The Republican and Democratic parties in Lancaster took an unusual step ahead of Tuesday's primaries:
They cross-endorsed a full slate of candidates for two Town Board seats, highway superintendent and town justice.
Party leaders say they wanted to lower the temperature in the town, long a Democratic stronghold where the closely divided Town Board of recent years has seen infighting and a legislative stalemate.
"I think we found candidates with a mutual interest to get things done," said Terrence D. McCracken, the Lancaster Democratic chairman.
But the political détente has spurred a former Lancaster GOP chairman to launch an effort opposing the cross-endorsed Republicans, a campaign joined by the town Conservative Party.
A photo on a Facebook page used by "Real Republicans" shows someone in front of Town Hall holding a sign that blasts RINOs, or Republicans in Name Only, while dressed in a rhinoceros costume.
"We just want what's best for the Lancaster residents, regardless of party," said Gregory Sojka, the former town Republican chair.
The rogue Republican group said it wants to put an end to at least 25 years of Democratic control of the Town Board.
There was a time, when Democrats held all five seats on the board and unanimous outcomes were the norm, that a dissenting vote was rare enough to make news.
Today, Democrats have a fragile 3-2 majority on the board, McCracken said, but board members have splintered on various issues, making it difficult at times to do the business of the town.
"Things in town have become so divisive," McCracken said.
McCracken said he and his Republican counterpart, Gregg Smith, in January began discussing whether to endorse the same candidates for office "in an effort to turn down the heat, relative to politics." The two committees agreed on a slate that left out a sitting Town Board member and town justice.
For Town Board, the Republicans and Democrats endorsed Councilman Michael J. Wozniak Jr., a Conservative who aligns with Democrats, and Lancaster Village Trustee Paul H. Rudz, a registered Republican. They passed over Republican Councilman Adam L. Dickman.
McCracken said Dickman has contributed little to the Town Board since winning office and, instead, is an obstacle to productive governance. Sojka disagrees.
"I think Adam Dickman has been very effective," he said.
This sets up two primaries for Town Board: Rudz, Dickman, Wozniak and Mark R. Burkard are running in the GOP primary, with the top two vote-getters gaining the Republican lines on the November ballot. Burkard, Dickman, Wozniak and a fourth candidate, Gregory C. White, are running in the Conservative primary.
For highway superintendent, the Democrats and Republicans cross-endorsed the incumbent, Daniel J. Amatura, who first won election to the position in 2009 and was a Town Board member before that.
Smith, the town GOP chairman, said the members of his committee made their decision, via secret ballot, in a transparent process free of pressure from top party officials.
"There's no, quote-unquote, deal," Smith said.
However, Deborah Lemaster, the chair of the influential Lancaster Conservative Party, said she received several calls that a bipartisan agreement was in the works, a prospect that concerned her.
"I didn't like that," Lemaster said. "The voters need a choice."
Town Conservatives opted to endorse their own candidates, she said, a group embraced by Sojka, who attacked the town Republican committee and Ralph Mohr, the Republican Erie County election commissioner and a Lancaster resident, for their roles in the deal.
The rogue slate includes Dickman and Burkard for Town Board and John R. Pilato, the town's forestry supervisor and the owner of a lawn care company, for highway superintendent.
The Conservatives and Sojka's "Real Republican" group say the cross endorsement is a corrupt bargain that will preserve Democratic rule in the town, with all of the patronage hiring that comes with it.
For example, several Wozniak relatives, including his wife and at least one nephew, are Lancaster town employees, although McCracken said most had to score well on a civil service exam for their job.
"No deals-no patronage-no BS," Sojka, who also is trying to link the cross-endorsed "RINOs" to progressive proposals such as defunding the police, wrote on Facebook.
And Sojka accuses Amatura of letting well-connected contractors drop off trees and brush at town collection sites, shifting the cost of disposing of this debris from the companies onto Lancaster taxpayers. McCracken said it was a long-standing, informal practice recently ended by Amatura, though the Town Board must decide on an official policy.
Amatura and Pilato are running in the Republican and Conservative primaries.
Smith, Mohr and McCracken said the decision to back the same group of candidates shows local parties can find common ground even as national Republicans and Democrats have bitter policy and electoral disputes.
"It seems to be very disingenuous what he's trying to do," Mohr said of Sojka's "Real Republican" push. "He's trying to split the party apart."
The cross-endorsement deal also leaves out Town Justice Anthony J. Cervi, who won election with Republican backing in 2013 and was re-elected in 2017. Democrats and Republicans instead are supporting attorney Anthony G. Marecki, a registered Republican who formerly worked in the Erie County Attorney's Office.
Cervi, backed by the Conservatives and the splinter Republicans, and Marecki are competing for the Democratic, Republican, Conservative and Working Families ballot lines.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Lee Chowaniec
