GOP opponent Lee is next as Kryzan defies odds
Unlikely matchup in race for Reynolds’ House seat
For Alice J. Kryzan, Wednesday was a day to accentuate the positive — to bask in the attention that comes to the engineer of a huge political upset, to take congratulatory phone calls from the national and local Democratic leaders who fought or ignored her bid for Congress and who now want to help.
And for Christopher J. Lee, Krzyan’s previously anointed Republican opponent in the race for Congress from the 26th District, it was a day to accentuate the positive, too.
Both candidates vowed to make their campaign issues-oriented — and far different in tone from the war of mutually assured destruction that claimed the campaigns of Kryzan’s opponents, party and labor favorite Jon Powers and maverick millionaire Jack Davis.
“I don’t know why they ran the campaign they did,” Kryzan said. “There’s no question their choice of strategy and tactics was very helpful to us.”
And the in-your-face personal attacks that marked the Powers and Davis campaigns are something Lee said he wanted to avoid, too.
“I think this campaign should be about the issues,” Lee said, adding that the one line of attack that Powers pursued against Kryzan — criticizing her work as a lawyer for Occidental Chemical during the Love Canal crisis — would not be part of his argument.
“I don’t think it makes a difference in this campaign,” Lee said.
Obviously, much has changed in the race to succeed retiring five-term Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds, R-Clarence, but one thing hasn’t. It remains among the most prominent congressional races in the country.
It remains one of the most complicated, too, with Powers still unsure whether he will continue to campaign on the Working Families Party line — a move that could damage Kryzan’s chances.
Proof of the continued national prominence of this race came when Rep. Christopher Van Hollen, the Maryland Democrat who is chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, called Kryzan to offer his support.
Van Hollen’s committee added Kryzan to its “Red to Blue” program — its list of top-priority races nationwide — and vowed to invest immediately in Kryzan’s campaign.
That could blunt Lee’s huge financial advantage in the race. Lee had $751,135 on hand as of Aug. 20, compared to $95,048 for Kryzan.
The Democratic campaign committee raised an average of $404,000 per candidate in its Red to Blue program in 2006, and now Kryzan can expect that sort of money to be heading her way.
“Alice Kryzan is a terrific candidate,” Van Hollen said. “She proved her mettle and her independence in the primary.”
Kryzan also took a call from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N. Y., who stayed neutral in the primary but vowed to help Kryzan in the general election. Other congratulatory calls came from Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, and EMILY’s List, a political action committee that works to elect women to Congress.
“Suddenly, Alice is the most popular girl at the dance,” said Anne Robinson Wadsworth, campaign manager for Kryzan.
Kryzan won 42 percent of the primary vote, compared to 36 percent for Powers, who had the backing of national Democrats such as Van Hollen, seven county Democratic committees and local labor unions. Davis, an Akron industrialist, finished third, with 23 percent.
In an unusual breach of political protocol, both Powers and Davis failed to call Kryzan to concede.
The Davis campaign offered no post-primary comment Wednesday. However, Powers — an Iraq War veteran and former substitute teacher — released a statement to supporters.
“As we are still on the ballot as the nominee for the Working Families Party, my family and team are currently deciding how best to proceed,” Powers said.
That statement came as prominent Powers supporters abandoned his effort.
“We’re obviously going to rally behind Alice Kryzan,” said Erie County Democratic Chairman Leonard R. Lenihan.
Asked whether Powers would be wise to continue campaigning on the Working Families line, Lenihan said: “I would strongly recommend that he not do that. It would be a futile act, and a negative one. I hope that after a day or two of licking his wounds, Jon Powers will come to the right conclusion that that would not be helpful.”
Similarly, Angelo A. Vellake, president of the Western New York Area Labor Federation of the AFL-CIO, said he expects organized labor to line up quickly behind Kryzan.
Vellake said he would be surprised if Powers continued his campaign. “It’s not constructive for someone to just run on the Working Families Party line,” Vellake said.
Asked about the possibility of receiving Powers’ backing, Kryzan said: “I think it would be important, and a very nice gesture for him to make. But I cannot worry about things I cannot control.”
But that left Kryzan plenty to worry about. She said she would have to immediately turn her attention to fundraising, while working to build her support in Genesee, Orleans, Wyoming and Livingston counties, where she finished second to Powers.
Kryzan won big in Erie, Niagara and Monroe counties, even though both Powers and Davis spent more than twice as much money as she did.
The consensus among political pros Wednesday was that Powers and Davis annihilated each other through attack ads and mailings.
After Davis hired the wives of the chairmen of the Independence Party in Erie and Monroe counties, Powers ads labeled it bribery.
And Davis, who had lost twice to Reynolds, retaliated with a blitz of attacks on everything from Powers’ salary at the charity he founded to his $2,300 donation from strip club owner Rick Snowden.
Meanwhile, Kryzan ran a plucky effort built around a strong ground game in the district’s bigger counties and a memorable campaign ad that made fun of the Powers-Davis slugfest.
“This was done by an independent person who ran unconventionally,” Reynolds said.
Wednesday, though, the conventional political leaders were filling Kryzan’s voice mail with congratulatory calls and offers of assistance.
Less forthcoming were the liberal bloggers who had passionately supported Powers.
“Kryzan must win over the Powers supporters like Jon won us over,” pro- Powers blogger Robert Harding wrote on the Albany Project blog.
Kryzan said that she will reach out to anyone but added that “I don’t have a specific plan” to reach out to the “netroots.”
“I can only fit so many things in,” she said.
Bloggers, however, were finding a way to fit in some new respect for the new Democratic nominee for Congress in the 26th District.
“I underestimated Alice Kryzan,” said Jake McIntyre, a Buffalo native and Powers backer who serves as a contributing editor to Daily Kos, one of the most popular progressive blogs. “I won’t let that happen again.”
News Political Reporter Robert J. McCarthy contributed to this report.
