in the Buffalo News today:

New PAC pours money into Democratic races for Erie County Legislature

With less than a week to go before the Sept. 10 primary, it appears that thousands of dollars are being pumped into hotly contested Democratic races for the Erie County Legislature.

The source of this windfall is a Political Action Committee that was registered with the state Board of Elections on Aug. 22 by Kristy L. Mazurek, a former journalist and self-professed “political operative” who makes no bones about venting her frustration with a rival wing of the local Democratic Party.

“This PAC is made up of a group of like-minded individuals who share the same thought processes and who are not happy with the leadership of the party,” said Kristy L. Mazurek during a telephone interview Tuesday.

Mazurek is the treasurer of the newly registered PAC, Western New York Progressive Caucus, and the co-host of a political affairs talk show called “2 Sides” that airs at noon every Sunday on WGRZ-TV, Channel 2.

To her detractors, it’s an unseemly marriage of journalism and partisan politics, for which she was taken to task Tuesday at a news conference outside the WGRZ-TV studios on Delaware Avenue by Legislature Chairwoman Betty Jean Grant and Legislator Timothy R. Hogues. The two Buffalo Democrats, who aligned with Ms. Mazurek’s rivals at Democratic headquarters, have complained that they are being unfairly maligned in anonymous mass mailings being put out by Mazurek’s PAC. In a letter delivered to WGRZ management, they complained that Mazurek “may be involved in a conflict of interest situation.”

read more:

http://www.buffalonews.com/city-regi...ature-20130904