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The defeat of Mazurek, Flaherty, and Coppola don’t just mean triumph for Wallace, Flynn, and Small. Erie County Democratic Committee Chairman Jeremy Zellner and his party apparatus were also big winners last night. The 2016 primary saw the utter collapse of the Steve Pigeon faction, which goes to show you that nine felony indictments count for something. 

Assembly 143

Political newcomer Monica Wallace absolutely humbled “Crybaby Kristy” Mazurek by a gaping margin of 76 – 24%. This was a colossal blowout, and was the centerpiece of this year’s defeat of Pigeonism. Wallace – who has never been involved in party politics or factional squabbles – came to this race with an appeal to ethics, good government, and restoring trust in Albany after the previous two Assemblypeople left office in disgrace.  

Mazurek tried to ride that same road, but it was an impossibility. For that district, capability and integrity matter more than ever, but she instead ran on her family name and ethnic identity, glossing over her many problems by blaming her illness, or how mean her opponents are. Yet she and her treasurer couldn’t – or wouldn’t – competently navigate campaign finance requirements, and Mazurek has $30,000 in federal tax liens, which she never addressed or explained to voters. In a year where ethics in Albany is a big deal, she revealed herself to be Steve Pigeon’s power of attorney for matters arising out of the sale of his downtown apartment. In the end, her surname and ethnicity couldn’t compete with a mild-mannered, soft-spoken, multitasking mom, wife, lawyer, teacher, and taxpayer. 

By the way, Mazurek claimed she ran a relentlessly positive campaign. False. Mazurek attacked Wallace for not giving up enough time for public or charitable service. Working for a federal judge is defined generally as “public service”.  Not only did Kristy Mazurek lose by a huge margin, her brother and sister-in-law lost their Cheektowaga committee races. Not at all a good day for that family. Kristy Mazurek is unqualified to be anywhere near elective office, and the voters knew it. 

I hope that all of Mazurek’s and AwfulPAC’s victims from 2013 enjoyed a chilled glass of something bubbly last night. You deserve it. 

Senate 60

This year was – what, the tenth (?) time Al Coppola tried – and failed – to return to the State Senate, where he served from February 2000 – January 2001, after winning a special election to replace Anthony Nanula, and then subsequently lost the primary to Byron Brown. He’s well-liked in some corners of Buffalo’s West Side, but the Senate District is more than just one neighborhood. Parkside community activist Amber Small raised an impressive amount of money, ran a professional and competent race, won herself – after much delay – the endorsement of the party hierarchy, and soundly defeated Coppola 67 – 33%. 

Small’s real challenge comes over the next six weeks, as she goes up against multi-millionaire Chris Jacobs, who overwhelmingly defeated his own perennial candidate, Kevin Stocker. The margin of victory in that Republican primary was Mazurekesque in its decisiveness. Jacobs and the state committee, however, revealed that they will not play nicely – they will be relentlessly negative and lie if they have to. Jacobs and the Republicans spent ridiculous amounts of cash on radio ads slamming Stocker and accusing him of corruption and criminality. They even slammed Amber Small in a last-ditch effort to harm her and lift up Coppola. It became quite clear that Jacobs is afraid of going up against Small. She is young, smart, a political newbie, and enjoys a pretty wide enrollment advantage. If Jacobs and the GOP are willing to lie, accusing Small of campaign finance irregularities that don’t exist, they’re going to make October very ugly. 

District Attorney

John Flynn defeated incumbent acting District Attorney Michael Flaherty last night 45 – 40%. Mark Sacha earned 14% of the vote, as well, which means the anti-Flaherty vote was pretty overwhelming. Flaherty wasn’t incompetent, and he indicated a willingness to address election law crimes by prosecuting alleged vote fraudster Rus Thompson. But Flaherty didn’t show any willingness to go after public integrity overall. For instance, Mazurek’s own campaign finance disclosures were an absolute shambles from day one. Investigate that – Mazurek’s finances were being handled by people with years’ worth of experience, yet the newcomers were the ones who followed the law. 

Democratic Headquarters pulled out all the stops for John Flynn, and their efforts paid off. They got their message out, they got their vote out, and Flaherty’s campaign was being run by people who have a blood feud going with Zellner’s HQ – Jim Eagan and Rich Horner, to name a couple. They went so far as to hijack a “Flynn for DA” URL to redirect to Flaherty’s website, and stuck a crime victim in front of a camera to politicize her brother’s murder. 

With their ringleader under indictment and further investigation, the Pigeon faction of nominal Democrats is in dramatic decline. The money spigot has been largely shut off, the patronage jobs have dried up, the friendly vendors, consultants, and hangers-on are exposed as incompetent, and left high and dry. The hacks who relentlessly puff people like Mazurek, Stocker, and Coppola are left embarrassed. 

What’s left of the Pigeon forces’ efforts this year weren’t just about trying to defeat the HQ-endorsed candidates so they could crow about how ineffective Jeremy Zellner is, and how he should go back to fetching coffee for the big kids; their efforts were supposed to bring about a competitive race for the county party chairmanship. There might be a race, but it won’t be competitive. 

Three great Democrats defeated their insurgent opponents last night, and all of Bob McCarthy’s yellowed, Pigeon-fed, hand-wringing columns about Zellner’s youth, inexperience, and ineffectiveness will have to be filed away once and for all. 

 

Ken Block is a drifting, rally-racing daredevil. Each video from his Gymkhana series routinely earn tens of millions of views on YouTube, each. “Gymkhana” is basically running a car through an obstacle course in the fastest possible time. Drifting is encouraged. 

Here’s episode nine, which Block filmed in Buffalo and Eden this past summer. 

Tomorrow – Tuesday September 13th – is primary day. If you’re a Democrat in the 143rd Assembly District, it is your responsibility to vote for endorsed candidate Monica Wallace.  Why? Because Wallace is uniquely qualified to serve as your legislator in Albany, and will – once and for all – allow the district to move past its recent history of scandal and embarrassment. Polls are open from 6am to 9pm.

By contrast, Wallace’s opponent is wholly unfit and unqualified for public office. 

In 2013, Kristy Mazurek was the treasurer of the WNY Progressive Caucus, or “AwfulPAC“. This entity was a Steve Pigeon front organization that raised and spent close to $300,000 within a matter of weeks, in order to sabotage the Erie County Democratic Committee and its slate of endorsed candidates. No surprise, then, that Mazurek enjoys current funding from a shady, probably illegal, Republican-financed PAC. For its part, Mazurek’s own AwfulPAC is now the epicenter of a state and federal investigation into widespread fraud and corruption. It’s already seen a Supreme Court Justice resign in disgrace and its mastermind indicted on nine felony counts. Mazurek herself reportedly cooperated with investigators, but has not yet been charged with any crime. 

