George Maziarz: Is he devil or angel?

Is he a devil, beholden to his big union and corporate contributors and running a pay-for-play political empire, as his critics charge, or is he an angel who dropped everything on a Sunday afternoon to drive a constituent to New York City to catch a plane to Germany to see his brother who had been wounded in Iraq?

One thing for sure is that nine-term State Sen. George Maziarz, who is running for re-election next month in the 62nd District, that will, for the first time, include the City of Niagara Falls, is a major political force who, as a member of the Republican-controlled State Senate, holds many powerful leadership positions including chairmanship of the Energy Committee.

Maziarz, of Newfane, is highly favored to win re-election next month against Amy Hope Witryol of Lewiston, who will run on the Democratic and Working Families lines against the incumbent, who is the Republican, Conservative, and Independent candidate. Maziarz’s upwards of three-quarters-of-a-million dollar war chest dwarfs Witryol’s resources and he outspent his GOP primary opponent Johnny Destino 4-1, scoring a huge victory over the Niagara Falls School Board member last month that literally drove Destino to quit the GOP and join the Democrats.

Sen. Maziarz is very much a scrappy political figure who does not run from a fight and is known as a no-holds-barred counter puncher as he demonstrated in the recent primary, turning on former political allies Steve Pigeon and Gary Parenti who were supporting Destino and makes no apologies for his response, telling the Reporter they were using Destino to try and hurt him. He has cut both of them out of his political field.

Maziarz and Pigeon collaborated briefly in the 2009 State Senate coup that paralyzed the State Legislature for about a month, but they split when Maziarz blamed Pigeon for helping to engineer the Erie County Conservative Party endorsement of Chuck Swanick last spring over Republican Mark Grisanti, a key GOP vote in the Senate. They have been at each other’s throats ever since, even though Grisanti holds a commanding lead in the polls against Swanick and Democrat Michael Amodeo in that 60th District race and looks like an easy winner.

There is also no love lost between Maziarz and Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster, a Democrat, and even in the midst of the city’s current fiscal crisis, Dyster did not respond to a letter from Maziarz offering to help set up a meeting with the governor to try and find help for the city as it prepares to deal with a $7 million budget gap.

Maziarz calls Dyster “highly partisan,” and says “he seems to be against me at every turn, even when I was working to bring in Nik Wallenda,” a huge win for Niagara Falls.

The senator ranks the extraordinary Wallenda wire walk over the falls last June as one of his greatest achievements, saying it brought worldwide attention to the city and “is a gift that keeps on giving,” citing Wallenda’s interest in establishing a permanent attraction on the American side of the border.

“Nik is coming in again this week to continue to look for possible sites for his center,” Maziarz said during an interview, “and we [Niagara Falls] are going to get a second year of great publicity from Nik as he prepares to walk across the Grand Canyon next June, an event that will be billed as “Wallenda Beyond Niagara,” adding that the aerialist has already signed a network deal.

Maziarz says that if he is successful in November in his bid for a 10th term, he will devote a great deal of his efforts to development in the City of Niagara Falls which is now part of the 62nd District which already includes all of Niagara and Orleans Counties and the western portions of Monroe County.

“The city needs to be held accountable for all the spending,” said Maziarz, “and that includes USA Niagara. They [city and USA Niagara] have gone through $100 million from the state and another $65 million from the Senecas, and what do they have to show for it?”

Maziarz points to the success he’s had at the Niagara Falls International Airport as how things can get done when work and resources are pointed in the right direction.

“In 1998, I called the first meeting to reorganize the airport, and now the parking lot is full,” he said. “There are five new hotels and one more in the design phase, built to accommodate all that demand from Southern Ontario. The Factory Outlet Mall is expanding, the stores are filled along Military Road and Niagara Falls Boulevard, and people are shopping and staying at our hotels.”

He is still hoping to increase air traffic, especially on the cargo side, and notes that Allegiant Air, which currently serves the airport, has just purchased an additional 20 jets and he is hoping to help them get more routes to fly west from Niagara Falls.
In 2009, 1,000 people utilized the airport,” said Maziarz, “and in 2011, the number increased to 200,000 people,” clearly underscoring the dramatic gains at the Niagara Falls facility which had been little more than an eyesore for many years.

Maziarz makes no apologies, either, for his long list of fat cat contributors, saying raising money is a necessary part of the political cycle, “especially when you are not wealthy,” and the former Niagara County clerk says he fits into that category.

He claimed to know nothing about the GOP-controlled Niagara County Legislature working out deals for one of his biggest contributors, David Ulrich, saying only he has known Ulrich for 25 years since they became friends as members of the Young Republican’s Club.

And Maziarz is quick to note his success in helping local businesses, like the state-of-the-art ethanol plant in Orleans County, an $87-million facility in the Town of Shelby. It was built in 2005 with help from Maziarz working with state and local development officials, “and they get 85 percent of their corn from local farmers,” he proudly told the Reporter.

The politically-wired Maziarz points to his success in Albany in sponsoring two pieces of legislation under the banner Recharge New York which provide businesses with access to low-cost power. In recent months, he said, “104 local businesses have significantly lowered their operating costs, thanks to this legislation.”

As an example, he cited Mayer Brothers, an apple and juice processing company with mills in Barker and West Seneca that received an allocation of low-cost power and is now going to reinvest $7 million of their savings into their plants.

“The president of the company said it was only possible because of the Recharge New York legislation,” Maziarz said, “and this is a real boon to local apple growers because it gives them a great market for their apples.”

Maziarz has been frequently criticized by his political enemies and his detractors for not doing enough to cut taxes or reduce the size of government, but his legislative clout is unmistakable. While he controls a powerful political organization that his primary opponents used to condemn him, he nonetheless is a strong local voice in Albany who has worked well with Gov. Cuomo who he credits for helping to clear the way for Wallenda’s walk as a personal favor to him.

And he has another supporter from across the political aisle in Buffalo attorney Peter Reese, a Democratic Party activist and animal lover and strong supporter of the no-kill movement at the Niagara County SPCA.

Reese emailed the following response when I asked him about his relationship with Sen. Maziarz: “My interactions with the Senator have always involved companion animal welfare issues. He has always been helpful. In the battle to reform the NC SPCA, he was way out in front, well ahead of local animal welfare activists.”

Reese added that prior to the first big demonstration at the shelter last January when news broke of large-scale mismanagement and animal abuse, Maziarz had already united most municipal leaders in Niagara County calling for changes.

As we said at the beginning, is he devil or angel? Maybe, just maybe, he is a little bit of both and he is certainly a survivor in the tough world of politics. If he wins as expected next month, he will bring his resources, his political might, and his strong will to the fight to restore Niagara Falls to a better place.