By Robert J. McCarthy
NEWS POLITICAL REPORTER
In the midst of dizzying spin over primary results and new economic claims from both candidates, the general election campaign for county executive kicked off in earnest Wednesday between Democrat Mark C. Poloncarz and Republican incumbent Chris Collins.
Both sides highlighted the minuscule results of the Independence Party primary, which seemed to provide bragging rights for both candidates after Collins posted a victory by 59 to 41 percent over a little-known party member.
For the victor, it was a “resounding” victory that provided him a third line on the Nov. 8 ballot, fueled him with momentum and proved he has the campaign machinery to hurdle an Independence primary that has proved an obstacle to other candidates in the past. He also predicted that late returns will bring him a victory by 60 to 40 percent.
“60-40 is huge,” Collins said Wednesday. “One thing the incumbent has is 98 percent name identification, and I’ve taken a lot of tough decisions on things like downsizing government by 20 percent and refusing to fund programs not funded by New York State.
“I’m not Mr. Caspar Milquetoast,” he added.
But Poloncarz, the county comptroller, countered that Collins’ victory over party activist Richard L. Woll was less than impressive. He cited county clerk candidate Christopher
L. Jacobs’ 74 to 26 percent win over an equally obscure opponent in the Independence primary and concluded that Collins didn’t fare so well after all.
“Chris Jacobs got 75 percent of the vote, and Chris Collins got less than 60,” Poloncarz said at a news conference. “He spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, and Chris Jacobs — to my knowledge — spent nothing.”
While GOP sources indicated that Jacobs indeed mounted a vigorous Independence campaign that involved substantial expenditures, both sides referred to Republican Joel A. Giambra’s 64 to 36 percent victory over Democrat Dennis T. Gorski — an incumbent county executive — in 1999. Democrats reminded anyone who would listen that the primary pointed the way toward Giambra’s victory in the general election, while the Republicans of 2011 said the turnout was far lower in that contest and should not be used as basis for comparison.
But both campaigns also looked ahead, emphasizing job creation. Poloncarz took the first step as he convened a news conference in front of the downtown headquarters of the Erie County Industrial Development Agency to contend that Erie County has lost 14,000 jobs since Collins took office and that the county executive should be held accountable.
Collins has been “hoarding” millions of dollars in federal stimulus money, according to Poloncarz, who said he would concentrate on creating jobs for the middle class. “It’s clear that our current approach isn’t working,” Poloncarz said.
But the county executive proved just as proactive in addressing the topic of jobs. He unveiled a new television commercial featuring Dennis Heuer Jr., president of HEI Recycling, who lauds Collins for creating a small-business loan fund that resulted in growth and a spate of new hires at his company.
“We need a businessman like Chris Collins running our government, someone like him who creates a culture and environment where jobs can grow,” Heuer said in a statement.
Collins also pointed to Erie County’s approximately 7 percent unemployment rate, relatively low when compared with the national rate of over 9 percent, and blasted Poloncarz for creating a wrong impression.
“We’re one of the strongest counties in the state and nation relative to any measure of jobs,” Collins said.
Poloncarz offered ideas that included targeting Ontario for job spinoffs in Erie County and promising to appoint his deputy county executive as a business development “czar.”
Also, he is proposing that all industrial development agencies in Erie County be combined to prevent the competition that he says results in municipalities “stealing” from one another rather than importing jobs from outside the region. “All they end up doing is poaching business from one part of the county to another,” Poloncarz said, pointing to six separate IDAs sponsored by the county and towns.
“We should have an IDA that represents the entire community, not six overlapping ones,” he said. “There is no one-stop shopping right now. You have to talk to myriad development agencies, and it’s sad because it turns business away.”
But that idea drew an especially pointed response from Collins spokesman Stefan Mychajliw, who said that the various IDAs are working just fine.
“By working in concert, the ECIDA and municipal IDAs are tearing down walls that forced local competition,” he said, “and instead are making sure Erie County as a whole is competing against other regions for new jobs and business expansion.”