphic on who it was. That's how I got my first interview, Mayor Matt Driscoll. He said he really thinks the race for Onondaga County Executive had more buzz because there has only been two of them in 45 years, and because Joanie Mahoney has a chance to make history, being the first woman to hold the position.
Around 11:00, I'm dead tired, but in comes Bill Magnarelli, who is ready to concede to Joanie Mahoney. He gets up on the podium and I knew I wasn't going to pick up any sound holding my microphone up in the audience. I didn't want to get yelled at by Professor Nicholson, so I ran in front of the podium and laid down with my microphone held up in the air. After eight or so minutes he finished, with my arm really hurting. He didn't get into the details of the race, rather it was more of the congratulations Joanie type speech. So I knew I still needed to try to talk to him and ask him some questions that needed to be asked.
About 30 minutes after all the big stations were done talking with him, I tapped him on the shoulder and asked him for a few minutes. I asked him among other questions why he thinks he lost, what would he have done differently. He told me he wished he had started earlier focusing in on Joanie's inexperience. He said he thinks the fact that she was a woman with an opportunity to make history, as well as his Albany connection was the one-two punch. So around 11:30 me and Jon were finally out of there. An extremely long day, but well worth it. By far my favorite day in RTN this year. I learned a lot and had fun doing it.
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