Month: January 2024

Let’s Fisk again, like we did last summer. (Actually, winter).

OPEN LETTER FROM NATE:

Making the Impossible Possible – 5,000 Signatures in Two Weeks

You’ve likely been following the recent developments. The party has predetermined their choice for Congressman Higgins’ successor, bypassing the democratic process. This isn’t a secret conspiracy; it’s all happening openly. To challenge them, I will need to get 5,000 notarized signature in two weeks, in freezing cold February—ouch.

We could have a conversation in good faith about whether ECDC should endorse in a primary at all, but to whine that you didn’t get the nod, after you had spent over a year bad-mouthing and spewing hatred at the committee is a bit much.

They’ve labeled me as a problematic outsider for even considering challenging their crony system, but I see it as standing up for true Democratic values. I hope you do too. If you don’t, I’m guessing you benefit from the crony system with some job or appointment? If not, how can you justify so many politicians in office for decades with so much poverty and grief?

There’s no “crony system” when the county committee holds a process whereby its executive committee interviews multiple candidates and selects the best-qualified one who is loyal to the apparatus and has experience raising money and winning campaigns. There’s no “crony system” when the committee then holds a vote to back a particular candidate over one who does nothing but bad-mouth the committee over and over again. Tim Kennedy has been a State Senator – a legislator – for about 15 years. Nate McMurray has been a Tweeter and professional perennial campaigner. The result should not come as a surprise.

When I say crony system, I mean it. Your average person doesn’t realize how many lawyers, consultants, even bloggers live off the local Democratic machine. I might be fine with that if the machine was successful in helping the people of WNY. But the leadership’s reluctance to oppose even MAGA Republicans—they nominate them!— and their aversion to progressive policies reveals their priorities.

I’d like Nate to please name the “progressive policy” that the Erie County Democratic Committee is “averse” to, and I’d like a full roster of the “MAGA Republicans” whom the committee has nominated. Because the answers, respectively, are “very few” and “none”. Judicial nominations don’t count.

Consider this: the former chief of staff of Congressman Higgins (who just resigned), with no apparent water management expertise, lands a lucrative job at the water authority by appointment. What does he know about water? Especially when our water system is so plagued by failures, with lead in the pipes, and no fluoride for months. Is this how a party truly committed to Democratic principles should operate?

Chuck Eaton, whom Nate is referencing here, has forgotten more about politics than Nate could ever know. He knows more about getting people and entities with competing interests to cooperate, and pulling together consensus than Nate could ever imagine. Chuck has an innate (un-Nate?) ability to listen and persuade people – both Republicans and Democrats – to advance policies that help WNY. To hire someone with deep and longstanding knowledge and experience in dealing with federal and state government to help run a water authority is a brilliant move, if ever that authority wants to get state or federal assistance or funding.

What does Chuck Eaton know about water? As much as he needs to. What he knows about is how governments function, and how they function together, and how they function within the context of public authorities. He knows the people and he knows the institutions. Also, it was only City of Buffalo water that has not been flouridated – not Erie County Water. They are two separate and distinct systems. You would think that someone wanting to run for Congress to represent Buffalo would be aware of this detail and not try – falsely – to weaponize it to make a dumb point or to demonize someone who has only ever helped him. If he wants to remove and replace lead pipes, great! Maybe ensure that the ECWA is eligible for federal grants to do it.

My refusal to conform to this system—to take a cut and stay quiet—has drawn ire from both Republicans and Democrats who fear change. But change is precisely what I promise. No more cronyism, no more kickbacks, no more lifelong politicians. In Washington, I’ll advocate for term limits – it’s time for leaders who make an impact and then step aside.

The reason why you “draw ire” from Democrats, Nate, is because you are a backstabbing malcontent. You squandered innumerable support and money – you treated people with such contempt exactly the moment they became of little use to you; you are everything you purport to hate about politics. While the people in ECDC were busy in 2023 getting Democrats elected, where were you? You were making a fool of yourself in court and pontificating on Twitter about your various grievances. Meanwhile, Tim Kennedy was doing his job, and sending almost $300,000 to the state Democratic Committee.

