(BUFFALO) – Erie County Comptroller Mark Poloncarz, who’s received the endorsement of the Buffalo AFL-CIO Central Labor Council in the race for the Erie County Executive’s Office, believes county residents/taxpayers are ready for a change. So much, in fact, that while walking in the July 4th Parade in Orchard Park – which has never been a traditional blue-collar/Working Person suburb – Poloncarz was buoyed by the positive comments called out to him as walked along the parade route.
“They were yelling out, ‘Get that Chris Collins out of office’ and ‘I’m voting for you,’” Poloncarz told WNYLaborToday.com during a sit-down interview following a successful Labor Fundraiser held last week at Ironworkers Local 6 in West Seneca.
The reception Poloncarz received in Orchard Park was so out of place that Poloncarz said his campaign manager, Jennifer Hibit of 1199 SEIU (Service Employees International Union) Healthcare Workers East, remarked: “We must be in a Bizarro World (in reference to Htrae, which is Earth spelled backwards in the old Superman Comic Book Series). This is Orchard Park – not (traditionally blue collar/Working Person) Cheektowaga!”
As many as 50 area Labor Leaders from a variety of Private and Public Unions, meanwhile, attended the Labor Fundraiser where Poloncarz was introduced by Ironworkers Local 6 Business Manager Bill Bohen, who said: “Because of the attacks on Working People and Workers’ Rights, We (Labor) need to get our Members out to vote for our next County Executive…”
Poloncarz grabbed the microphone and to the delight of those in attendance said: “I ‘am’ going to be the next Erie County Executive. We have (Collins) on the run. He’s not Erie County. ‘We’ are Erie County. The public sees through what he’s done. People are telling us, ‘I voted for him, but I didn’t vote for ‘this!’’ He’s raised taxes and cut services. He’s the most anti-Labor executive in Erie County. I will work with our partners in Labor and not fight with them all the time. We will send him back to the place he loves – the Private Sector.”
Buffalo AFL-CIO President Michael Hoffert, whose Labor Organization and affiliated Labor Unions combine to represent as many as 80,000 Union Members across Erie County, said of Poloncarz: “There isn’t a better candidate (for Erie County Executive)… period.”
“Mark’s always referred to himself as the ‘taxpayers’ watchdog and I agree with that,” Hoffert told WNYLaborToday.com. “But (Labor’s) number one issue is job creation. Collins has cut more and more services and people have lost their jobs because of it. Where is the benefit of cutting services and losing jobs at the same time?”
Hoffert has seen the worst of Erie County Executive Collins over the years, having sat with him on the Erie County Industrial Development Agency Board. “(Collins) believes he’s the smartest guy in the room and he’s not interested in working with Organized Labor, Working People or the Middle Class. I’ve always prided myself in ‘getting along’ with everyone, but he can’t relate to anything that impacts everyday Working People.”
Poloncarz, meanwhile, has taken the County Executive to task for failing to spend Federal Stimulus Funding which the county received to create jobs and criticized Collins for instead deciding to hold on to that money “for a rainy day.”
“Where are the jobs form the one-hundred-million dollars in Stimulus money? He runs Erie County ‘like a business’- like a failed Wall Street business,” Poloncarz said.
Poloncarz proudly states he has “a strong Labor background,” notes that he grew up in a Working Family and that is father was a Steelworker. He told WNYLaborToday.com he is both appreciative and grateful for the endorsement of the Buffalo AFL-CIO Council.
“You can’t go in with the attitude that ‘Labor is evil.’ I will work with everyone (once elected County Executive). We will bargain fairly. We won’t tell people they shouldn’t be sitting at the table. We will create better government. People tell me they want change different from Collins. They say they didn’t vote for this. It’s been the ‘same old, same old.’ What’s needed in Erie County again is a good public servant who understands everyone’s needs,” Poloncarz said.
Buffalo AFL-CIO President Hoffert, meanwhile, sees Organized Labor being behind “a very strong push” for Poloncarz – much like the integral role Labor played in helping elect Democratic U.S. Congresswoman Kathy Hochul, who defeated Republican Candidate Jane Corwin in a heavily-weighted Republican District earlier this year.
“(Poloncarz) has tremendous support from the Buffalo Labor Council in so many ways,” Hoffert told WNYLaborToday.com. “(Collins) has made services so difficult to get now that he’s done a disservice to so many Erie County Residents. I hope the residents/taxpayers of Erie County really take the time to educate themselves on the issues in this race. We need to make sure the richest one-percent of Americans pays their fair share of taxes. We need to create jobs for ‘all’ Americans and we cannot continue to pay for the mistakes made on Wall Street.”