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Insiders Corner
King George No More And A Succesor To Brown
By The Insider
Apr 17, 2009, 09:19

With Governor Paterson’s call for gay marriage dominating the state dialogue, Senator George Maziarz stays on topic and continues to bash the New York Power Authority. If there ever was an Authority that deserved bashing it certainly is NYPA, but Maziarz is a curious critic.

George Maziarz was chair of the Senate Energy and Telecommunications Committee in 2008 and has always been known as a local advocate for NYPA. Now that George is in the senate minority he has quickly turned around and has become NYPA’s biggest critic. Again, NYPA deserves the criticism; it’s just strange to see George Maziarz leading the charge.

We here at the Insider are not as familiar with Niagara County politics as Erie County, but anyone paying attention knows that George is a powerful force on his home turf. We also hear that the reign of King George is quickly coming to an end!

Our source in the neighboring county tells us that Senator Maziarz controlled Niagara through the republican controlled Legislature, Niagara Community College appointments and positions within the Lewiston power plant. Now that Maziarz is no longer in the controlling majority party of the state senate he losses a significant piece of his power base.

The democrats in the area find it humorous that Maziarz has now become such a media darling and the most vocal critic of Governor Paterson and local senators Thompson and Stachowski. Up to now George Maziarz only ventured into Erie County to stand behind former republican Governor Pataki on his visits and even then he rarely made the six o’clock news. It seems you can’t turn the TV on anymore without seeing the diminutive figure from the north.

As far as Thompson and Stachowski go, they are finally in the majority and are paying a steep price for it. Stachowski in particular has become the focal point of the media which is a very strange place for him to be in. You will not find a politician with a more serious disposition than Bill Stachowski and he has basically operated in the shadows most of his career.

The one thing Stachowski has going for him is that he is a worker bee. Stach’ toils behind the scenes, which seems to be what he prefers. Antoine Thompson on the other hand is a climber. In fact, the buzz for the past several years is that Thompson is waiting to follow in Byron Brown’s footsteps.

This is how the scenario goes; Congresswoman Slaughter retires, Byron Brown runs for her congressional seat and Thompson runs for Browns seat as the mayor of Buffalo. For those who remember, Antoine Thompson holds the same New York senate seat previously held by Byron Brown. The 60th senate district has a very large minority population and Thompson can hold that seat for as long as he likes. Word is he wants that seat until Brown gives up his and then Antoine makes the move to the big city.

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