They try to discredit me—and anyone else who resists—even comparing me to the worst offenders, including Trump himself. But their accusations are fluff if you even crack into them. I am clean. No underhanded political donations. No dirty money. No plush appointments for my buddies. I am an outsider by choice. It is not me who has to be ashamed. It’s them.

You’re an unrestrained narcissist clumsily airing your myriad grievances and marshalling an ever-shrinking cult of personality. The comparison is apt. You’re an outsider by default – because you stabbed everyone in the back, out of spite. And us? We are ashamed. Ashamed ever to have supported you or to give you money. Or time.

I’m doing this solo

No shit.

– no lobbyists, no big money. Just me, my truck, and a belief in the untapped potential of Western New York. I’m not here to perpetuate backroom politics but to benefit all our communities. And that’s why I remain popular, despite millions spent to shut me out.

Yes, the untapped potential of WNY to what – to deliver you a Nike store and an Ikea.

My message—democracy, independence, free thought—is probably your message. It resonates across the political spectrum. I’m just grateful I help share it. Despite the odds and the opposition, this a joy for me. A blessing and an opportunity.

Your message is arrogance, hatred, jealousy, and grievance.

As a kid, my mom had this quote crocheted and hanging on the wall: “In a room where people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence, one word of truth sounds like a pistol shot.” — Czesław Miłosz

The sheer arrogance! A blonde, blue-eyed corporate lawyer from the suburbs with an Irish surname equating his naked ambition with the plight of artists in exile struggling against the malign forces of totalitarianism is so lacking in self-awareness that it has to be a joke. Milosz did not deliver that speech in a vacuum, but as a particular person from a particular place at a particular time in history – 1980, mere months after Solidarity openly began challenging the Communist Party’s political, social, and economic hegemony over the Polish state.

Nate McMurray is no Lech Walesa.

That’s why I still get the attention I do. I speak the truth, and many of you speak that same truth with me: The status quo has failed WNY, and we believe in Buffalo and Niagara region that is based on fairness, hope, and progress.

It’s all about Nate. And the people who follow Nate.

So, how can you help echo this truth? Oppose entrenched corruption. Push for change. Push for fairness. Help me get on the ballot. It’s not about donations; it’s about your signature. They think it’s impossible to do in two weeks in February. They think they can steamroll not only you but all of us. Let’s prove them wrong.

I wish someone would employ this person so he would finally free us from his various narcissistic manic episodes.

One highly-placed Democratic Party insider told me that “McMurray is a fabulist – a ginger George Santos.”

Except Santos was actually elected to Congress on his first try.

I have been very critical of Tim Kennedy in the past. In the Erie County Legislature, Kennedy simultaneously disgraced and promoted himself with his self-serving and short-sighted alliance with Chris Collins back in 2010. The 2009 election cycle had resulted in a narrow Democratic majority in the legislature. Incumbent County Executive Chris Collins was unhappy with this, (the legislature was habitually overriding Collins’ vetoes, so he went so far as to unconstitutionally declare these overrides “null and void“.) Collins hatched a plot that would de facto undo that majority. The legislature’s re-organization in January 2010, typically a quiet affair, became instead a coup.

The Republican legislators in office at the time were now-Supreme-Court-Judge Ray Walter, weirdly aggressive pugilistic dummy Dino Fudoli, current minority leader John Mills, current NOCO Executive Ed Rath, and current Democratic County Comptroller Kevin Hardwick. Democrats elected to the Legislature at that time included activist Betty Jean Grant, Maria Whyte, now with the Community Foundation of WNY, Empire State Development Director of Intergovernmental Relations Lynn Marinelli, former Restaurateur Tom Loughran, Tom Mazur, Tina Bove, now-State Senator Tim Kennedy, and city Comptroller Barbara Miller-Williams. The year before, Collins had given Democratic legislator Kathy Konst (now better known as the mother of DSA activist Nomiki), a job in his administration, thus leaving a vacancy in the legislature that was ultimately filled by the likes of alleged-former-drug-dealer Dino Fudoli.

