Bove claims victory after West Seneca vote count (Buffalo News) Congratulations!

Bove claims victoryafter West Seneca vote count
Primary’s absentee tally gives edge overMeegan

Sheila M. Meegan lost theDemocratic line for West Seneca supervisor in the November election, but shepromises to continue her campaign for re-election on three minor party lines.
“People will have a chanceto see the facts instead of their mistruths and their distortion of the truth,”she said of the campaign of her challenger, Christina Wleklinski Bove.
Bove led the incumbent by42 votes before absentee ballots were counted Thursday.
After those ballots werecounted, Bove claimed a 35-vote victory, 1,547 to 1,512.
Results are unofficial, andhave not yet been certified by the Erie County Board of Elections.
There still are 24affidavit votes to be counted, but that would not change the outcome of therace.
Despite Bove’s claim ofvictory, Meegan was undeterred.
“We’ll make up thedifference in November,” she said.
Winning the Democraticprimary in West Seneca, where Democrats have a 2-to-1 advantage in enrollmentover Republicans, is tantamount to winning the supervisor’s race in November.
Succeeding on minor partylines, although rare, has been accomplished in Western New York.
And Meegan’s pedigree speaksto her determination: Her father is Christopher P. Walsh, a former Town Boardmember and powerful force in Democratic politics.
The Democratic primary wasdo-or-die for Bove, who has no other lines on the ballot.
“It was very humblingsitting there and watching as the count was going through, like waiting andlistening to what people were going to tell me,” Bove said about the countingof the absentee ballots Thursday.
Meegan, whose name willappear on the Conservative, Working Families and Independence lines of theballot, has pledged to continue and vigorously campaign for the office throughNovember.
“We never responded totheir distortion of the truth,” Meegan said. “Many of our Democratic friendswere misled, and that’s unfortunate, but we have run a very positive campaign.”
Bove said taxes in the townare too high, spending is out of control, and there is huge mismanagement.
“I am the one whorepresents a change, a new direction,” she said. “The endorsement from thepeople is the sweetest, the purest endorsement.”
Meegan, who said she ran apositive campaign, vowed to “answer all of their lies in the upcoming weeks.”
Bove said she plans toresume her door-to-door campaigning.
“I will be buying a newpair of sneakers today,” she said.
Also in West Seneca,incumbent Councilman Eugene P. Hart Jr. was leading challenger David M.Monolopolus, 1,538 to 1,480, after the absentees were counted. But since he wasahead by 63 votes, he would win the race, even if all the affidavit votes wentto Monolopolus. Hart had been up by 43 votes after the primary Thursday.
In the Democratic primaryfor the Town Board in Hamburg, challenger Thomas M. Best Jr. got 63 absenteevotes, and incumbent Cheryl Potter Juda received 52. Best now leads Juda by 58votes, 1,332 to 1,274.
email: bobrien@buffnews.com
COMMENTS*******
· Jon S. •
Glad to see another useless - unqualifiedperson get tossed out of office.
It is amazing to see just how many of these folks get elected and then blow itby spending like drunken sailors and making terrible decisions in the name ofimproving the community.
Sounds like Sheila would have a hard time managing a lemonade stand- let alonea town.
While Meegan has set back the town a few years, let's hope that her replacementwill act responsibly and prudently by being a good manager and keeping theother elected officials in line.
· Mark Twain•
"“We never respondedto their distortion of the truth,” Meegan said.
Which distortion of the truth? The audit bythe New York State Comptroller? The five new garbage trucks? That $30,000 oftax payer's money had been spent on a study for a private development? Thatthat study said that private development was going to cost West Senecataxpayers $115 Million Dollars? That that study was thrown out the windowbecause the results were so unfavorable. Perhaps the whole issue was pushedunder the rug until after the election? Rumor has it that there is a thirtyyear tax forgiveness in the package. Is it a coincidence Mr. Coglin hired Mr.Pigeon to represent him in dealings with the town, and his close ties with theMeegan and Walsh clans? Shiela never anticipated losing the primary, and I amsurprised she lost but hats off to Ms. Bove because she deserved the win byactually campaigning.