By Liz Benjamin
There were a lot of happy people at Congresswoman-elect Kathy Hochul’s headquarters last night. The chicken wing-eating and beer-drinking crowd was feeling pretty confident to begin with, and only got increasingly animated as the night wore on, breaking into loud cheers when the AP called the race for their candidate.
But perhaps no one was as animated (aside from the 20-something canvassers reveling in the free food and drink) as Erie County Comptroller Mark Poloncarz, whose smile grew wider and wider throughout the evening.
Thanks to Hochul’s gamble to run a long-shot congressional campaign instead of challenging GOP County Executive Chris Collins (in spite of an internal poll that reportedly showed her well ahead and the desire of state-level Democrats to see Collins eliminated as a future concern to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Poloncarz was tapped to take the fight to Collins instead.
And as Poloncarz sees it, his job just got a whole lot easier, thanks to Hochul’s win.
“I think this sets us up nicely,” the comptroller told me. “…This was a repudiation of the Republican agenda – an agenda that Chris Collins is out there calling for.”
“Yes, this was an open seat, and it’s a different race. But in the end, the people of the 26th are saying: We don’t want the candidate who supports Wall Street and big oil, we want the candidate who supports Main Street. It’s fair to say that people united for Kathy Hochul and the message she brought to the table. It’s a similar message that I’m going to be taking about.”
It’s not possible to draw exact parallels between the NY-26 contest and the upcoming county executive race. Ousting an incumbent is a lot harder than winning an open seat – even in a GOP-dominated district – particularly without a vote-splitting third party candidate for Collins to worry about.
(The conservatives, who have been known to back Democrats in WNY, have already given him their early support, although the Indy line is still in play).
Also, only about 20 percent of Erie County is located in NY-26, although that doesn’t include the Democrat-dominated city of Buffalo.
Still, it’s clear that something has shifted in the minds of WNY voters, who just seven short months ago supported mad-as-hell businessman Carl Paladino for governor.
Poloncarz told me he’ll be talking about Medicaid – not Medicare – cuts during his campaign. Although he will focus on that all-important senior citizen voting bloc by noting that Collins supports the elimination of discretionary spending by counties, which would let executives stop paying for things like eyeglasses, hearing aids and dentures.
The comptroller will also try to unite the labor vote by highlighting the fact Collins “praised (Gov.) Scott Walker in Wisconsin”, and raised taxes while reducing services and finding sufficient funds to give pay raises for some of his commissioners.
As The Buffalo News’ Jerry Zremski noted this morning, it was Collins campaign team that ran Assemblywoman Jane Corwin’s losing campaign in NY-26. The team, which includes Erie County GOP Chairman Nick Langworthy and Collins’ chief of staff, Chris Grant, was once lauded, but is now coming under fire from as far away as Washington.
Poloncarz downplayed the significance of Collins’ political brain trust’s loss, saying he doesn’t think that will matter much to voters when it comes to his race this fall.
“What matters to voters isn’t who’s running the campaign, it’s the issues,” he told me. “I look forward to taking my message out and talking about what Chris Collins stands for.”