Tea party activists target Silver on funding
Published: January 29, 2010, 3:46 pm
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The base of One HSBC Center played a makeshift Valley Forge late Thursday afternoon for a dozen and a half local tea party activists who descended on downtown Buffalo to continue efforts they are billing as the “Second American Revolution.”
The target: Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.
But he didn't show, even though he was the headliner for the $2,000-per-head fundraiser.
Silver, D-Manhattan, was supposed to attend the fundraiser on the 31st floor of the city’s tallest building to benefit the Erie County Democratic Party.
That alone was enough to keep tea party advocates hot despite the frigid environs. The 13-degree temperature with 30-mph wind gusts whipped snow into their eyes as they scanned the wintry terrain for any sight of Silver.
Those attending the pricey affair couldn’t be seen from the tea party encampment, but that didn’t stop protesters from carrying signs depicting pitchforks and anti-Silver slogans like “Stop Giving Cash to This Clunker” and “Silver: Change You Can’t Believe In.” All the while they serenaded him with derisive songs.
“Every single time he has an affair like this, we’re going to be here,” promised Rus Thompson of Grand Island. “Here he is coming into town for $2,000 per plate. What is that for, to kiss his ring? He’s a dictator.”
Many consider Silver to be part of a three-man power team that governs Albany and the cause of many of the financial problems of New York State, especially upstate.
“He’s on top of a totally corrupt system that drags this state down,” said James Ostrowski, a Buffalo lawyer active in the anti-tax tea party movement. “So he’s a perfect target.”
Ostrowski claimed that the modern tea party movement has its origins in Buffalo, has spread nationwide and is gaining serious momentum. He expects the upcoming midterm elections to be “one of the most monumental of the century.”
“We believe in peaceful change,” Ostrowski said. “It’s the second American Revolution without the bullets. We don’t need the bullets, we’re using our minds .‚.‚. and our votes.”
Tony Fortunato of Sloan, who is associated with the “Get Out Of Our House!” organization, which is launching a nationwide effort to defeat House incumbents, said he can feel the groundswell of support from Americans fed up with politicians.
“I’ve seen elderly, the young, stay-at-home mothers, businessmen, businesswomen with us,” Fortunato said. “We are real Americans with real cares that really care for this country.
“It’s time to give the government back to the people, for the people and by the people.”
The tea party protesters, whom some lump with fringe groups, staged a similar event outside the Buffalo Chop House for Senate Democrats last summer at the height of the Senate coup that ground Albany to a halt for almost a month. They also held tax protests at Erie Canal Harbor last April and on Independence Day in Niagara Square, drawing 200 people who complained about the state’s “dysfunctional government.”
But their anti-tax sentiments and rebellion against some incumbents has taken on a much more centrist hue in recent months, and they were credited with forming a significant portion of Republican Scott Brown’s plurality in his recent victory for the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s seat in Massachusetts.
Ostrowski said picketing a fundraiser charging $2,000 per ticket is a “perfect way to send a message to the politicians.”
“We’re asking people why they would donate to the same politicians who have caused 50 years of decline,” he said.
Thompson, another organizer of Thursday’s event, said his group was particularly incensed because Silver came to Buffalo immediately after blocking Gov. David A. Paterson’s attempt to secure $710 million in federal education funding by expanding the number of charter schools in New York.
“For him to single-handedly stop it was an absolute slap in the face to parents,” Thompson said, “especially minority parents who want to put their kids in charter schools.”
Now, Thompson said, the state has lost the significant funds provided by the federal “Race to the Top” program.
“Instead of Race to the Top, we’re racing to the bottom,” he said.
Silver declined an interview request from The Buffalo News.
Erie County Democratic Party Chairman Leonard R. Lenihan, whose organization benefited from the fundraiser, said the event traditionally draws top New York Democrats like Sen. Charles E. Schumer, former Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton or former Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer.
“Any prominent Democrat who comes in — no matter whether it’s federal, state or local — the tea party people are there,” Lenihan said. “They were there at a [Rep.] Brian Higgins fundraiser, and I think most people think Brian Higgins is a pretty good guy.”
The chairman made no excuses for inviting Silver to headline an event that pays the rent for Democratic headquarters as well as salaries and other operational expenses.
“I feel great about it,” Lenihan said. “He’s the most powerful Democrat in the State of New York. People like to beat up Shelly Silver all the time until they need something. But there’s not an institution in Buffalo in which he has not played a key role in obtaining funding.”
The fundraiser was held at the Phillips Lytle law firm in the HSBC Center.
With several anti-Albany candidates preparing to run in this year’s elections — including party primaries — it appears that 2010 may rival 1992 as a year embracing a “throw the bums out” mentality.
Even President Obama acknowledged the mood Wednesday in his State of the Union address, noting that “change has not come fast enough” for many Americans.
“Some are frustrated; some are angry,” he said. “They don’t understand why it seems like bad behavior on Wall Street is rewarded but hard work on Main Street isn’t, or why Washington has been unable or unwilling to solve any of our problems. They are tired of the partisanship and the shouting and the pettiness. They know we can’t afford it. Not now.”
tpignataro@buffnews.com and rmccarthy@buffnews.com
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