Everyone is invited to the grand opening of the new headquarters of the Erie County Democratic Party, under Chairman Jeremy Zellner, at the Larkin Center of Commerce, ground level - 671 Seneca Street this coming Saturday, May 4. The event is free. Activities include a ribbon cutting ceremony, tour of the new offices, and a banquet on the 8th floor with plenty of food and fun.

RSVP via Facebook by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or by calling headquarters at 853-2511.

Supporters of Chairman Zellner are pointing to the “grace under pressure” he has shown in assemblying what looks like it's going to be a high quality slate of endorsed candidates despite being attacked seemingly by opponents on all sides. The slate looks like it's going to include: Byron Brown for Buffalo Mayor, Mary Carney and Paul Crapsi for Erie County Family Court, Bert Dunn for County Sheriff, and Lynn Szalkowski for County Comptroller.

Szalkowski, a newcomer to the political world, is described by supporters as a young CPA, equipped with good professional credentials, “an Alfreda Slominski type.”

By the way, the momentum for the Brown endorsement continues to build, with even headquarters supporters who have not been friendly to the Mayor in the past strongly backing the move.

Speaking of ECDC supported candidates, it looks like Legislator Tom Mazur IS running for re-election despite all those rumors that he would not. He will face former Cheektowaga Town Council Member Rick Zydel in a September primary showdown.

Meanwhile, the two Democratic Sheriff candidates, Dunn and Dick Dobson, are continuing to snipe at each other over their voter registration histories. It turns out that neither one has a long history of being a dyed in the wool Democrat.

As for the current Sheriff, Tim Howard, he will have some interesting things to say in Part II of our interview with him. It turns out that his objections to Gov. Cuomo's SAFE ACT relate, not only to the substance of the law, but how it was passed. He feels that such a major change should come “from the people,” not as a result of a speeded up process in Albany.

“This is America,” he says. “It's the people who rule the government here, not the government ruling the people.”

The entire WNY political community is united in sending prayers and condolences to the family of Steve Pigeon, whose mother, Barbara Pigeon passed away Tuesday morning. By all accounts, she was the “consummate mother” who truly adored all of her children and vice versa.

We are being told that negotiations which could lead to an endorsement of Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown's re-election by the Erie County Democratic Party are progressing, though definitely not completed.

Candidates loyal to Cheektowaga Democratic Chairman Frank Max won big victories at Monday's endorsement meeting for local contenders. Incumbent Councilman Stan Kaznowski won with 32,753 weighted votes, while fellow Councilman Jim Rogowski won with 31, 984 weighted votes. Also sweeping to a big victory was challenger Tim Meyers who garnered 27,154 votes.

Among the highlights of the well attended affair was a proclamation read by Assemblymember Dennis Gabryszak honoring 30 year town council veteran Pat Jaworowicz, who was forced to resign after a long and distinguished career earlier this year due to ill health.

Some supporters of Cheektowga Democratic Chairperson Frank Max are a little miffed at County Executive Mark Poloncarz for remarks made by the CE which seem to cast doubt on attendance and gross receipt figures released by the Cheek Dems.

Says one Cheektowaga Democrat: “Our attendance and gross receipts figures are legit and they will be submitted to the Board of Elections exactly the way we've announced them. The problem with Mark is that his own events don't do nearly that well and maybe he's a little envious.”

Speaking of Max, sources close to him are denying reports that the Cheektowaga Chairman would NEVER, NEVER endorse Bert Dunn for County Sheriff if he is also backed by County Democratic Chairman Jeremy Zellner and his County Democratic Committee.

Explains one loyal Max man: “Look, Frank is going to go with the guy he thinks is the best candidate, no matter who else endorses him. Don't forget that the Cheektowaga Democratic Part was the first to endorse Surrogate Court Judge Barbara Howe for re-election, after which the ECDC also backed him....So it doesn't really matter to Frank who does it first. It's supporting the best candidate that is most important to him.”

Having endorsed Deanne Tripi for Erie County Family Court, the Erie County Republican Committee is reportedly leaving its options open with regard to the other open Family Court seat. They could back one of the endorsed Democrats, either Mary Carney or Paul Crapsi or they could turn to one of the Republicans who is quietly considering a run for the Family Court bench this year.

Saturday night's Grassroots dinner at the Hilton was a packed, star studded affair, featuring speeches by Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown and NYS Comptroller Tom DiNapoli. Also attending was Carney and Crapsi along with County Sheriff candidate Dick Dobson, Judge Barbara Howe, Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples and many others.