Mazurek is now running for the State Assembly to replace disgraced incumbent Conservative Angela Wozniak who, in turn, replaced the disgraced Dennis Gabryszak. Mazurek had worked for Gabryszak and claims to have been a victim of his harassment. She brought a lawsuit that has since been dismissed because she waited five years to bring it, and the statute of limitations is three. She is appealing the dismissal. 

What is often lost in the AwfulPAC narrative is what it actually did. It mostly produced direct mail and other advertisements, some of which were practically defamatory in their rank falsehoods. Here is a sampler of mailers that AwfulPAC sent out to Democrats in 2013 to attack County Legislator Betty Jean Grant and former County Legislator Tim Hogues. 

They attacked other candidates similarly, including Lynn Dearmyer. The language and imagery used and sent to predominately white households is pretty blatantly racist. Betty Jean Grant is “radical” and “extremist”. “They” are “dead set” on “raising our taxes”. 

They leaked a false and defamatory story to PoliticsNY.net, accusing Wynnie Fisher of being a lunatic. Also, 

 I wrote about this in some detail in June of 2015 as “The Story of Preetsmas”. 

Grant and Hogues were understandably outraged. 

Mazurek was typically flippant. At bare minimum, Mazurek cut and signed the checks that paid for those inflammatory and racist mailers. 

Hoges and Grant made a formal complaint to the Board of Elections, which turned it over to the Attorney General, and the Feds got involved, too. Mazurek dismissed all her critics, detractors, and complainants as “crybabies“. 

Just three short years later, the tables have turned. Factually accurate negative mailers slamming Mazurek have hit mailboxes in the 143rd in recent days. The Monica Wallace campaign is only producing or sending a couple of them; most are being put out by NYSUT as an independent expenditure. 

Who’s the crybaby now? 

Too funny! This is a woman who literally called the Shredd & Ragan show in 2014 to try and intimidate them into keeping me off their air. Why is she now so aggrieved? 

Would you look at that? Finally, someone used Mazurek’s Georgia mugshot in a piece of campaign lit. Mazurek has been arrested for two (2) DWIs, one in Georgia (which she pled down), and one near Albany, where she was convicted in 2008 of a misdemeanor, but failed to pay the associated fines. The DMV suspended her license in September 2014 and issued a scofflaw summons. In 2015, Mazurek was pulled over and later found responsible for operating without a license in Clarence Town Court, and paid a fine. 

There’s no real excuse for driving drunk; certainly not cancer. I’m not sure how cancer is to blame for her ongoing close association with indicted felon Steve Pigeon, or her inept and illegal handling of the AwfulPAC treasury, or her unpaid taxes, or attempts to intimidate radio shows or bloggers or candidates whom she hates, or defaming candidates for office. I know lots of people who have suffered from cancer, yet the disease never compelled any of them to behave in such a manner. 

I’ve joked a lot in the past about how everyone in WNY politics is awful in their own way; myself included. But some are far more awful than others. Some confuse vice with virtue, bullying with oppression, friendship with conspiracy, lies with honesty. Kristy Mazurek is a convicted criminal; power of attorney to a man indicted of nine felonies. She is wholly unfit for public office. Indeed, based on her current and past misdeeds, had she already been elected to office, responsible Democrats would feel the need to disavow her; to demand her resignation. Albany itself is already a cesspit of horrible, corrupt people, and dysfunctional beyond reason. Albany already serves to empower the powerful, enrich the wealthy, and screw over hardworking New Yorkers. It is not structured in a way adequately to answer to the electorate. The power of incumbency is so strong that most legislators vacate their Albany offices in disgrace, if not in handcuffs. Albany should be made better, not worse. 

So, given a choice between someone so wrapped up in western New York’s own provincial brand of corruption, and Monica Wallace, who is a wife, a mom, a lawyer, a former clerk to a well-respected Federal Judge, and a law professor, who do you think would do a better job of doing the people’s business in Albany? Of bringing your concerns to downstate leadership in order to give families and working western New Yorkers a fair shot?

Three years ago, Kristy Mazurek used a corrupt slush fund to defame her opponents with false and racist mailers, then called them crybabies for complaining. Now, she wails when her own misdeeds – her alleged and real criminality – are raised as issues against her. Call it hypocrisy, call it chutzpah, call it karma, but the people in the 143rd know better, and Mazurek’s former victims hopefully have champagne at the ready. 

Amber Small is winning the Democratic primary in the 60th Senate District, so the state Republican committee is now in league with Small’s opponent, perennial candidate Al Coppola, to destroy her reputation with outright lies through direct mail and an article in another Buffalo weekly. 

Coppola’s opponent is Amber Small who heads a non-profit 501c3 in the Parkside Avenue area of Buffalo (near the Buffalo Zoo). Small is being investigated for violations of the Federal Hatch Act. I’m not a lawyer, however the law is very simple. An employee of a non-profit organization must not engage in political activity or face a fine of 2 years salary and the non-profit may not be able to ask for a grant for the following 2 years. 

That’s not true on two counts. 1. Small is not under investigation by anyone for “violations of the Federal Hatch Act”, nor does the article cite any proof for that assertion; and 2. I know plenty of employees of non-profits who engage in political activities, because working for a non-profit doesn’t shut down someone’s 1st Amendment rights to engage in political activity or speech. A simple Google search reveals that employees of nonprofits or other agencies receiving funds are permitted to run for office. The Hatch Act can apply to employees of a private, not-for-profit organization “if it receives federal funding and if federal legislation other than the Hatch Act contains a provision that the recipient not-for-profit should be treated as a state or local agency for the purposes of the Act”. 

The Parkside Community Association receives no federal funding. Zero. The Hatch Act does not apply. 

Small’s political campaign treasurer is Margaret Shea. The 501c3 non-profit’s treasurer also happens to be Margaret Shea.

So? 

Democrat Small is attempting to stop environmentalist James DePasquale from running on the Green line in the 60th State Senate District. The person who made a claim against DePasquale, is Amanda Huber, a resident of the 59th District, not the 60th. And to no one’s surprise, Amanda Huber also works for Amber Small. Amanda Huber was paid $750.00 by Small on August 15, 2016.