By flipping Bove, Miller-Williams, and Kennedy into a risibly named “reform coalition” of minority Republicans and turncoat Democrats, Collins had maintained a majority caucus for power’s own sake. What did the others get? Some donations for pet causes, I suppose, but Kennedy was in for self-promotion. As I wrote some 14 years ago,

As best we can put together, Tim Kennedy approached Democratic HQ to ask to run against [Michael] Stachowski. [Len] Lenihan reportedly told Kennedy that he was going to stick with Stachowski and let [Stachowski] decide when he wanted to stop going to Albany. Kennedy then turned to Steve Pigeon and asked for his help to run against Stachowski. [Tom] Golisano’s money was pledged, but Pigeon wanted something in exchange.

Pigeon wanted Kennedy to deliver the legislature to him. Three Democrats to flip so Collins would have his majority. Rumor has it that Pigeon is working on Collins’ gubernatorial campaign behind the scenes.

Kennedy delivered Miller-Williams, who is affiliated with Grassroots, which is currently aligned with Pigeon and City Hall, as well as Christina Bove. It is also rumored that Brian Higgins is one of the people behind the scenes brokering this on Kennedy’s behalf.

Collins never ran for Governor, but he did eventually run for Congress, and became the first member to endorse Donald Trump. Collins’ rise, fall, and pardon all stem from the work of guys like Steve Pigeon, Roger Stone, and Michael Caputo.

(By the way, this Washington Post article about Chris Collins is simply an astonishing read. It takes an unlikeable petty bureaucrat and amazingly makes him seem exponentially worse than you could ever imagine. He lives a life giving zero f*cks about anything or anyone except himself. This is a guy who pleaded guilty to committing a federal crime, got a Trump pardon, cashed out his business, and is so much wealthier now that it seems that crime really does pay. Collins is running for Congress in Florida.)

Fifteen years ago, the “Landon Associates” political team of convicted child sexual assailant Steve Pigeon and convicted-then-pardoned felon Roger Stone (who now stands credibly accused of calling for the assassination of two Decocratic congressmen), had a great little scam going.

In the bad old days, it was becoming quite tough for Democrats to win without securing the Conservative fusion Party line. A special pathway for Democrats to get that line ran through Steve Pigeon and Ralph Lorigo. (Some of us are old enough to remember the Joe Illuzzi / Tony Orsini Independence Party endorsement pipeline and shakedown grift). Thankfully, with the demise of Pigeonism, Democrats locally now go out of their way to shun the regressive, anti-choice, homophobic Conservative fusion Party.

But in 2009, Kennedy needed Pigeon and Pigeon needed Kennedy. They conspired to throw the legislature to the Republicans, and in return Kennedy bought his Conservative Party endorsement for State Senate. Kennedy primaried Stachowski and beat him. At the time, Stachowski had opposed the same-sex marriage law, while Kennedy supported it. (When the Conservative fusion Party talks about its principles, remember that it set them aside for a supporter of same-sex marriage.)

It was these relationships and procedures that led me relentlessly to call for the abolition of the corrupt and pointless electoral fusion system in New York, which served only to facilitate the enrichment of minor party bosses and the patronage jobs they doled out.

As time went on, Betty Jean Grant launched quixotic but principled efforts to challenge Kennedy for State Senate. In 2012, Ms. Grant lost by only 139 votes. It was so bad that ECDC endorsed Betty Jean Grant over Tim Kennedy for the State Senate in 2014, issuing a stinging public rebuke of Kennedy in words and action. Alas, in 2014, Ms. Grant’s margin of loss was even wider as memories had begun to fade and Kennedy consolidated his base of support. Kennedy has not run against a credible challenger since 2014.

In the mid-teens, Kennedy was still playing footsie with Steve Pigeon and the “WNY Progressive Caucus” or #AwfulPAC, which endeavored to do harm to the Democratic Committee at the time. I covered the #AwfulPAC and its eventual downfall and prosecutions as “Preetsmas“, named for the then-Assistant US Attorney Preet Bharara, who was investigating political fraud and graft cases.

The Pigeon faction’s modus operandi was rote – set up a PAC, get it funded, (Pigeon enjoyed the support of a roster of reliably deep-pocketed donors, like Golisano and Mansouri), spend wildly on a primary race for some candidate running against Democratic HQ’s pick, do so in a way that it flies under the radar until election disclosures kick in, and do your best to ratf*ck the party favorite. Rinse, repeat. It happened to Sam Hoyt in the late aughts. It happened to Betty Jean Grant and Tim Hogues in 2013. But the ruse was discovered prematurely and the #AwfulPAC, its people, and its tactics were quickly outed before they could do a lot of harm.

