The Buffalo News
Maziarz faces serious opposition
Two attempting to unseat State Senate incumbent
LOCKPORT— State Sen. George D. Maziarz is king of the hill in Niagara County politics, but two outsiders want to dethrone him this election season.
Maziarz, a Newfane Republican running for his seventh full term in the 62nd Senate District, hasn’t had a serious opponent since his first race for an unexpired term in March 1995.
He decided not to run for a Congressional seat this fall, even though the GOP nomination for the 26th District spot being vacated by Rep. Thomas
M. Reynolds would have been his for the asking. Whatever the future holds for Maziarz, he remains the biggest fish in the Niagara County pond. Still, that hasn’t stopped him from facing not one but two primaries Tuesday, and a guaranteed challenge in November.
Niagara County Sheriff’s Deputy Brian D. Grear, a registered Republican, is taking on Maziarz in the GOP primary. Whatever happens, Grear will be on the Nov. 4 ballot as the Democratic nominee — a position he was handed after Donald G. Hobel, who made an agreement with the Democratic Party to circulate nominating petitions for him, stepped aside after the petitions were filed.
Hobel, a registered Conservative, will be in that party’s primary against Maziarz, who is the choice of the Conservative leadership.
Maziarz is guaranteed the Independence and Working Families Party lines in November, so even if he were to lose twice on Tuesday, he’d still have a shot at re-election.
Hobel said of his candidacy, “I think we pretty much realize it’s a real long shot. I see it as an opportunity to provide some education for the Conservatives in Niagara County.”
The 62nd District covers the entire county except for Niagara Falls. It also covers all of Orleans County and part of western Monroe County.
Reasons for running
Grear, a disgruntled Republican who retains his affiliation with the party, said when he announced his candidacy for state senator that he’d rather be running for Niagara County sheriff.
He blamed Maziarz’ machinations for denying him that opportunity.
Maziarz strongly backed Gov. David A. Paterson’s nomination of Democratic Sheriff Thomas A. Beilein as chairman of the state Commission of Corrections. But the nomination for sheriff was delayed until after the nominating petition period had passed, meaning the party leaders were allowed to choose their candidates without a petition process or a primary.
The Republicans chose Ernest
C. Palmer, Niagara Falls chief of detectives and Lewiston councilman, while the Democrats went with Chief Deputy James C. Voutour.
Grear was left in the cold.
That wasn’t much different from his 2005 experience, when he was the only person to circulate nominating petitions to run against Beilein. He was on the GOP line, but the Republican organization didn’t lift a finger to help him, and he pulled in only 37 percent of the vote.
“Through the direct intervention of George Maziarz, and his handpicked [Republican party] chairman Henry Wojtaszek, I, or anyone else for that matter, was prohibited from running for sheriff this year,” said Grear, a deputy for 21 years who still works a daily road patrol shift.
“After witnessing this, and being the law-and-order type of guy that I am, that motivated me to put a stop to this kind of politics, so I decided to run for the Senate.”
Maziarz said the Hobel- Grear arrangement “questions a lot of people’s motivations for running.”
“Is this about wanting to serve the people in the State Senate,” he asked, “or is this about getting revenge for slights?”
“Does running all over the Senate district handing out pork money qualify as representation?” Grear retorted. “New York State is going broke, Niagara County is the second-highest taxed region in the country, we pay some of the highest electrical rate in the country, population decline and job loss are occurring daily, and we currently have a senator who has taken so much money from special interests he couldn’t represent the common taxpayer if he wanted.”
Grear charged Maziarz with complicity in the controversial 2006 tax break for AES Corp.’s Somerset power plant, which will reduce tax income for the county, town and Barker School District by at least $43 million over a 12-year period, and also with involvement in the sacking of Lockport Community Television talk show host Tom Christy, in part for criticizing the AES deal.
Hobel charged that Maziarz has taken $26,000 in donations from Tuscarora Indian businessman Joseph Anderson, and noted that Maziarz voted against a bill this year to direct the state to collect taxes on gasoline and cigarettes sold on reservations.
“One of the points I make in my message to Conservatives is, the first benefit of removing a longtime officeholder is that the streams of political connections and money built up over 13 years would dry up,” said Hobel, 78, of Wheatfield. “We would rid ourselves of the special interests that have him in their pocket.”
“Smokin’ Joe has been a supporter of mine for a long time,” Maziarz said. “I’m shocked that Don Hobel would want to collect taxes from anyone.”
Grear is attacking Maziarz on environmental issues, charging that the incumbent has done nothing to prevent the steady inflow of toxic chemicals to be disposed of at the CWM Chemical Services landfill in Porter.
“Now it an election year, he’s going to save the day,” Grear said. “He went from ‘I’ll do everything within my power to stop this,’ to ‘I think I can get it passed in the Senate,’ when talking about placing a tax on the hazardous materials entering Niagara County. He can’t have it both ways.”
Maziarz said, “The Hudson River PCBs are not going to be shipped here,” referring to material dredged from the river after decades of pollution from a General Electric plant. As for PCB material from another site in Queensbury, which the state Department of Environmental Conservation wants sent to CWM, Maziarz said he met with the DEC commissioner. “I’m still trying to prevent it.”
Commissioner Pete Grannis told Maziarz it’s 30 percent cheaper to landfill the waste from Queensbury than to treat it on-site. “I said, ‘If you don’t start using treatment, it’s always going to be cheaper to landfill.’ I think my opponent would be a lot more credible if he challenged people in his new party of choice, such as Gov. Paterson, Assemblywoman [Francine] DelMonte and Pete Grannis, to use the technologies,” Maziarz said.
Digging up the past
Maziarz took a swing at Grear over an incident which Beilein harped on in the 2005 campaign — Grear’s alleged refusal to take part in a 1997 search for a 3-year-old girl who had been reported missing because he was mad at Beilein over having to turn in a special vehicle the sheriff had assigned to him to handle police dogs.
“I know Sheriff Beilein and the Democrats expressed a great deal of disgust with Brian Grear because he refused to help in the search,” Maziarz said.
Grear sued Beilein over discipline that was imposed after the incident, and won his job back, but he had to sign a confidentiality agreement about the settlement. In 2000, the County Legislature approved a $70,000 payment to Grear to settle the case.
“Tom knew that three years ago, and you bet Wojtaszek and Mariarz knew it as well. I’d love to be able to release those records or speak about that case,” Grear said. “I signed that agreement and my attorney has always advised me not to say anything except that I did win. The bottom line is, I was in the right all along and I won the case.”
Grear also questioned Maziarz’ clout.
“People have given him way too much credit for not doing much of anything that is truly tangible to make Niagara County and this region a better place to live, work and to raise a family,” he said.
Maziarz said, “I’m going to run on my accomplishments.”
He pointed to his role in lining up construction of the new Niagara Falls International Airport terminal, partially funded with Seneca Niagara Casino revenue, and the new Calspan facility next door.
Maziarz also took credit for clearing the way for the opening on the Northeast’s only ethanol plant outside Medina.
“I took [the owners] into [then-Gov.] George Pataki’s office in Albany. There were three ethanol plants on the drawing board. Two of them are still on the drawing board,” Maziarz said.
He also said he used his influence, working directly with the then-chief executive officer of Delphi to make sure the Lockport plant survived while the bankrupt auto parts maker shuts 21 other U. S. factories.
Maziarz noted that he torpedoed an agreement between the Niagara Power Coalition and the New York Power Authority earlier this year because he thought it gave the authority too much control over what projects are funded with Niagara River Greenway money. A revised deal cut out much of the authority’s say.
“When I called it out,” he said, “it went south fast.”