James DePasquale isn’t an “environmentalist”, but a Republican stooge. A Derby resident, DePasquale wasn’t even registered to vote before this year. He registered with the Green Party as part of a Republican effort to raid the Green Party line. Why? So that the left-of-center vote is split in November and so that likely Republican nominee Chris Jacobs has an easier path to victory.

No one from the Green Party carried DePasquale’s petitions – only Republican operatives: Todd Aldinger, former Budget & Legislative Director of Republican NYS Senator Patrick Gallivan, Chairman of the Erie County Charter Revision Commission; Kevin Knapp, Deputy Communications Director for Republican NYS Senator Rich Funke; Jesse Sleezer, Communications & District Director of Republican NYS Senator Rich Funke; Alex Barrette, Campaign Staffer of Republican NYS Senator Rich Funke; James Nash, board member at the Bison Children’s Scholarship Fund; and Jonathan Weir, board member at the Bison Children’s Scholarship Fund. Chris Jacobs co-founded the Bison Fund and currently serves as a Director. Aldinger filed DePasquale’s petitions with the Board of Elections.

DePasquale has no campaign committee, and has not reported raising or spending any money whatsoever, despite somehow retaining the services of myriad Republican staffers to aid in his ballot access effort. Sham.

When the Green Party caught wind of this party raiding effort – not the first time the Republicans have tried to pull this trick – they took action. A hearing was held on September 1st at the offices of Frank Housh, a Buffalo attorney (who serves with me on the County Library Board), to determine whether DePasquale was a bona fide Green Party member. Under a little-used and little-known provision of the election law, parties can hold these sorts of hearings and determine whether an enrolled voter can be stricken. DePasquale did not deign to appear at the hearing, instead sending his Republican attorney, Jeffrey Voekl, who produced an affidavit DePasquale executed that merely repeated platform items from the Greens’ website. The Green Party subcommittee determined unanimously that DePasquale was a sham candidate and not in sympathy with the Green Party or anything for which it stands. This is the key language in Election Law §16-110(2): 

The chairman of the county committee of a party with which a voter is enrolled in such county, may, upon a written complaint by an enrolled member of such party in such county and after a hearing held by him or by a sub-committee appointed by him upon at least two days’ notice to the voter, personally or by mail, determine that the voter is not in sympathy with the principles of such party. The Supreme Court or a justice thereof within the judicial district, in a proceeding instituted by a duly enrolled voter of the party at least ten days before a primary election, shall direct the enrollment of such voter to be cancelled if it appears from the proceedings before such chairman or sub-committee, and other proofs, if any, presented, that such determination is just.

The Green Party subcommittee also decided to file an Order to Show Cause, in a rare move to strike DePasquale from the Green Party voter rolls. That is pending before Judge Michalski in State Supreme Court. 

OTSC Greens

Small hired attorney Frank Housh, the defender of the Toys R Us killer, to stop DePasquale’s plans of cleaning Hoyt Lake. Small paid Housh $1,000.00 on August 9, 2016.  Many now suspect the attack on DePasquale may have more to do with the City than the State.

Small hired Housh to challenge DePasquale’s sham Republican-front candidacy. Housh is a criminal defense attorney, as well as an election law attorney. 

Amber Small previously worked directly for City of Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown. Just before announcing her candidacy she met with Maurice Garner, a leader in the East Side’s Grass Roots organization. According to NYS’s LEC (legislative ethics committee) reports, Small has received donations and assistance from some of Byron Brown’s and Steve Pigeon’s closest associates.

According to Google, No results found for “new york legislative ethics commission” “amber small”. 

Western New York hasn’t witnessed anything similar to this since the days of former Senator Antoine Thompson and Thompson was far more independent than Small. 

Non-sequitur. Similar to what?

According to the Buffalo News, Small was to have a fundraiser in New York City last Thursday, September 8th. This outraged the “Buffalo for Bernie Sanders” people. They hate it when a politician sells their vote anywhere in the United States. The “Buffalo for Bernie Sanders” leadership petitioned for Al Coppola and continues to campaign for him.

Who cares? The Republican candidate is a self-funding multi-millionaire. Fundraising downstate isn’t “sell[ing] a vote”. It’s going to where the money is. Democrats, you see, would like to re-take the Senate majority. That’s what this is all about – preventing that from happening, and the Republicans are pulling out every corrupt, defamatory stop to ensure it. They’ll go so far as to mount sham Green Party candidates and manufacture lies about the Democratic candidate whose only sin is working to better her city and neighborhood, and now wishing to do the same for her Senate District. 

Republicans created mailers accusing Small of using the Parkside Community Association to “print her campaign literature”, but that is also false. A lie. In this instance, likely defamatory. 

Small’s campaign issued the following statement: “The campaign of Amber Small purchased an ad in the PCA Tour of Homes program, as did Congressman Brian Higgins, Mayor Byron Brown, Assemblywoman Crystal People’s Stokes and others. A claim that the campaign was somehow using PCA resources to print political mail is completely fabricated and without any basis in fact. It is blatantly defamatory of not only Amber but the PCA.”

The only reasonable choice on Tuesday is for Democrats to vote for Amber Small, a tough, independent, smart young woman who finds herself under attack by a cabal of Republican misogynists – a “basket of deplorables” – who are deathly afraid of her. 

A century ago, Irish, Italian, and Polish immigrants weren’t considered white or American, as they are today. It took generations for these immigrants to assimilate, and scholars have written extensively about the economic and social interventions that occurred to hasten these immigrant groups’ acceptance by white America as part of white America. The ethnic and racial slurs against these immigrants still exist in our vernacular. Paddywagon, asserting that Irish were criminals. Guinea, insinuating that Italians were African. Polish jokes. 

Today, especially in the wake of the last decade’s global economic crash, an economic uncertainty lingers. Our economy doesn’t look today as it did when people grew up, and things have changed. For some, seeing a woman in a chador or a brown man with an accent offers all the proof they need of who is to blame for these changes and uncertainty. 

It would be the height of racist hypocrisy for Buffalo, which prides itself on its ethnic diversity to the point of holding wall-to-wall festivals all summer, to now reject or condemn new immigrants and refugees en masse. Immigration has always been a uniquely American success story. Immigrants – including undocumented ones – contribute more to the United States economy than they take out. Immigrants are twice as likely to start a business than native-born Americans. They commit fewer crimes than native-born Americans. They do not take away from native Americans, but add to productivity. There is effort involved in coming here, and immigrants are loath to waste that opportunity. 

Scapegoating immigrants as an invading horde of rapists, murderers, drug pushers, and social drains has become part of contemporary conservative dogma. It is the signature platform plank of the Donald Trump campaign. 

