Archive for 5 June, 2008
Amherst Democratic Committee Reduced To Playing Dirty Tricks
June 5, 2008 12:19 pm
The Amherst Democratic Committee members who have governed the committee for the past 20 years used less than upfront tactics to defeat one of their own, Dan Ward.
The Committee endorsed Dan Ward as their choice to run for 61st State Senatorial seat before Iannello declared her intention to run for the same position.
Now there is a power struggle in the Amherst Democratic Committee. On one side there are supporters of Tonawanda’s Erie County Legislator, Michelle Iannello, who is Dennis Ward’s wife. Dennis co-incidentally is the Chairman of the Amherst Democratic Committee. On the other side are Dennis Ward’s older brother Dan and his supporters. Dan and Michelle are both running for the same seat in our NY State Senate.
Debbie Norton is in the Amherst Democratic Committee. She is a good friend and strong supporter of Michelle and has spoken out about the danger of having Dan Ward running in the three way primary. She is speaking to as many influential people as possible asking them to try to convince Dan to drop out of the race because of the danger it brings to the Erie County Democrat Chairman, Len Lenihan as well as Dan Ward’s brother Dennis. Lenihan’s job could be in danger as well as Dennis’
Debbie Norton and the old crew including Dennis Ward and Janice Dunn are showing strong moves to block Dan Ward’s campaign.
Wednesday night, 6/4/08, at Amherst’s Democratic headquarters, Dennis Ward declared the Amherst headquarters open to all three candidates; Joe Mesi, Dan Ward and Michelle Iannello, until he can write a policy to govern who shall be eligible to use the headquarters. This will probably be after the September primary when one of the three candidates is endorsed which means the two losers in the primary will not be able to use the headquarters.
Since Dan Ward received the endorsement of the Amherst Democratic Committee and none of the other two candidates did, he should be the only candidate allowed to use the headquarters. Dan’s treasurer, John Culkin, has made several attempts to pay for Dan’s share of the headquarters rent, but his brother is refusing to accept it for various reasons.
Politics is rarely fair but Debbie Norton’s tactics are beyond unfair. She has every intention of using tactics against Joe Mesi as well as Dan Ward. The public must be aware of this type of action.
If Dan wins the election some of the Democratic leaders will lose their jobs but that isn’t a good reason for him not to run. It’s the way of politics.