It all began with a bit of detective work. Erie County Legislature Republican Leader John Mills of Orchard Park and the members of his caucus knew the proposed 2013 budget of County Executive Mark Poloncarz was inflated...They just weren't sure where the extra money was..

“Finally, we could see where the money had been put,” says Leader Mills. “We found that the Risk Retention Fund was overfunded and also the Safety Net. Fringe benefits, which are normally funded at 54-56% were being funded at 62% in the Poloncarz budget. So we knew the places we could cut in order to avoid the property tax increase the County Executive was proposing.”

Still, even if the five members of the Legislature's GOP caucus were united in making the cuts, it wouldn't matter. They needed six votes in the eleven member Legislature, which meant they would have to convince at least one Democrat.

“Fortunately, Amherst Democratic Legislator Tom Loughran had been looking at the numbers too and his numbers were very close to ours,” Mills points out. “So the result was that we were able to agree on a series of amendments to the County Executive's budget that allowed us to avoid a tax increase, which we simply did not think was necessary.”

What is Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown's strategy for defeating potential challenger Bernie Tolbert in the September Democratic primary?

Highly reliable sources are telling us it's a strategy of define and target that is not totally dissimilar to the approach President Barack Obama used to defeat Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential race.

“The Brown campaign is going to use its financial advantage to push up Bernie's negatives by laying out the facts related to his past issue involving sexual harassment,” says one source. “Look, this material has been tested and in my entire political career, I have never seen a more negative reaction on the part of voters to certain material that is on the public record in the one lawsuit that is pending vs. Tolbert and one that has already been settled. Believe me, the Mayor's people are going to use this material to negatively define Bernie early at a time when the challenger is not going to be able to match the Brown campaign's spending.”

According to our sources, when the Tolbert campaign says they are going to concentrate on targeting likely Dem voters, what they are really saying is: We are not going to have the money to compete with the Mayor, so we are going to have to concentrate our spending near the end on a small number of voters....The Mayor is going to have the resources to do both, that is defining Tolbert negatively using a carpet bombing media strategy and also targeting prime voters with mailings and door to door in the weeks before primary day...This is why the Brown campaign is so confident as the primary season approaches.

Highly reliable sources are telling NewWNYPolitics in an exclusive interview that the re-election campaign of Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown has sent a letter to Erie County Democratic Chairman Jeremy Zellner formally asking for the party's endorsement.

Said one source: “Now the ball is in Chairman Zellner's court. Let's see what he does.”

We are hearing that there could be considerable repercussions for a number of candidates running this year in the city depending on what the Chairman decides. For example, if the party decides to endorse Mayor Brown for re-election, there would likely be no major primary challenges to headquarters endorsed candidates in Buffalo in 2013. If not, there could be intra-party challenges to a number of Dem incumbents, if for no other reason than to drive up turnout in the inner city and elsewhere in the September Democratic primary.

Much more on the Mayor's high powered re-election strategy Monday morning on NewWNYPolitics.net.

The race for the Democratic nomination for Erie County Sheriff will be a topsy turvy affair in which some who would be expected to be backers of one candidate will be backing the other and vice versa

Democratic mayoral candidate Bernie Tolbert will run a campaign that will attempt to target likely Dem primary voters while avoiding spending a lot of money to reach others. It's a way of trying to win even though you know you're going to be outspent, especially if you start doing well.

Hearty congratulations and best wishes to Niagara County Republican Chairman Mike Norris, a class act from beginning to end, who is leaving his party post to become Lockport City Attorney. 

Can Democrats run a successful campaign against Erie County Sheriff Tim Howard by accusing him of neglecting the county lockups while falling short of constitutional standards?

Sheriff Howard doesn't think so.

“One thing that some people don't understand who have criticized us for our handling of health and mental health related matters in the Holding Center is that, by law, matters involving health, mental health, and upkeep of the county jails, outside of day to day maintenance, are the responsibility of the County Executive, not the Sheriff,” he pointed out in an exclusive interview with NewWNYPolitics on Wednesday. “I don't think many of our critics are aware of that as well as many other things.”

For example, did you know that not only Sheriff Howard but previous county sheriffs, including Gallivan and Higgins have asked the county legislature for money to hire more deputies and cut down on deputy overtime, only to be rebuffed?

“It's true,” Sheriff Howard states. “We've all wanted to hire more deputies and restrict excessive overtime, including me. I don't really like it because I think this should be a county responsibility, but finally the state had to step in and say, 'All of this excessive overtime isn't conducive to health and safety.' and now we are hiring 15 new deputies twice a year. Right now we are under budget for deputy overtime and that is a good thing.”