A Spouse of One's Own and Other Political Accessories.

 On May 19, 2021 the husband of Rochester mayor Lovely A. Warren was arrested for drug trafficking and illegal weapons charges.

Their home was also raided by the NYS Police that day.

On May 20, Mayor Warren called a press conference and stated that she would not offer her husband support regarding the criminal charges against him.

She also stated that they were "separated" (not legally) for years and that they were residing together to provide a family atmosphere for their daughter.

In a home with illegal drugs and illegal weapons?

She also stated that she didn't know anything about her husband's activities (questionable) and that she hadn't done anything wrong (also questionable).

Then she launched into one of her usual diatribes, stating that it was part of a plot against her and that her husband's arrest was political and really an attack on her, not him.

We can ignore that last part, because the Warren administration has been obsessed with plots against them before she took office in 2014.

What Mayor Warren failed to realize that, with her statements about her marriage, she revealed that all of the public relations hype about her and her family was a lie.

Bad marriages are more common than happy ones. Most of us know people who looked like they had a happy marriage and then, wham, they announce they are getting divorced, with one spouse usually telling horror stories about the other, or sometimes even both engaging in such entertaining activities.

Most of us have also seen couples with blatantly bad marriages sticking it out "for the sake of the children."

This seems to be Mayor Warren's case, although I cannot see the benefit of exposing impressionable children to an unhappy marriage and  tension-filled home life.

Part of the problem is the fantasy world of politics, which deals less with reality than illusion, conjured up by the political bosses.

They need to create an image of their candidates that will appeal to the majority of the population or, at least, the segment of the population they claim that their candidate represents.

For young aspiring politicians, a spouse, a house, a kid and a pet are necessary accessories and they must seem to be ideal.

The 2012 comedy film "The Campaign" did an excellent job portraying the function of spin control doctors in politics, which was more realistic than otherwise, despite its somewhat hokey climax on election night.

Team Gantt, which had groomed Mayor Warren for years for her office, made sure she had the necessary accoutrements to pose as the loving wife and mother of an adoring husband, child and dog, the churchgoing matriarch concerned with improving the lot of the people of Rochester.

Well, some people, anyway.

That is the way she has been portrayed for over a decade.

But her choice of Tim Granison as a spouse was a poor one, although his previous criminal record didn't seem to raise any red flags among her spin control doctors. However, it didn't prevent the mayor from winning two terms in that office, apart from causing occasional embarrassment when one of the mayor's detractors would bring it up.

For years, Granison played his role in the grand scheme of politics well enough as the loving husband and father, keeping in the background so his wife could shine in her political career.

Until May 19.

On that day, his public usefulness ended and, like any accessory that has served its usefulness, Granison was officially discarded the next day. He had spoiled her image.

It might be appropriate to quote a line from the Beatles' "For No One:"

"And in her eyes, you see nothing, no sign of love behind the tears, cried for no one."

Granison's actions were a political, not a personal, affront to the mayor.

It also makes one wonder what else she and her spin control doctors have lied about over the years.