Having two competitive congressional races in Western New York for the first time in recent memory offers both good news and bad.
The bad news: a deluge of oversimplified, misleading and incredibly snotty campaign commercials on local airwaves.
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The good news: Voters in the 26th and 27th Districts get something they're rarely afforded and the people of the 28th District encompassing Niagara Falls and part of Buffalo don't have -- a real choice.
Louise Slaughter has opposition in the 28th, but only technically. Republican Mike Laba is a suburban Rochesterian whose feeble campaign consists entirely of being at the Pentagon on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.
He had all of $9,120 in his campaign fund the last time he bothered to file a report -- in June.
That's not going to cut it against a nine-term incumbent like Slaughter, who had $410,721 on hand as of Oct. 13, according to www.opensecrets.org.
Independence Party candidate (for lack of a better word) Francina Cartonia of Williamsville had all of $754 left after a primary bid against Slaughter that netted her just 15 percent of the vote.
But while Slaughter's opponents run for lack of anything better to do, Western New York's other two races feature contestants that are actually trying.
The showdown between Erie County Comptroller Nancy Naples, a Republican, and Democratic State Assemblyman Brian Higgins in the 27th District has been fiercely contested since the moment Jack Quinn (R-Hamburg) announced his retirement last spring.
Higgins fought off a primary challenge to earn his party's spot on the November ballot.
He and Naples have largely eschewed any mention of their own records, instead allowing their respective national parties to flood the market with ads very similar to those running in just about every other contested race in the United States.
In short, Naples is somehow to blame for the policies of President George W. Bush, even though her primary duty in recent years has been keeping an eye on where Erie County Executive Joel Giambra buys furniture.
And Higgins is a classic Washington tax-and-spend liberal, even though he's never actually served in elected office there.
Neither candidate has offered any reason to cross party lines on Nov. 2.
That would figure to work in Higgins' favor, except that the district went to Quinn six straight times.
Still, Naples vs. Higgins is one of Election Day's marquee races, with the Democrats hoping to capitalize on the rare opportunity to pick up an open seat formerly held by the GOP.
Then there's the 27th, a district drawn by former Assemblyman Tom Reynolds' pals in Albany to include as many friendly Republican voters as possible, including GOP enclaves in southern Niagara and northern Erie counties.
As of Oct. 13, Reynolds had already spent nearly $1.23 million, a sure sign that he's not nearly as dismissive of the challenge from Akron businessman Jack Davis as he tries to appear publicly.
While Davis had spent nearly a million in the same time period, and had another $242,000 on hand, he's not going to outspend the incumbent, who had almost $2.1 million on hand.
In an indication Reynolds is feeling some heat, he went negative in recent weeks.
One ad shows a jack-in-the-box -- clever ones, those Republicans -- while the voiceover claims that Davis' riches stem from investments in companies that outsource jobs.
Of course, Reynolds' ads don't say that 92 percent of the congressman's campaign contributions come from business interests and PACs, many of which can't ship jobs out of the United States quickly enough.
Reynolds has also derided Davis as a rich guy trying to buy his way into office. That's apparently in contrast to the congressman, who lets other rich guys keep him in office.
Davis' hopes for an upset will depend on whether voters in the 26th can tell the difference.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Oct. 26 2004 |