Wednesday night's fundraiser in support of the re-election of Buffalo City Court Judge Debra Givens at the Statler was a crowded success filled with legal and political notables led by Mayor Byron Brown. Also on hand to show their support for Judge Givens was Erie County Surrogate Judge Barbara Howe, City Court Judge Kevin Keane, former Erie County Democratic Chairman Steve Pigeon, Family Court Judge candidate Mary Giallanza Carney, Amherst Town Judge candidates Kara Buscaglia and Barbara Nuchereno, former local FBI chief Bernie Tolbert, and County Clerk Office stalwart Camille Brandon.

It's an unwritten rule: When filling a legislative vacancy in local or county government, you let the party committee make its recommendation first before you try to make an appointment. According to our sources, Cheektowaga Councilman Charlie Markel tried to bypass the party when attempting to temporarily fill the seat of long time Cheek town board member Pat Jaworowicz and the result was a disaster.

Because of Markel's mistake, his choice for the appointment did not have the votes needed to win on Monday night, leading some to compare him to one of the Three Stooges. So instead, the Cheektowaga Democratic Town Committee under Chairman Frank Max will now make its recommendation to fill the vacancy soon, making its endorsement for the unoccupied seat in April.

So much for trying to bypass the committee!

It's been called “bizarre, strange, baffling, confusing,”

How did it happen that possible Buffalo mayoral candidate Bernie Tolbert called this reporter on Friday to say that he has no plans to announce and no plans to raise any money, only to have a prime financial backer tell the Buffalo News the opposite in a striking interview today?

While many puzzled over this, Tolbert himself cleared up the confusion in a phone call to this reporter early Tuesday evening,

“Hormoz Mansouri does not speak for me and I don't speak for him,” Bernie Tolbert flatly declared. “My position has not changed since our phone conversation last Friday. I am not planning any announcement of candidacy nor any fundraiser any time soon. I am continuing to explore the possibilities to see if this makes sense.”

When I asked him if he is concerned that it may soon be too late to mount an effective challenge to Mayor Brown, Tolbert acknowledged that this is always a concern..

Even before this stunning development, the story, written by distinguished News political reporter Bob McCarthy, seemed to many to be puzzling at best.

For one thing, the fairly long McCarthy piece quotes eager Tolbert backer and highly successful WNY businessman Hormoz Mansouri as expressing brimming, red hot confidence that his guy will run. Yet, the only quote included in the story from Tolbert himself is considerably less definite:

“I've been spending a lot of time to see if this makes sense” is all Bernie was willing to tell the dean of area political reporters. The only source who was even willing to declare that Tolbert is “on board” for his own campaign in the story is an anonymous one who would not even consent to the use of his name.

“Clearly, what Hormoz did was triggered by your story on Friday,” one of our own anonymous sources told us. “He seems desperate to keep the Tolbert campaign going and this piece was the result..”

Maybe Bernie will still run this year. If he does, he will be getting a very late start.

The West Seneca Democratic Committee unanimously re-elected Danny McParlane as Chairman on Monday evening. Chairman McParlane said, "I'm honored and humbled to once again serve as Chairman, and I look forward to electing qualified Democrats over the next two years". There was a plethora of County-wide Democratic Candidates at his event, including Family Court candidates Paul Crapsi and Mary Carney, and Sheriff candidate Dick Dobson, all of whom addressed the large Democratic Committee.  Since initially becoming Chairman at 28 yrs old, in 2008, Danny McParlane has seen every elected office in town won by a member of the Democratic Party.

In neighboring Cheektowaga, the Town Board did not select anyone to serve out the term of retired member Pat Jaworowicz through the end of the year. . Diane Benczkowski had three votes supporting her for the position, but could not garner a fourth. She will be a candidate for the post in the September Democratic primary.

There is only one problem with those recent reports to the effect that former Erie County Comptroller Dave Shenk has been offered and has accepted the $96,013 position of Director of Real Property Tax by the Poloncarz Administration...They aren't true...How do we know? We spoke with Shenk himself on Monday afternoon.

“I have not spoken with the County Executive or anyone else with Erie County about a job at County Hall and I certainly haven't accepted any job,” he told us. “I have been kind of catching up on spending time with my wife since I left office and applying for employment. But, it is simply not true that I have taken any job with the County.”

