This post is being published on primary day in New York.  In Western New York the only primary of any note is for the Republican nomination in the Assembly’s 147th District where incumbent David DiPietro is being challenged by Mitch Martin.

I have no clue about what the results will be at the end of the day.  My suspicion is that that is the same view of many Republicans who are actually involved in this campaign.

There are 31,688 registered Republicans in Erie County and a total of 41,332 in the district including Wyoming county.  A turnout in the range of 12 to 15 percent would seem likely based on other recent Republican primaries in the county.

There have been three major primaries of note for the party over the past three years.  Here are the results:

• 2021 primary for Erie County Sheriff:  John Garcia defeated the party’s endorsed candidate Karen Healy-Case.  Garcia won 11,951 votes to Healy-Case’s 8,266
• 2022 primary for Congress in the 23rd District:  While winning the overall primary on the strength of votes in other counties, the party endorsed candidate, Nick Langworthy, lost the Erie County portion of the district by a wide margin to Carl Paladino.  The totals:  Paladino 12,912; Langworthy 6,662
• 2023 primary for 10th District of the Erie County Legislature:  party endorsed candidate Jim Malczewski lost to Lindsay Lorigo.  The numbers:  Lorigo 1,749; Malczewski 1,725

In the primary in the 147 Assembly district the party did not make an endorsement.  Both candidates spent considerable money on mailers and ads in a district that has not had any serious campaigning the past few election cycles.  Whoever wins today’s primary will be part of the Republican minority in the Assembly which currently has 49 of the 150 seats in that legislative body.

What overshadows whatever the results are today are some party dynamics that come from the previous primary fights noted above and the continuing challenges brought to the table by the primary in the 147th.

It is unusual for a party to fail to endorse an incumbent for re-election, particularly in the case like DiPietro who has held the seat for nearly 12 years.  His doctrinaire no-compromise style is being contested.  But there is a second undercurrent:  Martin has been moving around over the past two or three years looking to play a major role in the party; he challenged Micheal Kracker for the Chairmanship in 2022.

Martin is currently on the staff of Sheriff Garcia.  Garcia as of June 10th had donated $1,500 to Martin.  Interestingly DiPietro donated $500 to Garcia earlier this year.

Garcia appears to be staking out his own position in the party and at least appearance-wise, that position is independent of the Republican apparatus.  His term is up in 2025 but as of last January his campaign treasury already totaled $233,862.  He has continued raising funds this year.

A DiPietro win in the primary will send him back to the Assembly for another term, which in most years would have been a ho hum expectation.  A Martin win will make him the odds-on favorite to be elected to the Assembly although DiPietro will remain on the ballot as the candidate of the Conservative Party.

No matter the result, the lack of unity among Erie County Republicans is likely to continue.  The party will elect its officers in September.

News at the News

Last week the Executive Editor of the Buffalo News, Sheila Rayam, informed print readers that beginning with the July 4th holiday there will be no newspaper printed and delivered on nine holidays each year.  Rayam repeated a line that the owners of the paper, Lee Enterprises, boast about:  they are a “digital-first news organization.”  Well, no paper delivery on nine days of the year is certainly a move in the “digital-first” direction. Some papers in other cities are down to three-day a week print editions while a few have abandoned print altogether.  Maybe this is a way for the News to try out the reaction of print subscribers.  Some subscribers may not own or be conversant with using electronic devises to read a digital publication.

The “digital-first” approach would go over better if the News could manage its digital publications better.  If there is one thing that News readers would almost universally agree with it is that the digital version of the paper, with its constant requirements to reload subscription information, is bad, the worst, a disaster.

None of this has prevented the paper from regularly raising its delivery rates.

I have written on several occasions about the importance of having an active and aggressive local newspaper.  Electronic media has limited resources and cannot make up for what is lost when the print newspaper is declining.  We have a successful and growing non-profit digital news presence in town with Investigative Post, but as great as they are with reporting on major stories they cannot provide reporting on less consequential local news and activities on such things as the work of local non-profit organizations, sports reporting on current league standings or statistical details of games, and the like.

None of this is good news.

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