Warm November Brings Out the Duffers

Probably the last thing on people's minds on Election Day was wondering if they could get a good tee time the next day. But sure enough, with a 65 degree, sunny day in the Syracuse area, area golf courses alomst looked like they were in midseason on Wednesday.

At Drumlins Golf Club, assistant professional David Midgely said there were at least 50 players on the course at any one time. "Usually this time of year, you might 2 or 3 diehards to come out just before you get a large amount of snowfall," Midgely said. "We might get 300 people in this week, which is outstanding."

One golfer at Drumlins remarked he drove by Liverpool Golf and Country Club, and it looked even more packed there. And sure enough, just as many people were enjoying the warm weather there.

"This is as busy as you can get," said Phil Annese, a pro shop attendant at Liverpool. "When you're out of carts by noon, that means you've been going strong since seven, eight o'clock."

Annese has been working at Liverpool for years, so he's used to the one or two days in the late fall or winter, when the weather shapes up and the golfers flock to his course. "When you get that one day in the middle of the winter, or cooler weather, they come like crazy. It's just the nature of the beast."

Another Loss for the Republicans

November 5, 2008 - Central New Yorkers have leaned to the left side when it came down to New York’s 25^th Congressional District race.

Dale Sweetland has lost his opportunity for the seat to Dan Maffei.

“I was surprised. I thought it’s going to be closer,” said Sweetland.

Tuesday night has been a tough night. Matt Wells, Committee Chairman of DeWitt said, “If you are a Republican and looking at the results, yeah, it is a disappointing night.”

But one of the major reasons, Sweetland has lost the race is due to financial problems.

“He had a huge financial disadvantage. The opposition had millions of dollars … so he couldn’t get his message out,” said Congressman Jim Walsh.

Sweetland has also expressed his frustration. “You guys [the media] know it, TV is costly, radio is costly and mailing is not cheap.”

During his short speech, Sweetland did acknowledge that Maffei will be capable of bringing  in changes.

“We need Washington to do good things and I know Dan has it in his heart to do that,” said Sweetland.

When asked if he will run again, Sweetland said, “I have learned never say never.”

If you want to learn about what really disappointment Sweetland on the election watch this.

Election 2008: The Day After in Syracuse

The buzz around Syracuse Wednesday -- the Election.

Not to anyone's surprise, people walking downtown during their lunch hour talked politics, a day after Barrack Obama won the 2008 Presidential Election over John McCain.

"I've been a wreck for weeks and months about this," said Marty Sorensen of Manlius, "So my immediate reaction was all of that emotion and anxiety went away."

For others, like Bill Gooley of Syracuse, it brought back memories.

"I can remember John F. Kennedy and I think there was that sense of excitement in the country about this; that great things were going to happen," Gooley said.

Meanwhile, to the victor goes the spoils -- and then the clean-up.

A few Syracuse For Obama Members celebrated the victory while clearing out rented space at 537 James Street in Downtown Syracuse; home to the local campaign headquarters for nearly two years.

"It was amazing to see," said Melissa Frakes about the election, "this is a team effort by everybody -- volunteers, grassroots made this happen."

A sense of excitement was seen at the James Street headquarters, where a handful of jubilant Obama supporters trickled in to get their hands on left-over signs and stickers.

Still, volunteer John John Williams, III says this is just the start.

"We got a president--a good president; and we're going to have to help him because he cannot do it by himself."

Williams says now is the time to rest, because the push for re-election in 2012 will come sooner than you think.

November Golf

"This is as busy as it gets," said Phil Annese.

Annese isn't talking about a polling place yesterday.

He's not talking about Dinosaur BBQ on Saturday night.

Not talking about the Carrier Dome, either (well...for men's basketball, anyway).

Actually, Annese is talking about a golf course. The Liverpool Golf and Country Club to be specific.

But it's November. How is it even possible for a golf course to be busy?












Oh. That's how...it was in the 60s today.

