William T. Stachowski began airing television campaign ads Monday in the unofficial start to what promises to be one of the year’s toughest and most expensive State Senate primary contests.

Stachowski, the incumbent Democrat from Lake View, is fighting for his political life in the party’s primary against Erie County Legislator Timothy M. Kennedy of Buffalo and two other challengers.

As the campaign heats up, Stachowski left automated phone messages Sunday for voters, Kennedy unveiled a plan one day earlier to clean up Albany, and all four candidates have agreed to a debate.

Common Council aide Michael Kuzma and Thomas Casey, a civil engineer and former president of the Orchard Park Citizens Group, both of Buffalo, also are seeking the Democratic nod.

Stachowski is venturing onto TV first with a series of ads that Benjamin Swanekamp, his campaign spokesman, said would highlight his effort briefly delaying final approval of the state budget in hopes of winning support for the University at Buffalo’s 20/20 plan.

“They’re all positive messages. We’re not attacking Kennedy; we’re playing up Sen. Stachowski’s independence from the New York City leadership,” Swanekamp said.

Hank Sheinkopf, a downstate political consultant with close ties to State Senate leaders, provided advice on the ad and the advertising strategy, Swanekamp said.

The 30-second ads will run through the Sept. 14 primary, said Swanekamp, who didn’t reveal their cost but said it was more than “six figures.”

Stachowski also recorded a 41-second phone message that was sent automatically to Democratic voters in the district over a two-hour period Sunday.

The message was a response to three anti-Stachowski mailings produced by a political action committee called Fight Back New York and distributed to voters in the 58th District.

The Fight Back New York materials, for example, highlight Stachowski’s votes against funding for mammograms. But Swanekamp said the mailings were “misleading” and took the senator’s actions out of context.

Fight Back New York states on its Web site that the group is targeting Stachowski and other senators because of their votes against a bill that would allow gays to marry in this state.

But the group doesn’t mention this issue in its anti- Stachowski mailing, so Stachowski took the opportunity in his phone message to point out Fight Back New York’s motivation.

Kennedy hasn’t aired any TV ads but said those will begin in the near future. “My ads are going to be strictly positive, and my ads are going to define me as the alternative to the Albany incumbent,” he said.

Saturday, Kennedy held a news conference at William and North Ogden streets to call for term limits, the creation of an independent redistricting commission and other reforms.

Kennedy said he chose that location because, before 2000, all of Lovejoy had been part of the 58th District.

After the 2000 Census, however, the members of the State Senate and Assembly who control the redrawing of district lines split Lovejoy into two parts and put the other half in the 60th Senate District.

Kennedy cited legislative control of redistricting as one reason that of the approximately 3,000 Senate and Assembly elections held since 1982 only 38 incumbents lost.

“It’s the Albany incumbent protection program,” he said.

YNN Buffalo is hosting a debate among the four candidates that will be recorded next Tuesday afternoon and shown later that evening on the news outlet.

swatson@buffnews.comnull