In the race to succeed longtime Legislator Charles M. Swanick, Democrat Michele M. Iannello won her primary race while Republican Bruce A. Kaiser held a slight lead over his opponent.
Iannello, a Kenmore Village Trustee, beat Democrat Thomas L. Troy, 1,143 to 542. But the race between Kaiser, 52, and Rus Thompson, 49, a Grand Island contractor and carpenter, was much closer.
With less than half the vote counted, Kaiser was beating Thompson, 874 to 753.
In the Conservative Party primary, Kaiser beat Iannello.
Challenge candidates show muster: Thompson, Kennedy lose by narrow margin in bid for party lines
Stacey Shepard
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
WESTSENECA- The sound of noisemakers slowly died down at Primary Challenge headquarters late Tuesday as election results came in.
Some shook their heads in disappointment.
Others vocalized their feelings.
“How can they vote for her?” said president Leonard Roberto, as it was announced that incumbent Lynn Marinelli narrowly beat Primary Challenger Joe Kennedy in their bid for the Democratic line in Erie County Legislature’s 11th District race, which covers parts of Buffalo and the Town of Tonawanda.
Primary Challenge’s other candidate, Rus Thompson, also lost to Bruce Kaiser in a close race for the Republican line in District 10, which covers the City of Tonawanda, Grand Island, Kenmore and part of the Town of Tonawanda.
Unofficial tallies showed Kaiser leading Thompson by about 100 votes, while Marinelli had about 500 votes over Kennedy.
But more upsetting to candidates and members of the group than their losses in both districts was low voter turnout.
“If I lose at this point it doesn’t bother me, it’s the lack of participation that bothers me,” said Thompson, citing numbers that showed only 1,500 Republican voters turned out in the City of Tonawanda and Grand Island. “This was their one and only opportunity to get out there and vote for change. This is really sad.”
“I just don’t understand. I don’t care if they vote for our candidate, just come out and vote,” Roberto said.
Official numbers on voter turnout were unavailable as of press time.
This is an email my wife Jul sent out to all our volunteers
Rus won The Town of Tonawanda, the City of Tonawanda and Kenmore,
but lost Grand Island. Weasels...! So he lost the election by about 149
votes. Bev says he got 400 votes from Whitehaven Baptist alone.
I just spent the day tracking down the missing precincts, and the
final unofficial vote tally is the Bruce, 1092, and Rus 943... which is a
pathetic showing of 14%. That's a whopping 2035 out of a possible
14,355 voters. It's no wonder politics here are so corrupt. I think we
should come up with a new bumper sticker that says,
You deserve what you get, (instead of We deserve good leadership)
or Save Yourself!
Anyway, if we could have gotten a larger mailing out to the entire party,
I think we could have taken it by storm. The affidavits and absentees
are not included in that figure...
I think I'll go deliver the results to Planavsky myself, and tell him to
grow up and bury the hatchet, someplace other than our heads.
Yes, PC is filing suit, and we do indeed have more fungus among us!
You're still the best team anybody could ask for.
Loads of love,
Jul
In order for Jul to get these numbers she drove around all day, went to the board of elections and all the districts.
There again they are not final numbers. I have thrown my hands in the air, for years and years we have had to listen to the people cry, complain about their high taxes, the constant threats of raising them and now they don't even bother to get out and vote. I am done, I will no longer sacrifice myself, my time, my energy and my efforts for these sheeple. Last night at 9 PM the county executive said he will be raising county property taxes by 50 percent.
Like Jul said, You deserve what you get!
Turning over every shred of it to God Almighty...
If so, try not to be too disappointed, this will surely lead to better things down the road. Maybe the voters will have to experience some pain in their back pockets before they're ready to get past their apathy.
How sad. Thanks for the good fight; I hope you will reconsider. The people need you, we need to give them a wake up call.
Thanks for going out and trying to change the corruption in local politics.
Rus, you fought the good fight, you stayed the course, and you did all that was in YOUR power for this to happen. God bless you and Jul for your hard work. It will be their loss in Erie county, and I hope you won't give up. Erie county will still need you next time.
LUV ya!!
I have no words for you Rus - you and Jul pretty much sum it up.
Voter apathy is something that has always driven me crazy.
You fought an excellent fight, FRiend.....you did something so many others just won't do.
You did good. The important thing is you will do better the next time. God bless you.
:-(
....on the other hand, just come on down to Texas. We need ya, too! :o)