There are good immigrants and bad immigrants, as it happens for any particular population. So it came with some surprise that conservative radio commentator David Bellavia, who is a veteran of the Iraq war, posted this article to his Facebook wall, commenting that it was “Alot here to digest” [sic]. 

There isn’t, though. It’s practically a word-for-word reboot of Nazi-era anti-Semitic screeds in Der Stürmer – just substitute “Muslim” or “immigrant” for “Jew”.  What it purports to be, on the surface, is a story about the awful Yemeni deli owner in Lovejoy who was arrested and arraigned recently for crimes related to mishandling of EBT accounts. He and his family made quite the spectacle of themselves when they appeared in court, flipping the bird to TV cameras and yelling, “fuck America”. Not nice people. Not good people. 

But is their behavior and alleged criminality to be projected onto the entire Yemeni (if not Arab or Muslim) population in Buffalo? That’s what FrontPage argues, and Bellavia endorsed. 

The article starts with a story about the burning of Buffalo during the War of 1812, and the origin of the “Lovejoy” name. After the destruction, the story goes, Lovejoy was a thriving community just a century later, filled with, “German, Polish, Jewish, and Italian immigrants”. What’s omitted from that passage is the way in which those immigrants were treated by the FrontPageMags of the day. They were all denigrated as invaders – un-American – other. 

In the past decade, Erie County “resettled” nearly 10,000 refugees. Most of them have been inflicted on Buffalo and Black Rock, the same targets as that original invasion two centuries ago that claimed Sarah’s life.

No links to the Beobachter here – but note the scarequotes and use of “inflicted”, like an injury. “Sarah” alludes to Sarah Lovejoy, who was killed defending her home in 1812 from the British and Indian forces. The theme kicks off right away: refugees are invaders. They are an injury, inflicted on a neighborhood to destroy it and kill its inhabitants. Immigration is terror. 

The image that accompanies the article has nothing whatsoever to do with Buffalo. A Google Image Search reveals it to be a photograph of Syrian migrants protesting at the Budapest train station. 

Buffalo has four resettlement agencies working to bring as many Muslims as they can. Among them is the International Institute of Buffalo which was set up after WWI to bring “war brides” to America, but which now specializes in bringing Muslims here instead. Tickets to the Institute’s big event, Buffalo Without Borders, run as high as $10,000 a piece, and it is billed as “A Party Only the IIB Can Throw.”

The International Institute is an incredibly responsible resettlement agency. It was set up in 1918 to “support immigrants who faced exploitation and discrimination in the United States”, not to “bring ‘war brides'” here like some human traffickers. Right off the bat, the article defames the IIB. From its website, “The International Institute of Buffalo was originally established by the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) in 1918 to help prevent the exploitation of women brought to our country as domestic help. The Institute separated from the YWCA in 1934 and incorporated as an independent nonprofit organization. In 1973, the International Institute moved to its current location at 864 Delaware Avenue.“

By the way, tickets for “Buffalo Without Borders” run $40. It’s on November 3rd at the Hotel Lafayette. Only the Gold Sponsorship runs $10,000. 

One of these parties featured chocolates “inspired” by Iraqi Muslim migrants.

Why the scarequotes around “inspired”? 

The article explores how an elderly Italian man had until recently owned the corner store that was bought by Ahmed Alshami, who is now accused of welfare fraud. And because Alshami is accused of criminality, the article explains, 

The Alshamis were part of the flood of Yemeni Muslim migrants who had washed up in Buffalo.

And the Muslim Yemeni population has a way of making headlines.

Six Yemenis made up the infamous Buffalo Cell, who had attended the Al Farooq training camp in Afghanistan, met with Osama bin Laden and were convicted for providing material support to Al Qaeda. The seventh member of the cell, Jaber Elbaneh, is a fugitive still wanted by the FBI, which describes him as armed and dangerous.

Floods don’t really “wash up”, and the propagandist goes out of his way here to simply link Alshami to the Lackawanna 6 because they’re both Muslim and Yemeni. Guilt by religious affiliation and nationality. 

The article alleges that Alshami’s business became a public nuisance, quoting Councilmember Rich Fontana on that point. It goes on to point out a few more Arab deli owners on the East Side who have been arrested for some illegality in recent years. So, time to scapegoat all immigrants  – Muslims in particular. 

When politicians promise us that Muslim migration will create small businesses and produce jobs, they forget to mention who will be paying for them. There are some 5,000 Yemeni Muslim settlers in Buffalo. Population numbers have increased as much as 242%. While the traditional population in the area declines, with Christian and Jewish populations falling, the Islamic population continues to grow, fed by refugee resettlement.

Cheerful news stories celebrate how “refugees” are “bringing Buffalo back.” The question raised by the Alshamis and so many of their compatriots is what is Muslim migration doing to Buffalo?

They move into and revitalize decimated neighborhoods. As I wrote last November, the State Department’s underlying resettlement process takes 18 — 24 months to properly vet and screen refugees coming to the US. It’s also safe to say that any refugee seeking passage to the United States from Europe will be subjected to a level of scrutiny about which you or I would become so incensed, that we would write scathing Facebook posts or Yelp reviews condemning it. 

As the Syrian refugee crisis was gearing up, local news outlets reported in September that up to 300 Syrian refugees were likely to eventually settle in western New York. (WGRZ, Buffalo News, Buffalo News, Business First, WIVB). They would not simply teleport to WNY en masse to impose Sharia Law on Erie County.

Let’s go back to the Beobachter: 

Large numbers of Muslims have been dumped in the area from Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Buffalo’s heritage and its working class roots are being traded for the Koran and the hijab.

That’s sort of how it works in a nation of immigrants. New immigrants come, and old immigrants hate them. New immigrants take some time to become assimilated. In the meantime, they cluster together, as Poles did in the East Side and Italians did on the West. Nothing is new under the sun. 

Buffalo is listed by the State Department as a “preferred community” for resettling migrants. Sizable numbers of Syrian Muslim migrants are headed there now. It’s even been studied by European advocates for migrants. But the cost to ordinary American neighborhoods like Lovejoy has been overlooked. Media accounts trumpet the Iraqi markets opening up, they don’t look at what those markets are up to. There are celebrations of ethnic food accompanied by the decline of local American communities.

