Latest news with #NiagaraCountyBoardofElections
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Crowded field for Falls City Council race this year
It's going to be a crowded field for open seats on the Niagara Falls City Council this year. The Niagara County Board of Elections confirmed this week that a total of nine candidates have qualified for ballot placement — six Democrats and three Republicans. On the Democratic side, the list includes the three candidates endorsed by the party's county committee, including local realtor Noah Munoz, former city employee Bridgette Myles and former city Department of Public Works director John Kinney Jr. The non-endorsed Democrats include incumbent Falls Councilman Donta Myles and residents Michia Lee and Sylvana Rahman. Munoz, Kinney and Bridgette Myles received backing from the county Democrats earlier this year after they passed on endorsing incumbent Donta Myles who has clashed, at times publicly, with Mayor Robert Restaino, who is a long-time member of the Democratic Party committee. The trio of Republican candidates have all been endorsed by the local GOP committee and include incumbent city lawmaker David Zajac, former Falls councilman Vincent Cauley and local realtor Tanya Barone. All nine candidates are vying to secure one of three open seats on the city council this year. The terms of Donta Myles and Zajac come to a close at the end of the year. The council seat currently held by incumbent Republican lawmaker Traci Bax Bax is also up this year. Unlike Donta Myles and Zajac, Bax decided not to seek reelection this year.
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ousted from primary ballot by a single signature, Mongielo questions elections board ethics
'Removed.' That was the final determination at the close of the Monday hearing at the Niagara County Board of Elections where Lockport auto repair shop owner Dave Mongielo learned his bid to secure a spot on this year's primary ballot as a Republican Party candidate in the Niagara County Legislature's 12th District failed by one signature. Mongielo submitted designating petitions signed by 218 people. He needed the Board of Elections to validate 75 of them to quality. At the end of the hearing, the county's two election commissioners, Democrat Lora Allen and Republican Jennifer Sandonato, determined only 74 should count. 'I think it's rigged,' Mongielo said in an interview following the hearing. Allen and Sandonato, who are appointed by members of the political committees representing their respective parties, are tasked with validating signatures on petitions. Both must agree before petitions can be legally certified. Mongielo contends they have a vested interest in keeping him off the ballot because the parties that gave them their jobs have also endorsed candidates in the same race he's trying to run in. County Democrats endorsed incumbent 12th district legislator Carla Speranza while county Republicans and Conservatives are backing former legislator Will Collins. Speranza defeated Collins in the 2023 election. 'It's huge conflict,' Mongielo said. 'The Democrats have a Democratic candidate against me so they don't want me to run because they know their candidate already beat Will Collins. And, of course, the Republicans don't want me to run against Collins and they don't want me because I always ask them questions they don't want to answer.' Sandonato and her husband, Vince, who was appointed by the legislature as the county's Medicaid fraud specialist earlier this year, have both made campaign contributions to the local Republican party and various GOP candidates, including current county lawmakers, in recent years. Records on file with the state board of elections show the Sandonatos have also received campaign funds from the local GOP and candidates for services they provided to the committees that related to fundraising and other activities. Records show in April 2024 Jennifer Sandonato received $395 from the Niagara County Republican Committee for what's listed as 'office' 'expenditures/payments.' In January, she received $106 for reimbursement of postage for fundraising expenses from the Niagara County Conservative Party. While Allen has far fewer instances of donating to local Democrats, state elections board records show she made a $50 donation to Jeffrey Elder, a Democratic county legislator from Niagara Falls who ran for state assembly last year. Both county and state elections officials say there are no regulations or laws barring election commissioners or other board representatives from donating or receiving campaign funds. Niagara County Public Information Officer Kevin Schuler said the county cannot prohibit election board representatives from making 'personal political choices.' A spokesperson for the state board of elections agreed. Schuler noted that, by virtue of the manner in which they are appointed to their positions by the county Democratic and Republican committees, both Allen and Sandonato are 'inextricably tied' to their respective party. However, county officials stressed that does not mean they do not follow the proper procedures and elections law when determining the validity of a candidate's petitions. 'County employees do not give up their right to support candidates of their choice, including financially. All county (boards of election) operate under these rules. They only prohibition is doing campaign work on county time,' Schuler said. Allen said in her 23 years working for the board of elections, she has always based her decisions on what she thinks is right, not on what candidate or party affiliation may be involved. 