As for Shenk's possibly deciding to or not to run for Boston Supervisor, the rumors re that subject aren't true either.

“I have been approached about running for Supervisor, but really that would depend on the full time job I got,” he pointed out. “If I got a job that didn't permit me to run for public office, then I couldn't do it. If it was a job that allowed me to run, then I'd have a decision to make at that time.”

How do such rumors start? Dave Shenk himself has a pretty good theory.

How did that baffling phantom known as the Bernie Tolbert for Buffalo Mayor campaign travel the considerable distance from the promising enterprise it was thought to be in the eyes of some to the phone call received by this reporter from the candidate last Friday in which he declared that he has no plans to announce his candidacy and no plans to raise any money?

According to our sources the answers can be found in two words: Money and Message.

Despite the constant drumbeat of whispers directed to yours truly and others to the effect that “Bernie is going to have a lot of money. He has a lot of contributors,” the fact is that, without the exception of one influential donor, the Tolbert effort was never able to attract the kind of funding needed to be competitive vs. a popular incumbent, in Mayor Byron Brown who has a $1 million war chest at his disposal. The fact is that the funding just wasn't there and Tolbert knew it.

The second reason had to do with the candidate's own behavior: Sure Bernie would show up at fundraisers, chit chat with people and hang around, but he refused to articulate any underlying reason as to why he SHOULD be elected Mayor if he should decide to run. His answer to such queries would always be that he hadn't decided to run yet and would have no comments on such matters until he did decide, hardly the kind of reply likely to inspire enthusiasm for a campaign for public office, real or imagined.

As things stand now on March 3, with no committee in place and no fundraising done, chances that Tolbert could mount any campaign at all in 2013 seem remote at best.

There will be a fundraiser to benefit the campaign of Kara Buscaglia for Amherst Town Judge on Thursday, March 14 from 5:30-7:30 pm at Brennan's in Amherst. The donation is $50 per person. Checks can be made out to: Friends of Kara Buscaglia; 157 Royal Parkway West; Williamsville, NY 14221

Multiple sources are telling us that there is a chance that Republican Erie County Personnel Commissioner John Greenan will take a job with ECMC this September, thus paving the way for Democratic County Legislator Lynn Marinelli to be appointed to the cushy Personnel post, but that it's far from certain. For this to come off, the hospital would have to #1 make the decision that they need to beef up their personnel operation to get it more in line with the state system and #2 select Greenan as the man to do it. Neither decision is even close to being made.

The Dems would then make a last minute nomination for the Marinelli seat, probably former Legislator Michelle Iannello if everything were to fall in line.

The hot rumor on the street is that County Comptroller Dave Shenk will get the County Assessor post or some other county position from County Exec Mark Poloncarz so he won't have to run for Boston Supervisor...Bernie Tolbert just called to tell this reporter that, rumors to the contrary, he has no plans announce his candidacy for mayor this coming Monday or any time soon, nor does he have plans to raise money for a mayoral race at the moment.

A packed house of supporters filled the Stallions IV on Thursday night to support the re-election bid of Cheektowaga Town Board Member Jim Rogowski. Among the notables who came out to show their support for him were: Cheektowaga Town Democratic Chairman Frank Max, Erie County Comptroller Stefan Mychajliw, a boyhood friend of the candidate, county Sheriff candidate Dick Dobson, former County Democratic Chairman Steve Pigeon, “2 On Your Side” host Kristy Mazurek, Lancaster Town Judge and NYS Supreme Court candidate Mark Montour, Wales Democratic Chairperson Mary Julian, West Seneca Dem Chairman Dan McParlane, County Clerk's Office stalwart Camille Brandon, and many others.

Always a ball of energy as well as a barrel full of constructive ideas, Rogowski spoke with NewWNYPolitics during the event, with his three young children and his wife of 11 years, Patty nearby.

“I have always thought that Cheektowaga is the best place to live in WNY and I have always worked hard to make it a great place to live for everyone,” this two term incumbent told us. “That's why I am running, to continue this work on behalf of the people of this town that I love.”

One example of his persistence in this regard involves the new state of the art WalMart now being built in the town. Originally, the Arkansas based retail giant came forward with a proposal to build an ordinary, run of the mill store in Cheektowaga. But, that simply wasn't good enough for Jim Rogowski.