Instead of inciting race-hatred and religious war in Lovejoy, query why Fontana or someone else hasn’t declared predatory businesses as public nuisances. This article, frankly, isn’t deserving of a detailed fisking. It’s nothing but hatred and fear, masquerading as a facile history lesson. Buffalo’s refugee population is overwhelmingly peaceful and hard-working. This article explains just how Buffalo’s refugees contribute to Buffalo’s rebirth. “The four most populous and recent refugee groups now in Buffalo are the Burmese, Bhutan, Somali, and Iraqi communities.” They wash the dishes in your restaurants, they make your black rice sushi roll, they clean visitors’ hotel rooms, and they open businesses to serve their own communities – and the community at-large – as these families struggle to make their way in a new, oft-hostile place. Bellavia’s article would treat the entrepreneurs at the West Side Bazaar like the Nazis treated the Warsaw Ghetto. It’s downright un-American. 

Buffalo has faced catastrophe before and recovered. But the question is how long will it take to salvage it from this latest invasion. America is being targeted, invaded and carved up town by town and city by city. Much as two centuries ago, Buffalo is being invaded. But the invaders are not a weapon being used by a foreign government against Americans. Instead this weapon is being wielded by our own government.

I’ll remember that next time I have pizza from an Italian shop, a pierog from a Polish place, or any ethnic food or product available from myriad shops and restaurants in the area. Every immigrant population has had to go through this kind of blind hatred, and I guess we’re still not beyond that. Here is a pretty typical comment to Bellavia’s Facebook post sharing this abhorrent “article”. 

That’s what the WASPs said about your people 100 years ago. 

Although the 10,000 refugees to western New York came here between 2003 – 2014, the article’s tags are, “destruction, Left, Obama”. 2003 to 2014. 

Race hate and religious war aren’t a good look, Buffalo. 

This isn’t about Democratic factionalism anymore. Every responsible candidate with a (D) after her name wants nothing to do with Steve Pigeon and his ragtag band of upturned palmed ne’er-do-wells. In the race for District Attorney, someone has the chutzpah to accuse John Flynn of Pigeon ties, while Michael Flaherty’s campaign is literally run by Pigeon stalwarts. Time will tell whether this is all Pigeonism’s last gasp, but it goes to show you that it’s all fun and games until the indictments start rolling in. 

There is, however, one candidate – irresponsible though she may be – who doesn’t shy away from her Pigeon ties at all. Steve’s Power of Attorney, Kristy Mazurek, is running for Assembly, and her campaign finances have already been exposed as an illegal, sloppy mess. Today, she reports a negative balance of $1,545. This is not something that is allowed to happen. Campaigns can’t spend more money than they have. 

It may be at least partly attributable to the fact that Mazurek’s campaign had to refund $1,100 in illegal cash donations. 

For a candidate who brags about how much support she has from the community, her money seems to come from a small number of donors with predictable Pigeon affiliations. 

Mazurek has spent upwards of $11,000 on printing services for palm cards and direct mail, but one donation should raise eyebrows. Mazurek’s campaign manager dipped into a Republican-funded Steve Pigeon slush fund that he controls. 

The shadowy “WNY Freedom” PAC, using Mazurek campaign manager and Marc Panepinto staffer / Pigeon insider David Pfaff’s home address, transferred $2,000 to Mazurek in late August. This particular Pigeon-connected political action committee reports that it was funded entirely by Republican money, including Carl Paladino’s. 

Steve Pigeon set up “WNY Freedom” in late 2013, around the same time that the Preetsmas target WNY Progressive Caucus (a/k/a “AwfulPAC“) was winding its activities down. Its first donations, as the News reported, came from Carl Paladino. 

Buffalo developer Carl P. Paladino, who also is not suspected of any wrongdoing, said Pigeon asked him to donate $1,000 in October 2013 – immediately after the WNY Progressive Caucus raised $267,000 for opponents of candidates backed by Pigeon adversaries in Democratic headquarters.

For some reason, Carl didn’t just send a check for $1,000, but instead broke it down into five separate $200 donations made by five separate Carl-controlled LLCs, making good use of New York’s execrable LLC loophole. So, Steve says “jump”, and Carl spits, “how high?” 

WNY Freedom later raised an additional $4,700 from the Buffalo Republican Committee. 

To be clear – the only money ever used to fund the WNY Freedom PAC came from Republicans – the Buffalo committee and Carl Paladino. In fact, the Buffalo Republican Committee went broke in part thanks to its funding of a Pigeon PAC. Until now, the PAC itself has reported giving money only to a few local charitable organizations, but to no political campaign. This is false, misleading, and illegal. Firstly, if Mazurek’s 11 day pre-primary disclosure duly noted the $2,000 inflow from WNY Freedom, why hasn’t the PAC itself disclosed this amount? 

In fact, the WNY Freedom PAC has a habit of not disclosing donations it makes on its own books, while they appear on the books of other campaigns. Again: WNY Freedom reports only ever having raised $5,700 from any source, ever. So, explain this: 

How is it that a Steve Pigeon PAC that has only ever raised $5,700 has the wherewithal to make contributions in excess of $10,500 over the years – including $8,000 reported by the Dick Dobson for Sheriff campaign, which was the centerpiece of the AwfulPAC effort in 2013? 

And where is the Board of Elections on this? Where is the District Attorney or Attorney General on this? These aren’t some newish pikers – this PAC is run by people with decades’ worth of experience as party and campaign insiders. There is no accident here. This is not “mistakes” being “made”.  This is a deliberate scheme to circumvent the law and exploit its inherent weaknesses. Check 1003 to the Lancaster committee; Check 1004 to Mychajliw’s committee on 10/22/13. The Dobson donation was originally reported as being made from AwfulPAC itself; witness this incredible explanation: 

Who funded this? Where did it come from? Why won’t these people just follow the rules? To this day, we have no idea how WNY Freedom came up with $8,000 to give to Dick Dobson, nor has it disclosed any such contribution, or how it might have conceivably been financed. 

It’s just one of several Steve Pigeon-connected political slush funds. There are so many, even their principals have probably lost track of them all. 

By contrast, Mazurek’s opponent Monica Wallace’s campaign committee is $50,000 in the black. Wallace pledges to go to Albany to fight the sort of corruption and campaign finance irregularities that Mazurek embodies. This past weekend, County Executive Mark Poloncarz endorsed Wallace. Underscoring the import of that endorsement, Mazurek exploded, 

Kristy Mazurek today dismissed Mark Poloncarz’s endorsement of her opponent as predictable and irrelevant. “It is hard to believe that this is newsworthy,” stated Mazurek. “This guy is a career politician, a Democratic Party Boss and he doesn’t even live in the district. Why would anyone in Cheektowaga, Depew, Lancaster or Sloan care who he supports,” noted Mazurek.

