NY Senate

Senator Tim Kennedy (D-South Buffalo) is being asked by constituent groups to return $5,400 in campaign contributions that he has accepted from firms that have contributed to the Nation’s opioid epidemic. Kennedy has accepted money from Allergan and Pfizer.  Allergan

Political operatives associated with Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins’ mainline Democratic caucus are contemplating potential candidates to challenge Senator Robert Ortt, of North Tonawanda.  The 62nd district stretches from Niagara Falls to Rochester. The most prominent names being floated are Mayor Paul Dyster

Democrats’ stunning election night victories in Amherst have sent shockwaves across Western New York’s political scene.  The vote-heavy town is typically a Republican stronghold, but the unpopularity of Erie County Sheriff Tim Howard led to sweeping losses for Republicans who

The 60th district is rare in the State Senate Chamber.  In the last two decades, the seat has switched occupants more than any other: Anthony Nanula, Al Coppola, Byron Brown, Marc Coppola, Antoine Thompson, Mark Grisanti, Marc Panepinto, and Chris

The wildly popular Cheektowaga Town Supervisor Diane Benczkowski — the region’s highest profile advocate for infrastructure modernization — is being urged by environmental activists to seek the 63rd District’s State Senate seat.  The district comprises Cheektowaga, Lackawanna, Depew, South Buffalo,

Freshman State Senator Chris Jacobs (R-Buffalo) did not attend Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s invitation-only rally celebrating the passage of an additional $500 million public investment in the region’s economic revival last Tuesday. Jacobs’ absence has political operatives speculating whether or not the

Senator Tim Kennedy is rumored to be in a precarious legal predicament given his closeness to the indicted former Erie County Democratic Party Chairman G. Steven Pigeon.  Such is why his harsh criticism of Governor Andrew Cuomo‘s budget process is

It is being rumored among political operatives that former Democratic Party Chairman G. Steven Pigeon — recently indicted on bribery charges by his longtime nemesis Attorney General Eric Schneiderman — is willing to take a plea deal in exchange for providing the

The Niagara County Republican Party is imploding in the aftermath of a Grand Jury being convened by the Albany County District Attorney’s Office investigating the campaign expenditures of former Senator George Maziarz. Former Maziarz loyalists have turned State’s evidence after

Grand Island’s high profile anti-tax activist Rus Thompson is slamming freshman State Senator Chris Jacobs.  Not only does Jacobs want to keep the New York State Thruway tolls at both the North and South Grand Island Bridges, but he also

By Lia Eustachewich, New York Post Crooked former state Sen. John Sampson continued to break laws after his corruption conviction and should be locked up for more than seven years, Brooklyn prosecutors said in a filing Tuesday. The feds are

Erie County Clerk Chris Jacobs made an ambitious promise to voters: that his election to the State Senate would bring term limits to Albany for all state legislators. He won the 60th State Senate District — a pivotal swing district that

BY TONY FARINA Is  former State Senator George Maziarz out of the woods nearly two years after he left office under the cloud of a federal investigation?  While Maziarz left office denying he was being chased out, it appears the

If you’re younger than 45 or 50 years old, you probably don’t remember the time that Al Coppola refused to take a $10,000 pay raise that the Common Council voted itself in the early 1990s; or why Coppola is such

Phil Rumore, the longtime president of the Buffalo Teachers Federation, brings a wisdom and gravitas to politics that his operatives lack. Rumore understands the importance of the 60th State Senate district, which holds the Republican majority in that chamber in

NYSUT regional president Mike Deely is being criticized by education activists for his handling of the teachers unions’ political spending in the 60th State Senate district. Two years ago, Deely spent heavily on an aggressively negative campaign against incumbent Senator Mark Grisanti

Senator Al Coppola, the Democrat running for State Senate against Republican Chris Jacobs, is disgusted with the way that today’s political discourse has wrongly bashed teachers in the media, often using hard working career professionals as political scapegoats — for purposes that often have little to do

BY TONY FARINA The 60th District State Senate race has it all:  what appears to be a serious GOP primary challenge from Kevin Stocker to the endorsed candidate, Chris Jacobs; a Democratic primary contest including upstart community activist Amber Small,