"If we're sold out of golf carts by noon, it means we've been going strong since 7, 8 o'clock this morning," said Annese, who works in the Pro Shop.

The Liverpool pro shop wasn't the only busy pro shop.

"I'd say there are probably 45 or 50 people on the course today," said Dave Midgley, the assistant Golf Pro at Drumlins Country Club in Syracuse.

"Usually (in November) we only have 2 or 3 die-hards that are trying to get one last round in before the snow falls."

Several golfers we talked to said they couldn't remember the last time they had hit the links in November.

Others said it was odd to see so many people playing because normally they have the course to themselves at this point in the year.

But overall, Annese said every customer he saw was, "just happy to be out there."

True Life: I am an Election Inspector

November 5, 2008 – Meet Mattie Voorheis. 21-years-old, first-time voter, Syracuse resident…and Onondaga County Election Inspector. So what does an election inspector actually do?

“Sit…and try not to irritate people,” Voorheis said.

In fact, Onondaga County pays election inspectors $150 on Election Day in November for a 16-hour shift from 5:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Election inspectors must be available to work the entire shift and be registered to vote. At each polling place the county requires an equal number of inspectors from each party to ensure bipartisanship.

“I don’t know if it’s super effective just because there aren’t really a lot of Republicans, like I’m registered as an independent but I am serving as a republican because we couldn’t get any other republicans to come work,” Voorheis said.

But Voorheis said that was not the only problem.

“This is important and I don’t wanna knock the system but I feel like it’s disorganized,” Voorheis said.

Although she went through a nearly three hour training session, Voorheis said she still didn’t feel prepared for her role in the election, but she is excited to be a part of the process.

“If there ever was a year to do it this would be it.”

Still want more of Voorheis, watch this...

Dale Sweetland loses to Dan Maffei in 25th District

Republican Dale Sweetland's hopes of representing the 25th District in Congress were erased early Tuesday evening. By 10:30pm, it was clear that Sweetland was not going to beat Democrat Dan Maffei. The final, unofficial vote tally was 54% for Maffei and 40% for Sweetland. Green Populist candidate Howie Hawkins took home 4% of the vote. Sweetland's campaign manager Bill Rapp said, "We had hoped more people who voted for Obama would pull the lever for us, but that obviously did not happen." Rapp is referring to Democrat Barack Obama who won the Presidential election. Meanwhile, Sweetland called Maffei on his cell phone after the results came in and wished him luck in office. The next election for 25th District Congress will be in 2010. Sweetland said he would not rule out running again.

A recap of election night from Republican headquarters:

Some more reactions from Sweetland after the election:

Late Night at the Spaghetti Supper

11/4/08-When you think the Election Day Spaghetti Supper at Our Lady of Pompei School, you think pasta and politics. For the last 59 years they have been serving up spaghetti with all the fixings to voters and community members of all ages. The supper runs from eleven in the morning to seven at night, but most of the action happens around noon. That's when the majority of the candidates are there as well as the major news stations in the area.

So who is there in the later hours? A lot of people. Chairperson Lucy Paris says mostly families and people who had to spend the day in work come at night. When I asked some people why they still came down, the most popular answer was the most obvious one: the great food. One diner described it as "Just like a home cooked meal". It is this excellence that has kept generations coming back every first Tuesday after the first Monday in November year after year, making tradition the second most popular reason for coming.

Paris says she thinks they served about 3,000 people this year which equates to 7,000 meatballs, 300 gallons of sauce, and 700 hundred pounds of pasta. With such a large crowd when is the best time to come if you want to eat your pasta in peace? Paris says things slow down between two and four, and you can always get a meal to go.

Extra 1: While filming at the supper I noticed that the minute you filmed adults eating they stopped and acted awkward, while kids loved to ham it up. I didn't want to let their performances go to waste. They may not have been old enough to vote, but you can enjoy spaghetti at any age.