It’s August and the height of summer. New Yorkers are concentrating on baseball, county fairs and corn on the cob. But Albany’s political calendar-makers have graced us with primaries and a special election for next week. Add politics to summer fun. Here is the latest:
• Nick Langworthy, the endorsed Republican in the Aug. 23 primary for the 23rd Congressional District, is turning out crowds as he makes the district rounds. A reliable campaign source notes Langworthy, facing developer Carl Paladino, gathered a decent turnout of more than 70 supporters at the Wellsville Country Club last week. His team has also delivered campaign materials to more than 18,000 homes over the past few weeks.
That’s what happens when you lead the New York State Republican Party. Just about all county leaders are behind the state chairman’s candidacy, including Allegany County’s Mike Healy. They make sure their faithful turn out for events like those at the Wellsville CC.
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• Paladino will not be outdone. His campaign boasts 22 paid staffers who will concentrate on the same get-out-the-vote efforts.
• Turnout is predicted to be extremely low a week from Tuesday. Erie County Democratic Chairman Jeremy Zellner, who is also Democratic elections commissioner, notes that New Yorkers simply are not used to voting in August.
“I’ve heard estimates of 11% and lower,” he said. “People just don’t know about it. They think they’ve already voted in the primaries.”
• Early voting begins this weekend. And with such a low turnout predicted, we can’t begin to fathom the frantic pace of early voting sites in Sardinia.
• Organizational support may provide Langworthy with another advantage on Primary Day. Those same county and town committees in his corner will use all their powers to get voters to the polls.
• Paladino scored one GOP endorsement last week that may motivate his conservative base. Assemblyman David DiPietro of East Aurora announced support for his long time ally.
• All of this occurs as the Paladino-Langworthy volume grows louder. Last week Paladino released a new ad title “Nick Langworthy – Carl Paladino’s biggest fan.” It features snippets of Langworthy’s past praise for Paladino during the 2010 gubernatorial campaign.
“We need change and that change is Carl Paladino,” Langworthy says during a news interview.
These guys used to be friends.
• Sen. Chuck Schumer, running for a fifth term in November, last week demonstrated why Republican opponent Joe Pinion faces a tough assignment. Schumer announced $25 million in federal funds for a major upgrade of Buffalo’s Main Street between Goodell Street and Kensington Avenue. It’s nice to be an incumbent. It’s even nicer to be majority leader of the United States Senate.
• Erie County Democrats are planning what Chairman Zellner bills a “major Buffalo fundraising event” tentatively set for Aug. 27 for Gov. Kathy Hochul, She is the first governor from upstate in more than 100 years, and the first Buffalonian since Grover Cleveland in 1882. You can bet Erie County Dems will make sure this one pulls in as many campaign dollars as possible for their favorite daughter.
Hochul has raised lots of money this election season, but spent lots too. She will need replenished coffers for the general election ahead.
• Quote of the Week comes from long time Paladino ally Michael Caputo: “The functionaries may be in Nick’s corner, but the grass roots are with Carl.”
We pick the veteran political consultant’s quote not because we deem it true, but because its premise may very well reflect what will determine the hard fought battle between these two major Republican names.
If Langworthy can fire up his powerful Republican machine in the district’s six counties, he may pull this off. But if Paladino’s considerable name recognition from his 2020 statewide campaign and years in the headlines prevails, the 23rd may prove “Carl Country” after all.
