Cayuga County's Democratic women held another successful event on Monday night at the Springside Inn. With a group of more than 60, they were continuing their efforts to lay the groundwork, as organizer and city clerk Debbie McCormick humorously said, to "capture or kidnap, if need be" more women to run for office and be active in local campaigns.

Auburnian Amy Dacey, who is the national political director for Sen. John Kerry's Leadership Political Action Committee, Keeping America's Promise, told the group of local Democrats what they wanted and needed to hear. She outlined why it is important for women to take on a more active role in their communities when it comes to politics.

Politics is a tough business, as she well knows, after Kerry's November defeat. She told the group that politics "can break your heart, yet be rewarding," as she saw while meeting people in 45 states during the campaign. She "had the view," as she calls it, with the Kerry campaign as his traveling political director.

While she made the case for more women running for office (even with women gaining ground in elections, only 15 percent of Congress is female and only 8 of the 50 governorships are held by women), her key focus was to get people to "plug into" the process. Yes, you need local women to run for office, but she urged more people of both genders to volunteer and get involved in races.

We often hear the case for women candidates; more rarely do we hear a pitch for more political operatives, male or female. Dacey, who helped in her first campaign at the age of 8, when her dad ran successfully for the Auburn school board in 1979, knew from then on that she wanted to be in politics, maybe not as the candidate, but making sure that good candidates get elected.

If anything, Dacey wanted her audience to do what she was often told by her old boss, Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, D-Rochester: "Think bigger, think greater and go do it."

Catch the Artrain

If you haven't seen the posters around town, you need to catch the Artrain. It will pull into the railroad siding at Hendricks Oil on Grant Avenue across from the MoviePlex and Waffleworks from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.

The traveling exhibit, which hit the rails last year and will be making its way across the nation by train until 2007, showcases contemporary Native American art.

While admission to the train is free, donations to defray the cost to the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center to pay for the visit are more than welcome. For more information, visit the Schweinfurth's Web site at www.schweinfruthartcenter.org.

Cosentino is a former mayor of Auburn and can be e-mailed at cozguytho@aol.com