Democratic legislators tell Rivera to resign
Chairman says he’s not concerned
LOCKPORT — Two Democratic county legislators called on Niagara County Democratic Party Chairman Daniel Rivera to resign Thursday, in the wake of the beating the party took in Tuesday’s elections.
But the top elected Democrat in the county, Assemblywoman Francine DelMonte, counseled against “rash decisions,” and Rivera himself said his critics were simply venting their frustration.
Republicans won every contested race in North Tonawanda, including ousting Democratic Mayor Lawrence V. Soos, and also knocked off Lewiston Supervisor Fred M. Newlin II, who was regarded as a rising Democratic star.
“I’m not feeling embattled at all,” Rivera said. “I get up and I do my job. I don’t get up worrying about my job.”
Legislators Renae Kimble and Jason J. Cafarella, both D-Niagara Falls, said Rivera should go.
“Many people thought he would have tendered his resignation already,” Kimble said. “That would be the right thing to do. Henry Wojtaszek [the Republican county chairman, who resigned Thursday] has tendered his resignation while on top. I think Dan would be more than respected if he did the right thing.”
Cafarella said, “It’s time we moved to new leadership. Under the current system, we have not been able to compete and we haven’t been able to gain legislative seats.”
Legislature Minority Leader Dennis F. Virtuoso said he had called a party caucus for Saturday at the request of his colleagues, but Virtuoso, D-Niagara Falls, said, “I’m not calling for his resignation, not now anyway. Colleagues have called me with concerns.”
Virtuoso said Democratic committee rules don’t include a procedure for firing the chairman. “He’d have to resign,” Virtuoso said. Otherwise, Rivera’s term runs until the party’s reorganizational meeting next September.
Rivera said Thursday evening he talked to some of his critics and briefed them on the statewide picture. Democrats were shellacked in county elections from one end of the state to the other, losing several county legislatures they had controlled.
Rivera said county Democratic chairmen around the state were singing the same tune: poor turnout by Democratic voters facing a fired-up GOP base.
“It was almost like the Chinese student facing the tanks in Tiananmen Square,” Rivera said. “It doesn’t matter how innovative you are, the results are still going to be the same.”
Virtuoso and Kimble said they were especially concerned that the Democrats lost the 5th District Legislature seat in the LaSalle section of Niagara Falls, which the party had controlled for decades. Republican Vincent M. Sandonato defeated Democrat Nicholas A. Melson.
“Now we’re getting slaughtered in Democratic districts,” Virtuoso said. He also pointed to the failure to reclaim the 9th District on Rivera’s home turf in North Tonawanda.
DelMonte, for whom Melson has worked for the past year and a half, pointed out that Melson received more votes on the Democratic line than Sandonato did on the Republican line, but Sandonato had the three minor-party lines and that put him over the top.
“It certainly doesn’t help that some Democrats are cut off from those lines,” DelMonte said, referring to effective GOP control of the county’s Independence and Conservative parties.
Legislator Kyle D. Andrews, D-Wilson, was out of town Thursday and hadn’t talked to the players, but he pointed out that the Democrats were no worse off in the Legislature than they were before Tuesday: still down 14-5.
“After any election, you have to take stock of what happened. There has to be some analysis, but I don’t think it’s time to make any rash decisions,” Del- Monte said. “I’m not calling for his resignation.”
Newlin also declined to rip Rivera.
“It’s a thankless job. You’d have to be half crazy to want it. You get none of the credit when you win and all of the blame when you lose,” Newlin said.
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