DA staffers shift cash from Clark to Sedita
Candidate leads in money raised
When District Attorney Frank J. Clark complained about the poor salaries of his prosecutors, county lawmakers granted him another $112,000 to spread among his staff this year so he could slow the exodus and not have to hire “a bunch of kids,” as he put it.
Clark was heading into a reelection year, too, and this time he would have an opponent.
But were Clark’s prosecutors really hurting?
Almost as soon as they started collecting their raises, those reportedly underpaid employees, who serve at Clark’s pleasure, started donating to his campaign. In six months, they poured $29,000 of their extra earnings into his fund.
That was before a single nominating petition was filed or Clark felt the heat of primary season.
Clark later chose to drop out of the race and returned that $29,000 to his staff. But the staff and the “Friends of Frank Clark” fund have given a similar amount, $27,000 so far, to Clark’s desired successor, Deputy District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III.
Sedita’s campaign account — fed largely by the staff and his own $20,000 loan — reported nearly $89,000 in cash on hand this month, leading the field.
Ken Case had $51,730 and Diane LaVallee $77,608.
Sedita says that he’s happy the employees of the DA’s office have given to his campaign but that they can give to any candidate they wish.
“I am not putting the arm on anybody,” he said recently. “There are all these rumors that I have made all these promises. I won’t make promises to anybody. Because it’s unethical. And it’s probably illegal.”
A dozen years ago, Erie County saw another district attorney’s race in which an incumbent chose not to run again. A deputy district attorney with some name recognition won it all: Frank J. Clark.
You have probably heard the Sedita name: Frank A. Sedita Sr. was a three-term Buffalo mayor. His son is a State Supreme Court justice. The mayor’s grandson just prosecuted some high-profile homicide cases and shaved off his mustache to begin his run for district attorney.
Case and LaVallee’s names are less familiar. So their ability to fatten a campaign fund will become a factor in the race.
In the 2005 race for Erie County comptroller, the winning candidate, Mark C. Poloncarz, spent about $250,000. Poloncarz also went through a three-way Democratic primary and a general election contest. But a race for comptroller lacks the public safety overtones of a DA’s race.
“Unfortunately, money is an important ingredient in today’s campaigns,” said Joseph F. Crangle, a former Erie County Democratic Committee chairman. “You need the exposure. They will have to spend a lot on TV.”
Then, Crangle said, it’s vital to get out the vote on Primary Day and Election Day, the only day that really matters. Again, Sedita seems to have an advantage. He is the rare candidate who has the support of the Erie County Democratic Committee — meaning Chairman Leonard
R. Lenihan— and Lenihan’s nemesis, former Chairman G. Steven Pigeon.
Lenihan commands the party infantry.
Pigeon can help raise money. His billionaire friend, B. Thomas Golisano, recently gave Sedita $5,000, according to Sedita’s campaign reports.
LaVallee on ballot
LaVallee, who has spent nearly her entire career with prosecutors’ offices, will have a major party line in the November election no matter how she performs in the Democratic primary: The Republican Party has endorsed her.
“I hate asking people for money,” she said. “I hate the fact that we live in the second-poorest city in the United States and campaigns are exorbitantly expensive. It seems that it’s a necessary evil in the campaign. And in these days of mass media, the way to get your message out is to use the media, which is expensive.
“We don’t have an incumbent running, but we do have the incumbent’s hand-picked successor with a great name and a dynastic name. So for those of us who are proud of our families and aren’t as well known, raising money is a huge factor in getting the message out there.”
Case spent 14 years in the district attorney’s office, with seven years prosecuting homicides. But turning to his former co-workers for campaign money would put them in a pickle, he said.
“When I was running against Frank Clark, I had pledged not to ask my friends and colleagues in the office for support because I knew the position I would put them in,” Case said of his campaign against Clark before the incumbent dropped out. “And I hoped that Frank, since he was their boss, would do the same. I feel the same way about Frank Sedita. He’s a deputy in the office, and it makes for a coercive situation.”
Case’s success hinges on the Democratic primary.
“With a primary, as you know, it comes down to about 60,000 to 80,000 votes, and you really gear your advertising to those prime Democratic voters. Obviously, the general election is a completely different thing.
“We are going to try to do radio advertising that tries to pinpoint prime demographics, and mailings and literature drops. We also have a great deal of support from labor, and we are going to try to utilize that to get out the vote.”
Sedita said he expects Case and LaVallee will make Frank Clark a campaign issue.
“If the race were about our credentials, and our character and our qualifications, I am very confident,” Sedita said, citing his years as an active courtroom prosecutor. But he grew up in a political family and has been reminded again of how politics works.
‘No quid pro quo’
“When you get in one of these things and you talk to the political people out there, they basically tell me that, if I am running against you, I am going to make you into Frank Clark,” he said. “They will try to make you into Frank Clark because Frank Clark is so wildly unpopular, because of the way he appears in the media, because it’s the my-way-or-the highway attitude that they see.”
“I have a much more different attitude about me,” Sedita said. “Everyone who knows me knows I am not like Frank Clark . . . nobody gets into more screaming matches with him than I do.”
Sedita wants prosecutors in the office to know they do not have to give to his campaign.
“I am not an incumbent district attorney,” he said. “I don’t control anyone’s job around here. No. 2, I have my campaign manager take care of all the solicitations. I do not get involved in that. I do not solicit any of the district attorneys. I do not come up and put the arm on them. Do you know why? Because I have been in that position for many years.”
“I’ll say it both ways: If you don’t contribute to me, you are not going to be in jeopardy of losing your job, and if you do contribute,” he said, “there is no quid pro quo.”