There is only one problem with all those rumors to the effect that Tonawanda/Buffalo County Legislator Lynn Marinelli may resign this coming September to become Erie County Personnel Commissioner...It is based on the inaccurate assumption that current Republican Personnel Commissioner John Greenan's six year term is up this fall.

Not true. Greenan was reappointed to his post by former County Executive Chris Collins in September of 2008, which means that his fixed term isn't up until September of 2014, not 2013. Since Greenan can't be fired, it's not likely he's going to leave his cushy post this year for any reason.

In other news, sources in Cheektowaga are emphasizing that just because hard working Diane Benczkowski is likely to get the appointment to fill out the unexpired term of Pat Jaworowicz on the Town Board next Monday, that doesn't mean she will get the party endorsement next spring to run for a full four year term in the position. Two totally different decisions, these folks say.

It was those 20 Dick Dobson supporters who sold all the tickets who should get a lot of the credit for his highly successful fundraiser on Tuesday night, the management team of the Dobson Erie County Sheriff campaign is saying...not just the leadership.

Democrat Mike Schraft has announced his candidacy for the 9^th district county legislature seat currently occupied by two term Independence Party member and former television reporter Lynne Dixon. Schraft is a US Air Force veteran as well as a former Peace Corps volunteer and State Department official. He is a Ph.D. candidate in political science at the University at Buffalo.

Schraft, according to his announcement, “has dedicated his career to public service” and will, if elected, commit himself “to improving Erie County through economic and community development on the waterfront” of the 9^th district which includes Hamburg, Lackawanna and South Buffalo.

Hundreds of supporters and friends of Democratic Sheriff candidate Dick Dobson packed, and we do mean packed, the Fusion Night Club in West Seneca on Tuesday night in support of the veteran Deputy's campaign. Though a number of political notables were on hand, the large crowd was mainly made up of grass roots Dobson backers, including many who had worked with him during his 32 year career in the department.

During a brief program, a Dobson backer pointed out that this four year Air Force veteran is the only Sheriff candidate in recent years to serve out his entire law enforcement career as an Erie County Deputy.

When it came his turn to speak, Dobson lamented the fact that the current Sheriff's Dept. leadership had failed to secure state accreditation for his administration over a four year period.

“Normally, it only takes six months to get re-accredited,” he pointed out. “The fact that the current incumbent hasn't been able to get it done in four years shows that he has not been able to achieve even minimum law enforcement standards for the department. I know what the Erie County Sheriff's Dept. once was and I know what it can be again. If I'm elected, I will restore this department to its former high standards of professionalism and effectiveness.”

Dobson offered special praise to the event's organizers, his campaign manager, Wales Democratic Chairperson Mary Julian and well known activist Christina Abt.

Among the notables on hand was: Erie County Surrogate Court Judge Barbara Howe, “2 On Your Side” host Kristy Mazurek, Erie County Independence Party Chairperson Mary Rose Gaughan, former county Democratic Chairman Steve Pigeon, Cheektowaga Town Board Member Jim Rogowski, Buffalo City Court Judge Kevin Keane, Family Court candidates Mary Carney and Paul Crapsi, Cheektowaga Town Board candidate Diane Benczkowski, and West Seneca Council candidate Tim Elling.

Other notables  included Aurora Dem Chair Mary Alice Grant, Alden Dem Chair Winnie Fisher, and Brant Dem Treasurer Debra Ritz. 

Our sources are telling us that it's very likely that real estate professional Diane Benczkowski will be appointed by the Cheektowaga Town Board on Monday night to fill out the unexpired term of veteran Councilwoman Pat Jaworowicz. Jaworowicz resigned recently after a long career on the Council. The appointment would allow Benczkowski to serve on the Town Board until the end of the year. She was already running for a full four year term as a town board member. The two incumbents running this year are Jim Rogowski and Stan Kaznowski, both strong candidates.

In other news, former Sheriff's Deputy Tim Higgins has decided not to run for Erie County Sheriff this year...Speaking of important elections, how will the College of Cardinals select a new Pope next month? All living Catholic Cardinals under the age of 80 will come to Rome to vote in the Sistine Chapel. A two thirds majority is necessary to win the job. Reportedly, no political consultants, opp research, or negative TV ads are allowed.