Family ties complicate State Senate race
With wife, brother vying, what’s party chief to do?
Sunday get-togethers at the Wards must be fascinating this summer.
How many families, after all, have in-laws running against each other for a major political office?
And to boot, the winner of this family feud, if there is one, could end up altering the political power structure of the state.
The battleground race for the State Senate pits Amherst Town Council Member Daniel J. Ward against Erie County Legislator Michele M. Iannello of Kenmore, who just happens to be married to Ward’s brother, Dennis.
The primary between Iannello and Ward adds a bizarre twist to a race that already features former heavyweight boxer Joe Mesi.
“I’m not running against her; she’s running against me,” said Ward the candidate, not the husband. “I was the first to announce.”
Not so, says Iannello.
“I began looking at this race in December of 2007,” she said. “I didn’t come late to this campaign.”
Ask anyone familiar with the contest, and you may hear stories of how it has divided not only the Wards, but Amherst’s Democratic leaders, as well.
Keep in mind, Dennis Ward is chairman of the town’s Democratic Party, as well as Erie County’s Democratic elections commissioner.
Despite that, his brother, Amherst’s longest serving Town Board member and a onetime candidate for county executive, won the town’s endorsement rather handily.
“She’s just another opponent as far as I’m concerned,” Dan Ward said.
Candidate Ward isn’t shy about expressing displeasure with his sister-in-law’s decision to enter the race.
“I stood up at her wedding,” he said. “Do you know of any families like mine?”
Iannello offered a more diplomatic explanation, suggesting two ambitious politicians who just happen to be related.
“We’re both in the same business,” she said, “and timing is everything.”
She also is quick to note that she’s running with her husband’s blessing.
“People are always asking me, ‘Are they still talking?’ ” she said of her husband and brother- in-law.
Well, are they?
Iannello wouldn’t say, but her husband acknowledged some tension with his brother.
“We had some discussions early on,” Dennis Ward said when asked if he and his brother tried to avoid the familial competition.
Those talks obviously went nowhere, resulting, at least in one brother’s eyes, in a contest between two worthwhile Democrats eager to move up the political ladder.
The seat is considered ripe for the picking because the current incumbent, Mary Lou Rath, a Williamsville Republican, is retiring. Voter registration in the district is pretty even, with Republicans holding a slight edge of 1,000.
“It’s such a rare opportunity,” Dennis Ward said. “This is just two people competing for a seat that opens up once every blue moon.”
The Ward-Iannello race has resulted in an open primary, a rarity in local Democratic politics.
That means party leaders explicitly decided not to endorse one of the three Democrats seeking the nomination.
Of course, that hasn’t stopped the various town committees from taking sides, with both Iannello and Ward grabbing at least one major town endorsement.
While highly unusual, even in the rough and tumble world of local Democratic politics, the contest is not the first time relatives have gone head to head in a local election.
Two years ago, in another State Senate primary, Marc A. Coppola of Buffalo, the incumbent Democrat, was challenged by his cousin, Alfred T. Coppola.
Both Coppolas lost, finishing behind the eventual winner, Antoine M. Thompson.
Unlike that race, this election has statewide implications. If a Democrat wins, it could tilt the balance of power in the State Senate, where Republicans now hold a one-seat majority.
Of course, Democrats first must settle on who will run against County Legislator Michael H. Ranzenhofer of Amherst, the Republicans’ choice to succeed Rath.
“After Sept. 9, everything will be cleared up,” Iannello said, “and we’ll all support the winner of the primary.”
Maybe then, Sunday dinners at the Wards will be a little more normal.
