Frederic Voss, write-in candidate for Hornell City Mayor, responds to Sempolinski, Hogan

“My campaign is uniting the extremists”

An OPINION By Frederic Voss, pictured

I guess by now many of you have seen Hogans little ditty in The Hornell Sun. Maybe some of you also saw Sempolinski’s piece yesterday too – if anything, my campaign is uniting the extremists.

Let’s be clear on what really happened, because none of it started until my background confession.

Sempolinski is nothing but a second rate propagandist. His piece had nothing to do with conviction or principle, he was being divisive and jabbing at the city Democrats because their chairman and I have had a few conversations. He’s in tight with the current mayor. But if we look into Sempolinski we find that he’s an absentee politician whose record is all photos and talk but no results. He did a short stint in congress that gave him an inflated vision of himself then became an Assemblyman back in January. Since then he’s achieved nothing – one bill that’s still stuck in committee. Appeared on The Pulse with Buckley a couple times. His social media is full of him taking opportunities for photo ops – “Look at me, Look at me” – he doesn’t act for the satisfaction of the result, he acts for the camera. Nothing just for the satisfaction and righteousness of achievement. He doesn’t live nor work in Hornell but is trying to influence it.

Hogan, though. Well we all know him. He says, “We will not be party to nastiness, name calling or character assassination. This is a non-issue and the City Committee is focused on the November election.”

I’ve run a pretty clean campaign considering all the underhanded and indifferent dealings happening around and could have justifiably been even harsher on some of them.

Calling Aini a twerp – maybe too much, but very honest. I’ve only ever used terms like incompetent, indifferent, dishonest to describe current leadership – all true, as seen by evidence, and nothing unique or revolutionary in terms of political campaigns.

Hogan, also, has used similar:

Hogan pretends to rise above name-calling, yet his own record is filled with sneers and insults meant to influence voters.

Where’s Hogans candidate? Why isn’t a Democrat up here running? If Hogan is backing the current leadership he’s just as complicit in the inside-out destruction of the city as they are. He’s just as indifferent to the overdose fatalities as the current leader – and is not a friend of the city, only his own ego and interests.

It’s men like Hogan and Sempolinski who make politics dishonest. Candidates can’t be candid or talk with real authenticity because these men try to spin it in their favor. They misrepresent truths.

𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐩𝐢𝐠𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐭 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐲𝐬 ‘𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐤’

This is the power structure I’m running against. I’m not stepping down from this campaign. If that’s what they’re all trying for, they’ll lose. My policies would help this city flourish – the HORNELL Cooperative Network (which I’m creating a second page to describe in detail) would help make Hornell a small business and entrepreneurial Mecca while theirs have proven to make it languish.

Weather permitting, I’ll be in Union Square Park tonight. I’ll have a petition to overturn the dispensary Opt-out fiasco and I’ll have many voter registration forms on hand. If you’re not yet registered come do so. If you’re registered as either a Democrat or Republican and want to change that, we can get that done too.

My intentions for this city are pure – I’m not trying to fleece it, I’m trying to fix it and I stand by my conviction that I’m the better man for the job.

I may not be on that ballot but my campaign and candidacy are very, very real and the Powers-that-be are getting nervous of that.

Come. Declare your Independence with me. Let’s not give these men what they want, it doesn’t serve your best interests only theirs.

Read Voss’ write-in campaign announcement:

I’m Running for Mayor of Hornell — As a Write-In, Independent, and Uncompromised