By Joyce Kryszak
Buffalo, NY – The two candidates for Erie County Executive drove home their core campaign agendas during their only public debate before November's election. Republican incumbent Joel Giambra and his Democratic challenger Dan Ward outlined their agendas for the county's top office.
It was a fast paced, hour-long debate. Rapid fire questions were followed by obediently timed responses. Each man wore the obligatory dark suit, blue shirt and red tie that has come to be expected of debating candidates. Neither became particularly ruffled, even when the debate got wrinkled with tax voting records and a highway barn scandal. And both stayed, as they say, "on message." For Giambra - that message was aggressive change.
"You can't do things the same way all the time and get a different result," said Giambra. "Now, my opponent says everything is fine here, we don't need to tinker with the local governments, we don't need to change anything. Well, he's dead wrong.
"There are problems here and I am going to continue to stay involved and work on a non-partisan basis to elect people into office who understand the need for change and share my vision of regionalism."
But Ward, an Amherst Town Councilman, had a different view. Ward says he believes in the independence of municipalities - including the city of Buffalo.
"The people of the city of Buffalo want to maintain their independence and integrity - they want a city of Buffalo," said Ward. "Mr. Giambra's plan is nothing more than a stealth metropolitan government plan. He's starting to try to merge the city of Buffalo into the County of Erie, and everything comes back, conveniently to him, into one large, patronage empire."
And the attacks continued. Giambra accused Ward of being tax friendly. Ward accused Giambra of ignoring highway barn crimes. The one percent sales tax was argued. The tobacco settlement and the casino, job and population losses, the Control Board and the Amherst Town Board were all lobbed back and forth.
But in the end, there were no bombshells or knockouts. Buffalo News Political reporter Bob McCarthy was one of the panelists. He says there was only a winner you were looking for one.
"Their positions were so different that you'd have to really be aligned with one of those positions to think there was a winner," said McCarthy.
McCarthy says both candidates did a good job articulating their differences. And that means voters will have a clear choice come November.