Can Accardo Freeze the Dyster Juggernaut the Way Dyster Froze 72nd Street

Mayor Paul Dyster is the proverbial lottery winner who instead of plan-ning his spending and investment went right out and blew through the lottery winnings...and here the city sits, in debt at the end of the eight year casino cash spending orgy.

 

The "Accardo for Mayor" campaign should be concerned, very, concerned.

Why? Because the candidate they're challenging - Paul Dyster - has raised taxes, flew through the casino revenue, driven the city into deficit,  increased the debt, rewarded employees and campaign donors with contracts and raises while letting residents suffer through two winters of frozen water lines...and still the voters rewarded him with a primary win.

Think about that: a sitting mayor allowed residents to go without running water for two winters and a majority of the voters STILL supported him at the polls! It's an amazing thing and only possible in a city as troubled, abused, and confused as Niagara Falls.

The Dyster Machine, created in Buffalo boardrooms, is nothing if not an immense, well-funded, behemoth lacking anything remotely resembling a conscience. It's fed with campaign cash from Dyster's friendly donors and spits out consultant and construction contracts in return. It's a reverse golden goose gobbling up taxpayer dollars and laying golden eggs for preferred business people and select city officials.

The Dyster Machine defies both explanation and budging. And for that reason it will be extremely difficult for the Accardo campaign to break the voter inertia and send Paul Dyster back to his Tonawanda beer brewing business.

Accardo is advised to stop talking in generalities and begin speaking in specifics. It's not enough to make a press release laundry list of city fiscal problems and casino revenue abuse. The fiscal problems must be named and a coherent cure must be prescribed. The state audit claimed that taxpayer money was mishandled and unaccounted for. What's the fix for that? The city's mysterious repeating deficit has been noted by candidate Accardo but what is the candidate's precise solution to crack that "mystery"? Casino money has been spent irresponsibly and perhaps even inappropriately...those instances of irresponsibility and inappropriateness should be so noted by the challenger.

Low information voters in the city are nothing if not a textbook example of inertia. They'll move to the polls for the challenger only if they're motivated by a clear, on the nose, argument. That argument should be two-pronged: 1) this is exactly what's wrong with city government, and 2) this is precisely how the wrongs will be righted.

Local political "experts" believe 10,000 voters will turn out on Election Day. About 5000 total voters appeared at the polls on primary day. Both turnouts are low. That doesn't matter, what matters is the mindset of the anticipated 10,000. Will Choolokian's primary votes, in large part, move to Accardo or will the majority of Choolokian votes simply gravitate to Dyster "because he's a Democrat"?

With Republicans outnumbered in the city by more than 3 to 1 by Democrats is there even a chance for Accardo? History tells us that Jake Palillo and Irene Elia were elected as Republicans. Very true. But that was many, pre-Dyster, years ago. Dyster brings unlimited Buffalo based campaign dollars to the table along with a built-in voter network of public safety employees, department heads, well paid city hall sycophants as well as friends and family members of the foregoing.

Candidate Paul Dyster allowed residents to go without running water for two long winters. And still he won the primary. That is a chilling, a bone chilling, political reality.