*Whom. If it’s irrelevant, why comment on it? If not newsworthy, why issue a press release? Is Poloncarz a “career politician”? Hm, not really. He was a lawyer before he sought elected office. Is he a “party boss”? No. Why would people in the 143rd care whom he supports? Because he is the County Executive; they are all his constituents, and he enjoys widespread support in those communities. 

“The only endorsement I want is from voters,” declared Mazurek. “I find it comical the County Executive claims he cares about the people of the 143rd based on his recent actions,” said Mazurek. “He just slashed ALL funding to Polish Arts and Cultural organizations in the 2016 budget and battled over plans with a local landmark in Lancanster — the dam at Como Lake Park.

The issues at the dam at Como Lake Park are aesthetic in nature; silt has built up behind the dam, and Republican County Legislator Tim Morton has been very vocal in demanding that the county clean it up. To do so, however, would cost $1.5 million out of a $1.6 million parks budget, and there exists no need or political will to spend that kind of money on an issue having nothing to do with health or safety. As for the alleged slashing of “ALL funding” to Polish arts and cultural organizations in 2016, that’s a lie. Poloncarz’s administration recommended that the Polish Arts Club receive a County grant of $6,800. No one knows what Mazurek is talking about with her capitalized, “Polish Arts and Cultural” organizations. 

“Furthermore, this is the same crew that endorsed the previous Assembly member time and time again after knowing of his harassing behavior in Albany. They sent him back to Albany, with their seal of approval, to prey on more victims! They should be ashamed,” declared Mazurek

Mark Poloncarz isn’t a “crew”, and never endorsed Dennis Gabryszak. In fact, when Gabryszak’s behavior came to light, Poloncarz was among the first to demand his resignation. 

“Voters should know that after announcing my candidacy; I opted not to solicit any endorsements from elected officials, labor unions or special interest groups,” explained Mazurek. “For the record I’m a member of several unions, will work with all elected officials to improve our area and am looking forward to telling Albany special interest groups that my only special interest is the people who live in Cheektowaga, Depew, Lancaster and Sloan,” concluded Kristy.

She rejects endorsements from electeds, unions, and “special interest groups”.  She has only accepted the endorsement of shady, non-transparent PACs created by indictee Steve Pigeon with Republican money. 

When you look at Monica Wallace’s disclosure, they’re doing everything by the book. When you look at Mazurek’s, it’s clear that they don’t have the book, and even if they did, it’s doubtful they could read it. 

Primary Day is September 13th. Every vote counts. 

Suburban arterials no longer run through farmland, yet the State Department of Transportation still treats them like rural routes. Streets like Sheridan, Transit, Niagara Falls Boulevard, Maple, and others are essentially four-plus-one lane highways, and the safety of pedestrians who have to occasionally cross them are not being adequately addressed.

Earlier this week, a man using a walker was struck by a car and killed while crossing Niagara Falls Boulevard. On Wednesday, Channel 7 posted this to Facebook: 

This person appears to be disabled and is crossing at Thistle and NFB. The closest crosswalk is a .1 mile walk south; about 1/4 mile round-trip. For someone with difficulty getting around, that’s a big detour.

On the Boulevard and other suburban arterials like it, the priority is car traffic and pedestrians don’t even have the status of an afterthought. It’s when you see Sudanese cleaning women crossing Transit to get to their bus stop from the Staybridge Suites at Sheridan, with no crosswalk within a reasonable distance. It’s when a girl is struck and killed crossing at Culpepper and Maple to get to a school playground. Could she have used the crosswalk at MacArthur? Sure. Should there be more frequent crossing locations for pedestrians to reach the school? Yes. People who don’t have cars put themselves in danger every time they cross these roads, and the DOT couldn’t care less.

Need proof? How about Channel 7 shaming this woman for trying to get from Ted’s or Anderson’s to home without taking a 1/4 mile detour south to do it. The video’s text informs you that a woman is seen crossing NFB without using a crosswalk. The walker is clearly visible, and she is accused of crossing “in the middle of traffic and without using a crosswalk”. But she is crossing at an intersection, albeit one with no crosswalk despite there being an Anderson’s and a Ted’s on the Amherst side of the street. WKBW shouldn’t be shaming a disabled woman for not detouring a quarter-mile to use a crosswalk, but query why the crosswalks are so far-between. 

I’m no expert, and I don’t know the right answer here – more crosswalks w/ HAWK signals or some other pedestrian-activated lights when needed? Introduction of roundabouts, bump-outs, or some other traffic calming to shorten the crossing distances? But to save lives, towns, the county, and the state need to investigate where people are crossing streets and plan appropriately to protect their safety. Crossings need to be improved to save lives. 

Shame the DOT and elected officials – not disabled women trying to get home from Ted’s. 

They say a person is known by the company she keeps. With respect to Kristy Mazurek, who is running in the Democratic primary race for the 143th Assembly seat about to be vacated in disgrace by Conservative Angela Wozniak, who replaced Democrat Dennis Gabryszak – who also vacated it in disgrace – the news from her current and former company isn’t good. 

Kristy Mazurek is a close confidant of Steve Pigeon, who is under federal and state investigation and has been indicted on nine state felony charges relating to Pigeon’s relationship with former State Supreme Court Justice John Michalek. For his part, Michalek has already pled guilty to crimes related to the same set of facts, resigned his office, and awaits sentencing in September. 

While Mazurek pulls the Buffalo News’ leg attempting to distance herself from Pigeon, he grants her power of attorney to sell off his condo. As it happens, Pigeon executed the document in San Diego. 

“I am not Steve’s keeper,” she said. “Just because I’m associated with someone. … does that make me a bad person?”

Not necessarily, but when you have power of attorney over someone’s business transactions you are, in a way, their “keeper”; at least for the purpose(s) described. But no one is arguing whether or not Mazurek is a “bad person”. There are plenty of “bad people” who are concomitantly qualified or competent to be elected to public office. Mazurek isn’t one of them. Look, if Mazurek doesn’t have a problem being associated with Pigeon, she shouldn’t crop him out of pictures she uses on her lit. 

I have no idea what Pigeon might be up to in San Diego, but that locale doesn’t seem to be an accident. Pigeon’s erstwhile protege and former State Senator Anthony Nanula lives there, and in 2012 he co-founded American Coastal Properties with Buffalo developer Nick Sinatra. WGRZ recently reported on the appendices to the warrants that enabled law enforcement to enter and search Pigeon’s condo. From Channel 2’s story: 

One of them was the search warrant in question. In it, it states the search is looking for evidence related to “Steve Pigeon’s unlawful lobbying on behalf of Nick Sinatra”.

