Democrats ponder possible successor to Mayor Robert Duffy

Nearly five years have passed since Thomas Richards invited the mayor elect into his home. Robert Duffy had come with a purpose back in November 2005, wanting Richards to leave retirement and join his team as the city's chief lawyer.

"I would say Tom was stunned by our discussion. He was taken aback," Duffy recalls now.
Richards did not offer an immediate response. Duffy said he heard nothing for a couple of weeks. Then, one night, the phone rang. Richards asked one question. Duffy doesn't recall the issue, only that in context, "I knew I had him."

This week, Duffy again came asking. And, again, Richards accepted — this time to step in as the city's next deputy mayor.

The role he will assume on Wednesday places him in line to be interim mayor, if not mayor, should Duffy be elected lieutenant governor on Tuesday.
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"He's said all along he wants to have a voice in it," City Council member Carolee Conklin said of Duffy and the choice of his successor. "Now he's got one."

Mayor Robert Duffy reaches out to upstate minority voters

BUFFALO — Stomping shook the floor of the century-old church. The cramped congregation was on its feet, hands raised, dancing.

"Jesus!" the female soloist sang out, in a call-and-response chorus that grew more fervent with each repetition. "Jesus!" the faithful shouted back.

Stepping from the choir, she leaned over the pulpit, pointed and smiled. In the front row, lifted from his pew like the others, stood Rochester Mayor Robert Duffy, the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor.

The spirited True Bethel Baptist service was the third on Duffy's schedule this past Sunday. He will return to the Queen City this Sunday for more praising, more preaching, more politicking.