Talk about a twisted sense of humor. Former City Councilman Joel “Speedy” Gonzalez takes the cake. Actually, he presented a birthday cake at the office of City Clerk Lydia Martinez, in honor of her long and distinguished reputation as the city’s queen of absentee ballots.
Gonzalez, who has a state elections complaint pending alleging absentee ballot abuse by Martinez from the 2015 Democratic mayoral primary, woke up Wednesday morning to a Facebook posting alerting Martinez’s birthday. Gonzalez pulled out an old absentee ballot envelope (who saves stuff like that?), dropped it off at Chaves Bakery on State Street and within a few hours the confection wizards recreated a cake in the form of an edible absentee ballot envelope. Hey Queenie, now you can have your cake and it eat too.
“This morning when I woke up I saw it was Lydia’s birthday,” says Gonzalez. “I went to Chaves and asked them to recreate an absentee ballot on a cake.” The personalized cake cost Joel $28. He dropped it off at Lydia’s City Hall office early Wednesday afternoon. Lydia was not in the office late Wednesday afternoon when OIB called for a response.
When it comes to working absentee ballots from her base of support on the East Side, Lydia is a master baker. The former City Council and State House member won the city clerk seat running on Bill Finch’s mayoral line last September on her way to a general election win. Gonzalez, supporting Joe Ganim for mayor, filed a campaign complaint with the State Elections Enforcement Commission accusing Lydia of being up to her old absentee ballot tricks. The fines Lydia has received a few times by the state for election law violations could buy a whole lot of cake.
So happy birthday, Queenie. Don’t forget to share the cake with your peeps. You owe it all to them.
Oh wait, I forgot to sing Happy Birthday: Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR LYDIAAA, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOUUU.
Hilarious! I think Joel has just stumbled upon a great business idea. Themed cakes for all situations. Joel; what kind of cake would you have made for Dan Malloy’s BD? How about Hillary?
Lol, that’s great no wonder you looked so happy when I saw you walking past city hall today.
*** OFF TOPIC BUT HAPPY B-DAY ANYWAY! *** TRUMP HAS TRUMPED THE REPUBLICAN PARTY AND THEY’RE IN THE PROCESS OF SELF-DESTRUCTION WHILE EATING THEIR WORDS WITH EGG ON THEIR FACES! *** ALSO VERY SOON, HAVING TO KISS TRUMP’S ASS BY HAVING TO SUPPORT HIM AS THE GOP CANDIDATE AFTER TALKING ILL OF HIM FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE RACE; OR TAKING A DEEP BREATH AND VOTING FOR HILLARY IN THE ELECTION, NO? *** WILL HILLARY MAKE AMENDS WITH BERNIE AND GET HIS SUPPORT OR EVEN PICK HIM AS HER RUNNING MATE FOR THE V/P SEAT? *** NEVER SAY NEVER, NO? TRUMP HAS CERTAINLY SHOWED AMERICA THAT IF ANYTHING! ***
Conservative are the big losers, people like the entire Republican Party and their leadership. Conservative way of government is over with no leader to follow. Now the question is how many positions will they lose from the House, Senate, governors and State leadership from following The Donald. They made their bed, well you know the rest.
Don’t count your chickens before they hatch. I think people are underestimating Trump’s appeal to an angry and disaffected electorate. Still plenty of time for Trump to stick more feet into his mouth and offend segments of voters. Let’s not forget the possibility of an October surprise for Hillary. Get ready to rumble?