Is There Really Hope for Buffalo?

According to social media there's now Hope for Buffalo. If you were busy Infinite Campusing your grades all weekend I'll share what I know so far. 

Hope Jay is a lawyer from North Buffalo who has announced her candidacy for the North seat on the Buffalo Board of Education. She has two kids "who have attended"Buffalo Schools. I am a little confused by the wording here. Either they once attended or still do but there's something a little open ended about saying they "have attended" as if they could just as easily start off next year at Nichols or Williamsville.  If I was saying my kids are BPS students I'd simply say they attend BPS. But I'm not a lawyer. 

My hopes faded decisively when I looked into Hope's 100 plus tweets from the past year. There occurs a steady stream Poloncarz /Pannepinto/ Hochul references along with the usual suspects of establishment Democrats. I didn't see any tacit endorsement of Hillary but I'd bet you my tax return she's not feeling the Bern. And if this pic posted on her Twitter doesn't give you pause I suggest you stop reading now and go make some phone calls for Hillary.

The accompanying tweet found on Hope Jay's twitter reads: "Cuomo Hochul 2014"

Another other issue of concern I noted was that tweets addressed to Hope were being answered not by Hope herself but by another tweeter calling himself @CoachCant who neither lives nor works in Buffalo but does have a strong affiliation with NYSUT and the Dems as well. I have since been informed it's Joe Cantafio who is the President of the West Seneca Teachers' Union. 

On the surface we'd like to see it as a positive that someone who is saying things about student attendance, parent involvement and teacher support is throwing a hat into the ring of this 3 ringed clowncar of a Board. Surely there is a need to fight back against the unholy trinity of Lars, Carl and Sampson plus their 2 rubber stamps McCarthy and Patti. But how excited can you get about another party apparatchik Democrat (Larry Quinn loves to remind us that he's one too) who sides up with Cuomo and is clearly being put forth by the same forces at NYSUT who insist on telling us that test scores no longer matter while spending millions on pro Cuomo tv ads? If you're all about Andrew Cuomo and you're all about the Democrats (remember the past 7 years of Obama's Race to the Top and his recent appointment of John King as Lame Duck Ed Sec) you'll have to forgive me if I have a hard time believing that you give much of a damn about me.

No I am not a lawyer nor am I a political consultant. The reasons @JoeCant answers her tweets for her may simply be too nuanced for my pedestrian grasp of the ars politic. Her support for a Cuomo/Hochul ticket may likewise contain subtle shades of meaning that I fail to comprehend from my layman's perch here at a 12 year old imac. I will say I am confused and intrigued by the contradiction that a union guy from the biggest Opt Out district north of Long Island appears to be hitching his wagon to this candidate even if he doesn't live or work in Buffalo. I invite both of my readers to pursue this further before drawing any firm conclusions. I have my own instincts on this entire situation but they only came to light after a little digging. See what you can find out on your own. Is there really Hope for Buffalo?