I eventually called that sort of thing the “Pigeoning”. To explain:

Pigeoning: pi·geon·ing \ˈpi-jən-iŋ\: (n) the action of using money and influence, oftentimes pushing the election law envelope, to actively sabotage and undermine the Erie County Democratic Committee.

The Pigeon crew would often secure the assistance—tacit and overt—of Republicans, but more frequently the execrable and obsequious fusion parties — “Independence” and “Conservative” alike — to conspire with Pigeon to advance not just candidates, but their committees’ access to patronage jobs.

Blindside the party’s endorsed candidate with a sudden and unexpected influx of expensive mailers, robocalls, and ads that defame them, or worse. Fund it through various and sundry LLCs set up for no other reason than to legally flaunt campaign finance rules. Set up PACs or independent committees whose funding and organization is sketchy, at best, or criminal, at worst. Conspire fusion party bosses, for whom influence over patronage hires regularly trumps any manufactured, elastic ideological tenets. 

Nothing that the Pigeon crew ever did brought about real reform or good government. Nothing they touched had anything to do with policy, or helping the community — it was all about enriching Pigeon and the pilot fish who clung to him. Western New Yorkers of every party, of every race, of every nationality, of every class deserve so much better than what Pigeon and his cult offered. 

AwfulPAC was only active for a very short period of time—most of what it did took place between July and September of 2013. In May 2015, state and federal agents executed three nearly simultaneous raids on the homes of Pigeon, former Chris Collins chief of staff Chris Grant, and former Buffalo deputy mayor Steve Casey. I dubbed this law enforcement action and investigation ”Preetsmas,” after the former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara. Bharara had famously taken over the investigation of political corruption cases abandoned by the Moreland Commission when Governor Cuomo abruptly shut it down. 

AwfulPAC wasn’t even properly constituted; it filed its CF-02 in February 2014 to transform it — retroactively — into a multi-candidate committee participating and spending on candidates’ behalf in the 2013 primaries. AwfulPAC declared — nunc pro tunc — that it was an unauthorized committee for Dick Dobson in the primary and general elections, and in the primary for Joyce Wilson Nixon, Barbara Miller-Williams, Rick Zydel, and Wes Moore. They also claimed to be an unauthorized committee for Mark Manna for Amherst Town Board in 2013’s general election. Had AwfulPAC done that at its founding, it could have spent money on behalf of those candidates without coordination; however, as it was originally constituted, it was legally only allowed to raise and donate money to campaigns, and not to promote or oppose specific candidates. We’re meant to believe that it broke the law at the time, but a retroactive “oops” filing of a piece of paper retroactively rendered all its activities legal. 

The “bad old ways” are more-or-less dead. The investigations into AwfulPAC led to criminal investigations and prosecutions, which ultimately led to the downfall of a Supreme Court Judge and Pigeon himself. (Don’t forget Justin Sondel’s epic article on Pigeon’s rise and fall).

Tim Kennedy was, for a time, aligned with the Pigeoning and the bad old ways. His Senate campaign committee gave $85,000 to the #AwfulPAC and $10,000 to “Democratic Action” – another Pigeon-controlled PAC. This money was then donated to #AwfulPAC favored candidates including current City of Buffalo Comptroller Barbara Miller-Williams.

Now, we are tasked again with dealing yet another disordered Nate McMurray campaign. All of this background, which is tedious to review, is to underscore the fact that Nate McMurray’s descent from credible Democratic congressional candidate to professional Twitter narcissist has become quite tough to swallow. As someone who promoted and supported McMurray’s previous congressional races, I find it infuriating and difficult to witness his disingenous heel-turns against Zellner and Poloncarz last year, and his embryonic, ill-informed hatred of Tim Kennedy now.

McMurray pretends as if Tim Kennedy hadn’t been there all along. Now, he discovers who Kennedy is because Kennedy stands between McMurray and congressional seat to which McMurray feels entitled.