Sinatra is a former Republican operative who is now head of Sinatra & Company, a growing real estate development company in Buffalo.

When 2 On-Your-Side reached out to Sinatra, this statement was offered on his behalf:

“While Mr. Sinatra has had previous business relationships with Steve Pigeon, he has no knowledge of Steve Pigeon lobbying on his behalf. Mr. Sinatra has no connection to the Western New York Progressive Caucus. He is not part of this investigation and has not been contacted by investigators for many months. Mr. Sinatra has never been under investigation nor does he expect to be under investigation.”  

Then there’s another document the Pigeon defense team would like the jury not to see. It is a report of a police interview with Pigeon from August of 2008. The interview was conducted by investigators from the Erie County District’s office and the FBI. 

According to the report, Pigeon acknowledges he is owner of a business called Landon Associates. Named as his business partner is Roger Stone, who Pigeon reportedly describes at the, “Darth Vader of the Republican Party.”

Seeing “Landon Associates” in a campaign’s filing is like a coded beacon that the Pigeoning of an election is underway. (E.g., here, here, here). Sinatra’s company was somehow caught up in the 2013 financing of the WNY Progressive Caucus (“AwfulPAC”). On August 19, 2013, AwfulPAC reported receiving $4,000 in one lump sum from Frank Max’s Progressive Democrats of WNY. Yet for some reason Max’s group didn’t report it that way, instead showing three separate amounts. AwfulPAC also says that it received money long before Max’s group says it contributed it, which is truly psychic in its prescience. The money orders were supposedly purchased by an employee of Sinatra’s, who denies having done so; his name was allegedly improperly substituted for the actual purchaser, and anyone purchasing a money order for more than $3,000 must show ID. That Nanula/Sinatra venture may explain G. Stephen’s visit to sunny California. 

As for Mazurek’s fitness for public office, her former co-worker, Bill O’Loughlin, deserves a hearing. O’Loughlin took his morning political talk radio program from WECK to Channel 2, and brought on Mazurek as a Democratic foil on the show known as “2Sides”. O’Loughlin quit 2Sides, and reveals on his new radio program that Mazurek was the reason he left; that he could no longer work with her. O’Loughlin spent a good portion of his August 28th program explaining why he thinks Mazurek is not qualified for public office, which he boiled down to, “drunk in Albany, drunk in Georgia, lawyered up.” Mazurek continued 2Sides with co-hosts including current Comptroller Stefan Mychajliw, former Collins Chief of Staff Chris Grant, and political consultant and PR flack Michael Caputo.

These are ringing endorsements indeed. 

Flaherty’s Push Poll

Earlier this week, someone – likely the Flaherty for DA campaign itself – “leaked” the results of a poll showing Flaherty absolutely crushing his Democratic primary opponents, John Flynn and Mark Sacha. But the law states that any campaign releasing the results of any poll must release the entire thing, in its entirety, and also file it with the Board of Elections. Flaherty’s campaign, which has already engaged in cheap and unbecoming shenanigans such as buying “FlynnforDA.com” and redirecting it to Flaherty’s own site, then did just that – released and filed the entire poll. But as people looked at the way in which this poll was conducted, this ploy has blown up in the campaign’s face. 

The poll was conducted by David Binder research in late July, surveying 401 likely voters. It used language to confirm for people that Flaherty was the incumbent, “your District Attorney”, and fed people a barrage of negative messaging against Flynn – three separate attacks, while similar attacks on Sacha and Flaherty were very inside baseball. It falsely linked Flynn to Pigeon, called Flynn a “perennial candidate”, and falsely accused Flynn of supporting a wife-beater. That’s one way to suppress the vote and underhandedly attack your opponent with falsehoods. 

The Flaherty campaign didn’t release this poll from a position of strength, but of fear. It is desperate to destroy Flynn and, by extension, Democratic Chairman Jeremy Zellner, and will go so far as to conduct – and publish – a blatant push-poll, but not before trying illegally to leak it. Flynn’s fundraising has been very successful, while Flaherty’s has lagged. Flaherty is trying to portray himself as inevitable in order to bolster his own fundraising efforts, despite his campaign being objectively outperformed in support and cash. County Executive Mark Poloncarz will enter the fray at a press conference scheduled for 2pm on Thursday. 

60th Senate District Shitshow

Republican Kevin Stocker is going to court to prevent his removal from the Conservative fusion line based on the elimination of just enough petition signatures. He accuses Conservative fusion party boss Ralph Lorigo of retaining private investigators to pose as law enforcement and intimidate people into renouncing their signatures in some way. Given that Republican County Clerk Chris Jacobs, who has not yet told voters whether he supports his party’s Presidential nominee, will almost certainly get the (R) line, Stocker’s removal from the (C) line would leave him effectively out of the November general election. 

The Republicans have also tried to take over the Green Party line again, and that, too, is going to court due to some apparent petition irregularities in an effort led by Todd Aldinger, who was most recently the chairman of the Erie County Charter Revision Commission. 

Second Amendment Solutions

As for the Presidential campaign, you’d think it was October. Hillary Clinton is running a professional, competent campaign effort. She is discussing the issues, traveling the country, and inundating swing and battleground states with advertisements. The same can’t be said for the Republicans, who find themselves backing an authoritarian charlatan with a mouth as big as his experience and knowledge are microscopic. We have learned in the last few weeks a few things – 1. Clinton Derangement Syndrome is an acute affliction that becomes more desperate with each passing day, appears to be a virus that can lay dormant for as many as 16 years before recurring; and 2. the entire campaign has become an exercise in “what insane thing will Donald Trump say next?” 

Just when you think Trump has said the most outrageous lie, he tells another. It’s comical that, in order to do battle with a Democratic candidate whom they wish to portray as “crooked”, the Republicans have selected a serial, inveterate liar. 

Earlier this week, Trump went too far, exhorting his cult to commit acts of violence. It came after Trump claimed – falsely – that Hillary Clinton would repeal the 2nd Amendment. Presidents don’t have the power to repeal Constitutional amendments, so Trump’s lie isn’t even especially clever. Here is what Trump said, within its full “context”: 

So here, I just wrote this down today. Hillary wants to raise taxes — it’s a comparison. I want to lower them. Hillary wants to expand regulations, which she does bigly. Can you believe that? I will reduce them very, very substantially, could be as much as 70 to 75 percent. Hillary wants to shut down energy production. I want to expand it. Lower electric bills, folks! Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish, the Second Amendment. By the way, and if she gets to pick –if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know. But I’ll tell you what, that will be a horrible day, if — if — Hillary gets to put her judges in.”

