Unfortunately, I Remember

I remember being signed up for updates from the Nate McMurray Democrat-running-against-a-Republican-for-Congress campaign. I do not ever remember signing up for updates from the Nate McMurray Democrat-primarying-one-of-our-most-effective-local-Democratic-politicians campaign.

In fact, I’m sure I never did. So, let’s take a look at this spam folder reject, which seems only slightly more poorly targeted than the letters he sent to the committeepeople earlier this week seeking their support against Mark Poloncarz for County Executive.

I ran for Congress in rural New York—in the reddest district in New York State, where Trump won by over 20 points. Despite the odds, I stood proudly for democracy, for healthcare as a human right, for choice—and I almost won, defying convention and without national party support… TWICE!

Almost won. Didn’t win. Despite going up against an insurrectionist. Despite going up against a felon. And you didn’t have “national party support?” That will come as news to the DCCC. But, as usual with a malignant narcissist, a failure cannot be his, but must be blamed on someone else. It is literally the driving rationale behind this primary campaign itself.

Now I’m back again. I see the creep of right-wing radicalism on school boards, state legislatures, and in our small-town councils. And I know that the only way to combat threats of extremism is through grassroots leadership. So, I’m running for Erie County Executive.

How does running for County Executive stanch the ills cited earlier in that paragraph? The County Executive, as I’m sure he knows, has no authority to alter school boards or other governmental bodies. Perhaps he means he would use his bully pulpit – something he already has with his name recognition and verified Twitter account.

Erie County boasts the nation’s second-highest arrest rate for January 6th insurrectionists. And although Democrats outnumber Republicans here, our problems extend beyond MAGA fundamentalism.

One would think that a guy who ran in the former Collins/Jacobs district would realize that there are a lot of very conservative, nominal Democrats in this region.

Erie County is home to the City of Buffalo, where on May 14, 2022, a gunman entered a busy grocery store in a predominantly Black neighborhood and murdered 10 and wounded three others in a racist attack. And late last December, nearly 50 people died in a brutal blizzard—most by hypothermia in historically disinvested neighborhoods—because our local leaders failed to properly warn and prepare residents.

Chalk this up as the first overt politicization of the Tops massacre and the blizzard. It’s pretty grotesque for him to blame the mass murder by a racist lunatic on the failure of “local leaders”. Each story of death and deprivation from the blizzard is entitled to more than clumsy, slapdash accusation of governmental negligence within the context of the County Executive race, but the crass exploitation of tragedy is right up this guy’s alley. I think Nate believes he’s running for Mayor of Buffalo, a city which does actually operate a housing authority. But let’s keep it simple and see this for what it is.

I have never taken corporate donations, and I’ve consistently been an independent voice in the Democratic Party fighting for change. I believe that true change starts locally, where you have the ability to touch and change the lives of those who need it most, and that’s why I’m running for Erie County Executive. Will you chip in $7.16 to help make my vision for Erie County a reality?

Corporate donations are not allowed in federal races – they’re usually filtered through 501c4 special interest charities, PACs, and SuperPACs. There’s always the $500 he received in 2019 from the Erie County Town Chair’s Association. There’s $500 he received in 2017 from Hodgson Russ, LLP – a partnership. Higgins for Congress supported McMurray in every one of his races. On September 20, 2020, he received $40.40 from now-defunct Maroon Technology, LTD. He also received $400 from Montana International, LLC that same month. On October 30, 2019, SolarPark Energy – a Delaware LLC – donated $500. ECDC Chair Jeremy Zellner gave McMurray $750 in October 2019, $150 in 2015, and $150 in 2012. An LLC is not technically a corporation, but something called “Ltd” probably is, so let’s chalk this up as a bit of a stretch.

If true change starts “locally, where you have the ability to touch and change the lives of those who need it most” why would you run to be executive of a million-person county? Why wouldn’t you run for the town board of wherever you live? Or Mayor? Make it make sense. And no, I will not chip in $7.16 or even another cent of my family’s money.

To win this campaign, I need your financial support to disrupt the status quo of party politics. With your help, we will prevail and bring about a new day for a community that needs it most. Read more about my vision for Erie County on our website, nateforerie.com.

It’s interesting because nothing in the earlier paragraphs really builds a proper foundation to end on “disrupt the status quo.” We don’t need an Elon Musk type character “disrupting” government, because the last guy who tried that was an utter disaster. Next thing you know, we’ll be hearing about Six Sigma again.

It’s easy for a candidate to solicit prime Democrats for aid and financial support in a close race against a genuinely repugnant Republican candidate, as McMurray had the privilege of doing a few times. It’s a whole different ballgame for you to challenge one of the most respected and competent, winningest Democrats in the region and set out to kneecap him. There is not a syllable uttered here to explain even a mild – much less a compelling – reason to get rid of Poloncarz in favor of McMurray.

McMurray is, in the end, no different from the Republicans from whom he once sought to distinguish himself. He gleefully parrots their anti-Poloncarz talking points and is like the dime store version of Mychajliw or some hackneyed Pigeonista. His “disruption” would come at great cost. The best argument he can muster is to blame the Tops shooting on Poloncarz? I doubt even Chris Collins would have stooped so low.