'I've never ever done anything because a process was rigged,' she said. Niagara County Attorney Claude Joerg also attended Monday's hearing. He too is appointed by the legislature majority, which has for years been held by Republicans, and has a lengthy list of campaign donations to various local candidates, including a $100 donation last October to Irene Meyers, the legislature's 1st district representative from Lewiston who has been endorsed for reelection by the GOP this year. Joerg does not have a say in deciding the validity of signatures on petitions but he does regularly attend board of elections hearings as the county's legal counsel. 'The county attorney's role at the proceeding conducted at the Niagara County Board of Elections (Monday) morning was to observe the process,' Schuler said. 'In no manner did the county attorney rule on the validity of such petitions, rather the county attorney attempted to keep the proceedings focused on the petitions, rather than personal attacks by Mr. Mongielo.' County officials noted that Mongielo freely admitted during Monday's hearing that he agreed, in excess of 40 of the signatures he obtained were improper. County officials also noted that he recommended the hearing be limited to discussion about just two signatures that he maintained were valid despite the ruling of the board. 'It was at the county attorney's direction that the Niagara County Board of Elections conducted a review of all objections, including the in excess of 40 that (Mongielo) admitted were invalid,' Schuler said. County officials say if Mongielo or anyone else has an issue with how they validate petition signatures, they are welcome to challenge their rulings in court. 'Elections decisions on petitions must be unanimous between the commissioners,' Schuler said. 'This is the check and balance in the system.' Kathleen McGrath, director of public relations for the New York State Board of Elections, concurred. 'Petition review is always conducted in a bipartisan fashion, so a single individual would not be making unilateral decisions,' she said. Mongielo said one of the two voter signatures that were disallowed had a stray mark next to the person's address, which both commissioners determined invalidated it as an accurate address. He now plans to to obtain affidavits from both voters to demonstrate to the elections board their signatures were legally obtained at valid addresses. 'Basically, a crime syndicate runs Niagara County government,' he said. 'The political machine has made it almost impossible for regular people to run for office now. The political machine has made it so that they ensure their candidates get the endorsements and their candidates win the elections. There are substantial conflicts of interest with their official duties. They can't use petitions to secure unwarranted privileges. Administrative hearing procedures require board of elections to ensure fairness and transparency. That's not what's happening here.'
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Wydysh opts out as candidate in legislature's Second District
Rebecca Wydysh, the first female legislator to serve as chair of the Niagara County Legislature, won't be able to seek reelection this year after being denied permission to do so by her bosses with the New York State Unified Court System. While the court system previously allowed Wydysh, who works as the county's deputy commissioner to jurors, to seek and hold public office as a legislator on five previous occasions, she told the newspaper on Tuesday that the office denied her request to do so again this year. 'I was given no explanation or reason,' Wydysh said. By law, state court employees must seek permission from the court system to hold outside employment, which includes positions as a county legislator. The court system granted Wydysh permission to do so in 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2023. Because the court system granted her permission in 2023 to seek a two-year term, Wydysh said she is allowed to maintain her position as a county legislator through the end of her current term, which runs through Dec. 31, 2025. Wydysh said the court system informed her of its decision in a letter she received about a week into the process of securing signatures from registered voters on petitions needed to secure positions on the election ballot. She said the timing of receipt of the letter forced her to make a difficult choice between her political career and maintaining her current full-time job which paid $116,688 last year. 'I was having a hard time at that point deciding what route I was going to take,' she said. 'If I had been approved, I was running 100%. I loved serving as a legislator, but it is a part-time job and I was in no position to quit my job as deputy commissioner of jurors.' Wydysh described her forced departure from the legislature as 'disappointing.' 'It's sad to me because I have absolutely loved serving my community. I will find a way to serve. It just won't be in the legislature,' she said. The Niagara County Board of Elections confirmed that Wydysh declined designating petitions as the Republican and Conservative candidate in the legislature's second district in Lewiston on Monday, the deadline for doing so under state election law. By declining her petitions, Wydysh clears the way for a replacement candidate to be named on the Republican and Conservative lines. The decision will formally be made by the committee to fill vacancies listed on her petitions. Those committee members generally represent supporters of the parties doing the petition passing, which in this case would likely be local Republicans and Conservatives. Niagara County Republican Party Chairman Richard Andres said he expects a replacement could be named as soon as today. He described Wydysh as a dedicated and effective legislator whose service to the public will be greatly missed. 'I'm really baffled as to the internal rules of the office of court administration,' he said. 