“Bigly”, for fuck’s sake. They nominated a guy who talks like a 1st grader. But forget the “substance” of Trump’s cretinous stream of consciousness, let’s look at the remarks. The Trump people have claimed that what Trump really meant was that 2nd Amendment “people” should wield their political power, not their guns. OK. But if Hillary Clinton is President, she’s already won and there’s no voting power to be wielded anymore. Sure, the Senate could block a Clinton nomination – assuming it’s got enough Republicans left in it. But “2nd Amendment people” don’t do that – Senators do. What happened here is that Trump suggested that gun owners, many of whom already believe that their right to bear arms is wholly unrestricted, and that the 2nd Amendment was somehow designed by the nation’s Founders specifically to enable guys like accused election fraudster Rus Thompson to do battle with law enforcement and the government; “tyranny”, as defined by idiots. 

Trump knew exactly what he meant, when he suggested that the 2nd Amendment people’s intervention would lead to a “horrible” day, before quickly pivoting to make it not about assassination but judicial selection. This wasn’t a dog-whistle, but Lucille Bluth’s rape horn. This is how assassinations happen. It doesn’t matter what Trump says he meant, or what his supporters try to explain away – what matters is how one well-armed, poorly hinged lunatic interprets Trump’s constant delegitimization of Hillary Clinton, and his calls to “lock her up”, and “crooked Hillary”, whom he would “indict” on his first day in office. It’s come to this: Trump conspiring with Julian Assange to accuse Hillary Clinton of somehow ordering the murder of a young DNC staffer in Washington DC, because reasons.

Maybe Carl Paladino, the worst person in the world, can’t comprehend what Trump meant, but the Secret Service sure did. 

Maybe Nick Langworthy has nothing to say about it, but this is a country where a person can bring a Hillary Clinton effigy in a coffin to the Hamburgfest car show and win a fucking award. HAHA IT’S FUNNY BECAUSE HELLARY HITLERY KLINTOON IS A [insert misogynist epithet here]. They’re losing to her, so they want to kill her. It’s really quite simple. 

Trump’s is the InfoWars campaign. Hillary Clinton is an easy mark for right-wing lunatics to project whatever they want. But as Trump pivots from his “2nd Amendment people” incitement to accusing President Obama of “founding” ISIS, to – what’s he going to say today? That he’ll nuke Chappaqua? All Secretary Clinton has to do is get out of the way of her opponent’s self-destruction. Even the bullshit about the Orlando shooter’s father attending her campaign rally blew up in Trump’s face, when former Congressman Mark Foley was seen prominently behind Trump at a rally last night. Foley, a pervert, was caught propositioning underage Congressional pages. 

The only thing at this point more glaring than the Trump campaign’s relentless death spiral is the silence of key surrogate Congressman Chris Collins, who will sell out every principle he ever pretended to have in order to get a cabinet post in America’s first neo-fascist regime. Donald Trump’s campaign began in earnest in 2012, with Trump’s relentlessly racist birther campaign against Hawaiian-born President Obama. He is an appalling disgrace in every conceivable way. 

Wal-Mart. Save Money. Live Better. Underwrite school privatization efforts. 

The mailers reached Republican homes in the 60th Senate District Shitshow this week, and were paid for by “Campaign for a Fair New York”. I had never heard of it before. So, I looked it up. Here’s the back side of that mailer shown above: 

The Campaign for a Fair New York is, hilariously enough, based out of Connecticut. 

Mr. Phillips’ home is a lovely 3 bedroom that was sold in late 2015 for just under $400,000 – a bargain in Milford, a town on the Long Island Sound and the New Haven Line. The committee now has a P.O. Box in Buffalo, and is operated by the Northeast Charter Schools Network, of which Mr. Phillips is a trustee. The NCSN bills itself as,

…the membership and advocacy organization for charter schools in New York and Connecticut.  Formerly known as the New York Charter Schools Association, the organization was established in 2000. 

Our mission is to support and expand the high-quality charter school movement in both states. We work to advance pro-charter school legislation at the State Capitol in Albany and Hartford, and our team of veteran charter school experts is always available to assist our member schools with services designed to help them operate more effectively. 

Our advocacy staff understands that despite tremendous promise and performance, charter schools often need defending. The NECSN team has been successful on many fronts, bringing significant victories to the charter school movement despite tough budget cycles. We continue to fight for charter kids to close the funding gap between charter and district schools.

We communicate with our members often, providing immediate updates to schools on policies and proceedings in Albany and Hartford, circulate legislative updates, help organize advocacy visits for schools and parents, and tell you stories in the press and on digital and social media.

It also, apparently, endorses and makes independent expenditures on behalf of candidates for public office and echoes the Trump slogan with, “Make Buffalo Proud Again”, which is interesting because I think Buffalo is pretty damn proud already. #Buffalove, right? 

This NECSN PAC has one source of funding: a $75,000 contribution from Alice Walton, of the Wal-Mart family. (Click to enlarge)

So far, the “Campaign for a Fair New York” PAC didn’t see fit to use any vendors actually located within the state of New York, instead opting to spend half of Ms. Walton’s contribution on direct mail services with a company in Cornwall, Connecticut. (Click to enlarge)

The question on everyone’s mind at this point, however, is this. Is the Charter School lobby supporting only Republican candidates, and do they get their funding solely from billionaire philanthropists, or from other sources? If Jacobs doesn’t mind his image next to a Trumpian phrase, does this mean he endorses Trump the candidate, or just that he’s willing to exploit the obvious rhetorical connection for electoral gain, while not directly addressing the issue? 

It bears mentioning that Jacobs was a named principal of this lobbying group in 2009, and again from 2011 – 2014. The circumstantial evidence here points to the Jacobs campaign being a bit spooked by his primary opponent, Kevin Stocker. Stocker has been doing a lot of retail door-to-door politicking for years, and came close to winning two years ago. Like Jacobs, Stocker isn’t afraid to spend gobs of his own money to go to the execrable state Senate. Rumor has it that the race is tight; there’s been some heavy polling activity lately, and these early mailers – Connecticut made with Arkansas money – from a previously unknown committee underscore what must be a sense of unease within the Jacobs effort.