While Kennedy has been working hard for the people of WNY generally, and his constituents in particular, McMurray has been embroiled in myriad lawsuits – as litigant and lawyer – and doing a pretty bad job of it.

Kennedy may have done bad things politically in the past, but as far as his tenure in the Senate is concerned, I’m not aware of any bad acts or omissions. By all accounts, he has been a reliable Democratic Senator and has won plaudits for his constituent services.

Can we maintain political consistency by overlooking Kennedy’s past misdeeds while simultaneously focusing on McMurray’s current behavior? I think so.

McMurraying is like Pigeoning in that both are informed by an irrational, visceral hatred of the local Democratic grassroots and party apparatus. The difference between Pigeoning and McMurraying is that the former found power, money, and electoral success; the latter is just social media noise.

McMurray’s efforts to divide Erie County Democrats have been tone-deaf failures. There is no grassroots clamor to overthrow the Zellner regime. Leftist malcontents and the DSA are small in number and without any real influence. The roster of former McMurray supporters who cannot now stand him is deep and wide. Some of ECDC’s best campaign minds and hardest campaign workers have undeservedly become the targets of his wild rantings and ravings. He had the nerve in 2023 to seek the nomination for County Executive, bad-mouthing everyone along the way, including Erie County itself. Now, he decided he is entitled to a do-over for Congress, but in Higgins’ seat, and somehow legitimately thought that people would give him the time of day? How deluded can you get?

For now, the stragglers on that dying platform formerly known as Twitter can filter through the bots and Nazis to go read the twaddle emanating from the disheveled mind of that guy we thought could be a Congressman. Now, he’s not so much the next member of the squad as he is a better-coiffed and sartorially unchallenged version of perennial candidate and convicted vote fraudster Rus Thompson. The fact that he trots out my 10-year-old posts to inform his disdain for Tim Kennedy – a guy who has been a State Senator for almost 15 years – underscores that he has nothing but grievance upon which to run.

I live in NY-26 now, and I will vote for a thousand Tim Kennedys before I would ever waste another vote or dollar on Nate McMurray, a conniving, untrustworthy, and backstabbing self-promoter who is no better than the people whom he claims to hate.

Thanks for relying on my blogging to inform your hatred of Tim Kennedy.

I’m texting with a political boss about my opponent. Although I can’t disclose their name, I thought you should know their dismissive attitude towards facts and how straightforward I am in our conversations.

For years, they’ve insisted that their way is the only way. They’ve… pic.twitter.com/1EJFHCeHOG

— Nate McMurray (@Nate_McMurray) January 17, 2024

I guess I’ll throw some money Kennedy’s way.

Mark Poloncarz coasted to re-election by a wider margin than in his last outing. This despite all of the hatred and scorn hurled at him for daring to carry out Covid restrictions to keep people well and alive. This despite a desperate, viscerally negative campaign from a woefully unprepared and unqualified opponent. This despite accusations thrown his way about county handling of the December 2022 blizzard. In and through all of it, he offered Erie County calm and steadt competence in contrast to wild and extreme unpreparedness.

As usual, Ken Kruly has a great run-down of election 2023. Also worth a gander is this analysis from the team at the Buffalo News, which shows how Mark Poloncarz grew his base of support as compared with 2019, especially in the suburbs.

The history of Poloncarz’s opponents for County Executive is colorful indeed. One went on to become a congressman, a shill for Trump, and a convicted felon – later pardoned. Another became a Supreme Court Judge. Chrissy Casilio can go back to Clarence, where her father is Supervisor, landlord, benefactor, and rainmaker. She will be just fine, and maybe even see some political reward for taking one for the team.

In private life, Ms. Casilio-Bluhm has mostly resumed her Twitter/X musings about various and sundry right-wing tropes of the day. She is free again to pine for the day when Donald Trump can finally end the American experiment in self-governance and implement the “conservative” dream of authoritarian dictatorship where immigrants are thrown into camps and political rivals are shot, or dropped from helicopters.