'It seems to me like they are taking away the ability of someone to serve their community. She's one of the best legislators I've worked with. She's very effective. It's very disappointing to me.' 'We have to fill some pretty big shoes to fill, but we think we have a pretty good solution and somebody that's going to be very effective,' he added. The Niagara County Democratic Party chairman questioned the timing of Wydysh's departure and the convenience of the Republicans having a candidate in line to replace her. In a post appearing on the Niagara County Democratic Party Facebook page early Tuesday, Chris Borgatti suggested Republican leaders 'gamed the system to avoid an election' in Wydysh's district. In a telephone interview, Borgatti acknowledged Democrats were not planning to run a challenger against Wydysh this year. He said the timing of her decision to decline petitions makes it nearly impossible for his party to circulate petitions of its own to get a Democratic candidate on the ballot. Borgatti said the GOP's 'scheme' resulted in Lewiston voters being denied the right to the discussion of issues during a campaign and potentially of the right to choose who should represent them in the legislature's Second District. 'There's no question that she knew about this and that this was a plan,' Borgatti said. 'The unfortunate part is that she treated Lewiston voters, who have taken care of her and voted for her, like this by not giving them an option.' While the Democrats won't be able to field an endorsed candidate, Borgatti said they do intend to find someone to run in the race, likely on an independent line. He said Democrats want to ensure Lewiston voters have a choice against whoever ends up getting the Republican and Conservative nods as Wydysh's replacement. 'Campaigns are discussions with voters about issues,' he said. 'We're going to do our best to find somebody to run an independent challenge and give voters a choice in November. We're committed to doing that.' Borgatti said he'd also like to see a copy of the letter the court system sent to Wydysh and the specific date on which it was delivered to determine if Wydysh had ample opportunity to pass on the petition process and still chose to move forward with it knowing, ultimately, she could not run for the position and keep her full-time job. 'If the court system is saying it's a conflict in the future, why wasn't it a conflict now?' Borgatti said. 'Why wasn't it a conflict a year ago? This whole thing stinks to me. It's just right out of their playbook.' Andres described Borgatti's allegation that the GOP conducted some sort of 'scheme' to circulate petitions for Wydysh and swap her out for another candidate as 'hot air' from the other side of the political aisle. He said both Wydysh and Republican party officials did not anticipate she would be denied the chance to seek reelection having been through a similar cycle of her requesting, and receiving, permission to run in the past. 'We had been through this before, but it effectively went away and they said she was good to go,' Andres said. 'I was very hopeful that she would be able to run.'
Yahoo
23-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Falls City Council GOP members split on re-election decisions
One will seek re-election. One will be leaving The two current Republican members of the Niagara Falls City Council have chosen different directions forward in their political careers. In early January, first-term Council Members David Zajac (R) and Traci Bax (R) had said that they were 'weighing their options' on whether to seek second terms. Now, it appears that Zajac will seek another 4-year term on the council, while Bax will retire. Candidates for offices on the ballot for the 2025 general election in November, will be eligible to 'pull petitions' from the Niagara County Board of Elections on Tuesday. The petitions are used to gather voter signatures to qualify candidates for a spot on the official election ballot. Both Bax and Zajac had hinted that they would wait until just before the date to begin gathering signatures to make final re-election decisions. Bax had told Niagara Falls Republican Party Chair John Sczepczenski in January that she 'would not be running, at this time. However, Bax also said, at that time, 'I could reconsider.' But Bax told the Gazette on Thursday night that her personal work obligations have created challenges to remaining on the council. Bax works in the travel industry, serving as a consultant who helps independent travel agency owners optimize their businesses. She has said her job, with a Toronto-based company, requires a large amount of travel around the United States and Canada. 'It really truly does come down to my travel schedule and missing meetings,' Bax said. 'It's a lot to balance.' The council member said an increasing level of controversy and acrimony at city council meetings played no role in her decision. 'I'm really, really going to miss (the council),' Bax said. 'I liked being involved and trying to make the best decisions for our city.' In early January, Zajac indicated that he was 'leaning' toward a re-election bid. He said he would make a public announcement when he reached a final decision. Earlier this week, Sczepczenski released an announcement that said Zajac had been endorsed by the local GOP for a second term. The council member said his party 'jumped the gun' on his plans. 'I sat down and had a conversation with my family, because you know they are in this with me,' Zajac said. 'The question for me was, 'Is the city moving in the right direction?' and I believe the answer is, 'Yes.'' Zajac also said that having been a part of some of the new initiatives aimed at revitalizing the city, he is 'hoping to be around for their completion.'
