2 years ago
Senator Hillary Clinton toured Central and Western NY Wednesday; Channel 2 reporter Josh Boose, photographer Chris Gallant, and producer Jessica Malowicki followed her and wrote a live blog throughtout the day.
Here is Jessica's blog:
8 a.m.: We are on our way to Syracuse, driving on the Thruway, passing through Rochester.
Josh Boose is sitting in the front seat, looking over almost 50 questions sent in by Western New Yorkers, preparing to ask our Senator the questions we all want answers to.
Clinton will spend the day in Syracuse, Newark, and Geneva. She is scheduled to end up in Buffalo around 3:30 p.m. and she will be there for the opening of the Erie Canal Harbor, and then take a tour of the art space.
10am: We are in Syracuse outside of City Hall commons. There are about 100 people waiting outside with cameras and copies of her book. She is inside city hall right now looking through booths for different companies that are starting green initiatives in central New York.
10:15am: When Clinton walked out of the building, Josh Boose asked if he could have a moment to speak with her. Clinton responded "later".
From the City Hall, Clinton walked across the street to Hanover Square alongside Syracuse mayor Matt Driscoll, and Governor David Paterson.
There were a couple hundred people surrounding a podium set up at the square.
At one point in her speech, Clinton mentioned Buffalo's Inner Harbor, where she will be later this evening. She mentioned Governor DeWitt Clinton, and his visionary plan for the Erie Canal. She said we now need to be more inventive and make investments in the future.
10:50am: After the speech, Clinton got off stage and shook hands with people in the crowd, behind a banister. When she approached the press area, 2 On Your Side's Josh Boose managed to ask her a question on many people's minds. "While you were campaigning for president, did Western New York get the representation it deserves?" Her response was that, yes, they did.
Josh pressed harder, asking how she could possiblly be a successful senator and a presidential candidate at the same time. Clinton then mentioned that she had a lot of help from her staff and collegues during her presidential bid, thus making her job easier.
Josh only got to ask one question. But after Clinton left, her press representative came up to Josh, and asked him how many questions he has. Josh responded that he had several.
Then, Clinton's representative asked, "Why do you keep asking about the 200,000 jobs? She's answered that before." Josh insisted that the senator never answered that question to 2 On Your Side, she only responded during a presidential debate hosted by Tim Russert. Josh also said that Western New Yorkers want to know, and it has been one of the top questions we have been emailed. Now we are off to the next upstate event in Newark, New York. Clinton will be at an orchard that is dealing with recent storm damage.
12:30pm: We just arrived at the next stop on Clinton's Upstate tour. Josh is armed with more questions from Western New Yorkers.
12:49pm:We are following Hillary Clinton's convoy to Geneva. There is a New York State police car in the front, and then there are three large black SUV's in the middle, and another State Trooper is at the end of the group.
Clinton did not take questions at the orchard. Her press person came up to Josh and said that Clinton would answer questions in Geneva. She says that she was not avoiding any questions in Syracuse, but instead she had to cut them short because she was running late. But did assure to respond to all of our questions at the next stop.
1:18pm: Just arrived at Red Jacket Orchard Store in Geneva. There are a couple hundred people waiting around outside.
1:55pm: Clinton is speaking outside of the Red Jacket Orchard Store in Geneva about agricultural issues in New York.
The group quickly grew to a few hundred people. Over half of the group was female, and many women brought their young daughters to the event. A lot of the people in the crowd have not given up hope that Hillary will be the next president. One woman even carried a sign that said "Still My President".
2:25pm: Josh Boose had a chance to ask Senator Clinton some questions after the conference. Josh asked, "Is there anything more you could have done about the 200,000 jobs you pledged for Western New York?"
Clinton says, "I did a lot, and I think that winning re-election by 67%, and carrying all but four counties, people knew what I was doing, and gave me their votes. There's always more to be done."
Josh then asked Clinton to give some specific examples of things that she has done to help Western New York.
She started projects in bioinformatics, worked on the harbor development, helped on revitalization downtown, and helped develop the artspace.
3:50pm We are on the Thruway, just outside of Batavia. Clinton should be arriving for the opening of the Erie Canal Harbor shortly. After that ceremony, Clinton will be heading to a tour of the Artspace.
4:40pm Arrived at the Inner Harbor by HSBC Arena for the opening of the Erie Canal Harbor. There is a crowd of about 1,000 people outside. The biggest crowd yet today.
Claudine Ewing has spent most of the afternoon here. She and Josh are getting ready for their live shots, having their video and sound bites edited and sent back to the station so they can air.
5:15pm The senator has come and left. We are still at the Inner Harbor. It seems as though Clinton left as soon as we arrived. How did she get here so quickly?
Now, the senator is off to tour the Artspace. Kristin Donnelly will have more on that.