Brian Nowak squeaked out a win in Cheektowaga, despite being subjected to a malign barrage of literal libel. Accused of bribery, support for Hamas, and supposedly “defaming” a person who flew a Confederate flag outside her home by pointing out that she flew a Confederate flag outside her home, he nevertheless stayed above the fray and wore out his soles by speaking directly to voters. Brian is a great guy who truly has his community’s best interests at heart, and he will undoubtedly do a great job.

The biggest news, however, came after the election itself. Congressman Brian Higgins announced that he intends to retire, which will trigger a special election. So far, Senator Tim Kennedy has announced that he will run for that seat. Others have dipped their toes in the water, with varying degrees of credibility. Byron Brown is going to stay put as Mayor until some better exit plan emerges. Poloncarz just handily won re-election, so he’s not going anywhere.

So, we’re left with Plan D for dumb: Nate McMurray is running. For Congress. Again. I’ve seen a lot in the last 20-odd years, but never have I seen a once-credible political figure so quickly and dramatically devolve into self-parody. He tells the Buffalo News’ Charlie Specht that he has “to be in the race. I couldn’t sit still with nobody talking about Trump. This isn’t rhetoric or this isn’t Democratic talking points. This is a danger to the country.”

As McMurray lurches between his claimed saintly outsider status, his animus for anyone and everyone who has not reflexively followed his orders or done his bidding, and his professional Tweeting, the thing that really crystallizes is that Nate McMurray has to be in the race for Nate McMurray. His ever-waning relevance runs counter to his supreme sense of self-importance as the multilingual better-than-you savior of western New York.

McMurray is just a small-town, leftist mini-Trump. Everything all about him and his greatness and how all of his opponents are evil or dumb. While Trump wishes for an economic crash in the next twelve months, McMurray has already told us that “Erie County sucks“. And it’s not just that he felt comfortable enough to express that in public, where people could hear him – it was that he said it within the context of him having the audacity to stand before a group of people whom he had spent the previous months demeaning, insulting, and denigrating all while asking them for an endorsement that he knew would never come. He said “Erie County sucks” because these people did not fall in line behind him. Because they saw through his bullshit. Because they questioned him. They were critical of him. Because after lending monetary, logistical, and boots-on-the-ground support to him in three previous races, he was little more than a loudmouth ingrate. As the chairman of the party committee said,

“McMurray’s behavior at last night’s Executive Committee meeting was appalling,” Zellner said. “Despite past support for Congressional runs from this committee and its rank and file, McMurray was inexplicably hostile to committee members throughout his presentation, insulting leaders and committee members alike with outbursts previously unseen at our meetings. McMurray claims to love Buffalo and WNY, but his uncalled-for outbursts demonstrate that he is temperamentally unfit to govern a county of nearly 1 million people. You cannot successfully lead this community if you take shots at it when things don’t go your way,” Zellner added. “By declaring that ‘Erie County sucks’ simply because he faced questions he did not like and could not answer, Nate McMurray has shown that he is simply wrong for the office of Erie County Executive.”

WIVB

McMurray is going to have to seek money and support from his Twitter stans. How any of that translates into actual people collecting petition signatures or contributions is anyone’s guess. I suspect he’ll have to pay people to do it.

Tim Kennedy has been around a very long time. He dabbled in the dark arts, aligning himself with Pigeon and Collins in a brazen coup some 15 years ago, but that catapulted him eventually into the Senate, where he is respected if not for his legislative, then his fundraising prowess.

Because again, for people taking notes at home, there is governing and there is politicking. Mark Poloncarz has proven himself adept at both. He is a competent and skilled executive, and also a shrewd and effective politician. McMurray aligned himself with Rus Thompson, got elected to a town supervisorship and hasn’t been elected to anything else since. As I said almost a year ago, right here:

It’s interesting how when one decides to wage war and insult an entire institution, that the rank and file who do the actual work that keeps the institution running are the ones who decide you’re not worthy of their help, time, work, and money. It’s easy to selectively edit secretly recorded audio to make your enemies look bad, but why wouldn’t you just release the whole thing? It’s easy to feign victimhood at the hands of the big bad old party which is, in your estimation, so well-organized in its malign corruption that it will prevent you even from running for office, but simultaneously so incompetent and inept that it cannot win elections or improve our region.

Nate will get the attention he’s ordered, and that’s about it.