On the eve of Tuesday’s election, and despite 98-out-of-100 years of continuous Republican rule in Amherst albeit with ever-growing budgets and bloated patronage, the Amherst Republican Party is running scared – very scared. As I reported earlier, they have targeted Jerry Schad who is endorsed by the Democratic, Independence and Working Families Parties as well as the Sierra Club.

Ironically, the eve-of-the election negative campaign piece may actually persuade Republican voters NOT to vote for Republicans rather than scare them in to not voting for Council Candidate Jerry Schad.

I spoke to Candidate Schad about this literature and inquired whether he was worried about its effect. He said “no.” He reminds us that it is what people do that reveals their character and integrity or lack thereof. In this case, he says the piece actually reveals the lack of integrity of its proponents. Further, he pointed out that the negative message actually raises a basic question about one of his opponents.

The piece poses the basic question: “Does Amherst Need a Career ‘Downtown” Politician?” The answer to that question is clearly not candidate Schad since he is neither a career politician, never having held public office, nor a downtown politician. But, there is one, and only one, “Career ‘Downtown’ politician” in the Amherst Town Council race — Erie County Legislator-Developer, Barry Weinstein. While there are two “Career” politicians in the Amherst Council race – Legislator-Developer Weinstein and Conservative Candidate William Kindel — only Weinstein is the both a “Downtown” and “Career Politician.” When I asked Candidate Schad about the fact that the unidentified sponsor of the negative piece put his, Schad’s picture, on the piece, he emphasized that the Amherst voters are intelligent and will recognize the sham inherent in the piece and intent to be destructive on the eve of the election. He thinks that the literature’s message that we DON’T need a “Career ‘Downtown’ Politician” will be identified by voters as applying to Legislator-Developer Barry Weinstein and that it will resonate with voters to look to other candidates for their votes.

So, who sent the negative piece? In spite of protestations to the contrary, signs point to the Republican Party and/or one or all of the Republican council candidates. The address printed on the piece against candidate Schad is “21 San Fernando, Williamsville, NY 14221.” That is a non-existent address on San Fernando and the street is in East Amherst, not Williamsville.

The non-existent “21 San Fernando” street location, however, is just down the street from 209 San Fernando, East Amherst, which is the address, listed on the negative piece aimed at all three Democratic Candidates and home of the Amherst Republican Party Treasurer Ray Walter. Mr. Walter has the task of mailing negative information concerning candidates so it can’t be traced back to the Amherst Republican leadership. The latter piece apparently used the same bulk mail permit that the Republicans used for two other pieces, one to ask voters to vote for all of the Republican candidates in Amherst and one asking Republicans to vote only for candidates Weinstein and Marlette. The first piece, to vote for all Republicans, had a return address of “227 Crestwood Lane, Williamsville, NY 14221” which happens to be the home of Republican political boss E. Marshall Wood. A second political piece, to vote for Weinstein and Marlette, had a return address of “3 Culpepper, Williamsville, NY 14221” which happens to be the home and office of legislator-developer Weinstein All of this suggests that one should ask the question again, but more pointedly: “Does Amherst Need Career Downtown Politician Barry Weinstein” or any other Republican who will conduct “Politics as Usual”?

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