Lewiston, Wheatfield to get new supervisors
Elsewhere, voters re-elect incumbents
Lewiston and Wheatfield will have new supervisors next year as two Republican challengers pulled off big wins.
In Lewiston, Steven L. Reiter, a Republican who runs the town’s Highway Department, pulled out a decisive victory for supervisor against incumbent Fred M. Newlin II.
A Wheatfield election that turned ugly in the final few days of the general election led to a sound win for former Town Justice Robert B. Cliffe.
Elsewhere in towns across Niagara County, voters mostly stuck with who they knew. Lockport Supervisor Marc R. Smith will return to office next year, as will Pendleton Supervisor James A. Riester.
Incumbent supervisors in Newfane, Porter, Royalton, Somerset and Wilson were re-elected in uncontested races.
In Lewiston, Reiter captured 55 percent of the vote, while Newlin got 39 percent, according to unofficial results. Third-party candidate Kathryn S. Lake-Mazierski brought in 6 percent.
“I just think people heard what I was saying,” Reiter said. “I think over my tenure as the highway superintendent working for the town, I’ve been very approachable and I’ve been very responsive to residents’ calls, and I think that shows tonight.”
Reiter, 55, said he was “very excited” about the town’s future and said he would like to sit down with Newlin in the coming weeks to “resolve some of our differences.”
The race featured a nasty fight between the two supervisor candidates.
Reiter, along with other GOP town leaders, railed against a 37 percent raise the Town Board gave Newlin as part of this year’s budget. He also blamed Newlin for raising electricity rates in town.
“I’m glad for the six years I’ve had the opportunity to serve Lewiston,” Newlin said after receiving results Tuesday night. “I’m proud of all the work I’ve got done. If this means a break from politics for a while, there are worse things in the world.”
Newlin, a Democrat, said he believed negative attacks against him and resources thrown into the race by Republicans helped solidify his defeat.
In Wheatfield, Cliffe, a Republican, won the supervisor’s seat with 59 percent of the vote against Democratic candidate Samuel Conti Jr., who got 40 percent.
“I’m just overwhelmed,” Cliffe said. “I thank the voters of Wheatfield. Now, I hope to be worthy of their trust.”
Cliffe, 59, an operations manager at an engineering firm and a former school board member, resigned his position as a justice to run for supervisor.
Supervisor Timothy E. Demler, who lost a bitter Republican primary to Cliffe, was unable to pull off a write-in campaign.
Unofficial write-in numbers provided by Republican leaders showed Demler would not have been able to attract enough write-in votes to win. Cliffe said his campaign counted 809 write-ins. Cliffe had 1,873 votes, according to unofficial numbers.
Voters in Wheatfield encountered Niagara County sheriff’s deputies at each of the six polling places as Niagara County Board of Elections commissioners sought to squelch problems they said inspectors encountered during the primary election.
Elections Commissioner Nancy L. Smith said the problems included poll watchers trying to instruct people in the voting machines how to vote.
“We can’t have that happening,” Smith said. “We just wanted to have orderly polling places.”
Allison Wiegand, 21, said she voted for Cliffe because she believes Wheatfield “needed a change.” She said she thought the election could have been “done in better taste.”
“You see the signs, ‘write-in Demler,’ ” Wiegand said. “He can’t take it with good grace, that it’s time for him to bow out gracefully.”
In the Town of Lockport, Smith, a Republican, soundly fended off a challenge from Democratic candidate David J. Mongielo. Smith, a two-term incumbent, won with 67 percent of the vote.
Lockport Councilmen Paul H. Pettit and Mark C. Crocker defeated challengers Donna J. Pieszala and David T. Devereaux for two seats on the Town Board.
Pendleton Supervisor Riester, a Democrat, will retain his post after defeating Councilman David A. Leible. Democrats Joseph M. Frawley and Edward P. Harman won board seats. Frawley is a former Town Board member who resigned his seat in February.
Riester, 59, has been supervisor since 2004.
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