By Dale Anderson:

Leonard R. Lenihan Jr., Erie County Democratic chairman since 2002, announced Wednesday that he will be leaving that post in late July to take a prominent role with the New York State Democratic Committee.

State Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs said Wednesday that Lenihan will be leading a statewide party effort to win seven major county executive races, including the one in Erie County. The others are in Suffolk, Monroe, Broome, Dutchess, Ulster and Albany counties.

“Coming off the incredible upset victory in the 26th Congressional [District] special election, I can think of no one better for this important task,” Jacobs said.

“I’m going to be coordinating all the county campaigns statewide,” Lenihan said Wednesday evening. “It means I’m going to be moving around the state, there’s no question about that.”

Lenihan, 62, who was chairman of the Erie County Legislature in the 1990s, represented the Town of Tonawanda in Legislature from 1976 to 1996, then was appointed Erie County personnel commissioner by County Executive Dennis Gorski.

As leader of the county’s Democrats for the past 8 1/2 years, he put the county organization on a sound financial footing and oversaw election of Democrats to three seats in Congress. He also helped win 11 out of the last 13 State Supreme Court Justice races for his party.

In addition, he steered the election of Mark Poloncarz as the first Democratic county comptroller in more than 30 years and engineered the first-ever super-majority of Democrats in the County Legislature in 2005.

“I think what we’ve done is position ourselves beautifully for the future,” he said. “As difficult as Democratic politics can be, I wouldn’t trade the past 8 1/2 years for anything.”

Lenihan credited staff workers at party headquarters, volunteers and donors for making his successes possible.

“After consulting with my family and close friends,” Lenihan said Wednesday, “I have decided that now is the right time to hand over the reins of the County Committee to new leadership and to focus my efforts on this exciting new challenge.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *