Yep! It’s time to vote. Big Democratic primary here in the ROC tomorrow.

I, for one, will be voting Barnhart. [[ Update: No, you won’t. You moved to Henrietta, dummy! Only a Reform Party primary here! ]]

Rachel Barnhart. Longtime TV news reporter. As such, she has quite the truth-telling instinct. I was lukewarm on her at first; I was not mad about her performance in running for state Assembly. But then, around July, she made this point.

Was there a party at the convention center that was maybe a bit lavish and exclusive?

Barnhart since has made a rep as a tough cookie. She’s directly questioned Warren’s handling of campaign funds. She made an issue of what she saw as special interest handling when it came to courting ride-app companies like Uber (and I’m for any resistance to the shared economy).

One issue of hers I think is vital is her proposal to roundly expand child care in Rochester.

I know. Aaron. What do you give a darn about child care?

So last year I went into the closing Macy’s department store for a depressing little walk. They were selling the bare bones stuff, I mean store fixtures and rugs, basically. It was a chaotic mess. The lights were not the usual bright friendly ones you get when you walk in to such a place. There were barely any display shelves to guide foot traffic, so people sort of lunged around however they liked. There were a bunch of pieces off to the side with big sloppy “SOLD” signs on them in red sharpie. It was scary. I was scared.

And I walked by this counter, and there was a woman behind the counter, and I noticed she was shouting at a little boy who accompanied her. No, we can’t go to work, she was saying to him. I have to work. We can’t go home. What, are you crazy? I have to work.

Imagine that. You’re so in need of work hours that you’ve volunteered for the lights-out brigade, and it’s just you behind a nearly empty counter in all that cannibalistic chaos, and on top of all that, you have to mind your energetic, yet understandably bored, young son.

That is a Mom who is struggling. And if part of a local government’s basic job isn’t to try to lighten a struggling Mom’s load, then I’m Prince and the Revolution.

Yeah. It takes a friggin’ village.

Barnhart leads with this issue, not to mention the notion that access to the Internet should be a public utility rather than a monopoly. And she scowls at the notion of a Broadway-sized mess on Parcel 5 (LET’S GO SEE ‘CATS’ AGAIN, said your average downtown resident, never).

Besides. I’ve been a reporter. I know how well a reporter understands municipal governments and the sadly necessary politics. The Warren camp has taken a last-minute swipe at Barnhart’s experience. Ridiculous. She has plenty.

Polls are open noon to nine. Go vote.