Oct 23
2025
From conservative to kinda crazy
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by Jim Heaney, editor of Investigative Post
Back in the day, Republican leaders in Western New York were conservatives.
Congressmen like Jack Kemp and Jack Quinn. Erie County Executive Ed Rutkowski. State Senator George Maziarz. Party chairmen like Bob Davis and Jim Domagalski.
Party leadership started down a slippery slope a couple of decades ago. Carl Paladino switched party affiliation from Democrat to Republican in 2005 after his friend Tony Masiello, a Democrat, retired from public office. Mike Caputo, an operative who learned at the feet of Roger Stone, became a player locally when he ran Paladino’s 2010 gubernatorial campaign and his influence grew from there. Nick Langworthy ascended to chairman of the Erie County GOP that same year. The three of them later courted Donald Trump in the hopes of getting him to run for governor, which didn’t happen but planted the seed for Trump’s presidential aspirations.
Among the other stars of the local party in the last two decades is Chris Collins, who as county executive was so unpopular that voters kicked him to the curb after one term. Then they elected him to Congress, from which he was resigned when he pleaded guilty to insider trading.
Then there’s Assembly Member David DiPietro of East Aurora, an ideologue so bound by his right-wing principles that in his 12 years as a legislator he’s achieved nothing — and is proud of it.
Jim Heaney summarizes his column.
There’s also been a rise in extremism at the grassroots level. Six months after the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol we reported only one county in the entire nation had more of its residents arrested on charges they participated in the riot than Erie.
I subsequently wrote a column about the rise of the radical right in Western New York that quoted one expert as saying: “Erie County is kind of a hotspot for militia and far-right groups and local elected officials have been privy to some of that, or endorsed it in the past.”
Things have gone from bad to worse of late. Similar to what’s happened to the GOP nationally.
Langworthy used his party position to get himself elected to Congress, where he’s gone full MAGA.
Rob Ortt, who succeeded Maziarz in the state Senate, employed Bobby Walker at a time when Walker participated in Young Republican chat rooms in which he described rape as “epic” and joined with others in banter described by Politico as racist, misogynistic, anti-semitic and homophobic.
Bobby Walker, left, and Michael Kracker when both worked for Sen. Rob Ortt.
Ortt has since criticized Walker’s comments, but as I noted last week, his office has been issuing inflammatory press releases for years that go way beyond partisanship. His rhetoric and dogmatic positions on many issues often put him at the outer limits of his own party in the Senate and help explain why he gets so little done. For example, in 2021 he had the worst voting record in the state Legislature on environmental issues. It wasn’t much better the following year.
Then there’s Michael Kracker, chairman of the Erie County Republican Party since October 2022. He’s worked for Ortt since 2020 and last year made $160,962 as a senior advisor. He was deputy chief of staff for Collins from 2013 to 2018, when Collins served in Congress.
In July, Kracker took exception to an editorial cartoon in The Buffalo News drawn by Adam Zyglis whose content he misrepresented in a Twitter post that read:
@TheBuffaloNews ran a cartoon mocking Texas families who lost loved ones in a tragedy, just because they might’ve voted Republican. Twisted, vile, and shameful. They owe those families an apology and should pull this filth immediately.
His words set in motion a response from MAGA-land that resulted in death threats against Zyglis and his family.
Donate to support our nonprofit newsroomKracker smeared demonstrators who participated in the No Kings protest that took place Saturday across the nation, including Buffalo.
He issued a statement that read in part:
The so-called “No Kings” rally is nothing more than a hate-America protest sponsored by extreme far-left groups like the Socialist and Communist Parties. These are the same radicals who despise our country’s values and want to divide Americans at every turn.
Does he really believe this rhetoric, or is he just mimicking what others higher in the Republican food chain are saying?
“I think my statement speaks for itself,” he told me in an interview Wednesday. “I stand by my statement.”
As for his Twitter post about the Zyglis cartoon, Kracker said that he voiced his objections and that those who threatened the cartoonist and his family were “wrong.”
“I certainly don’t wish any harm to any reporter or anyone participating in the democratic process.”
Kracker took strong exception to the notion local Republican leaders have moved sharply to the right and are engaged in harsh rhetoric. Rather, he characterized statements such as his as “responsible and true to our values.”
The biggest donors to the Erie County GOP’s finance and housekeeping committees are primarily Republican officer-holders, led by Erie County Sheriff John Garcia, whose campaign committee has given $88,000 since Kracker took over as party chair three years ago.
Other campaign committees include those of Assemblyman Michael Norris ($37,000) and Langworthy ($32,000). Bob Gilmour, a former Amherst GOP chair who ran unsuccessfully for town board in 2023, gave $20,000 from his campaign committee. The GOP town committee in Clarence gave $23,000.
Dennis Vacco, the former state attorney general, is the largest individual donor at $28,000. The law firm he works for, Lippes Matthias, gave $11,500. Another law firm, Phillips Lytle, gave $27,000. Donald Hoffman, owner of Airport Plaza Jewelers, and Scott Allen, another Lippes Matthias attorney, each gave $20,000.
Noteworthy: Carl Paladino and companies he controls used to be huge donors to the Erie County party. They’ve given only $6,000 during Kracker’s tenure, probably the result of the party’s support of Langworthy when he and Paladino ran against each other for Congress in 2022.
Least you think I only have it in for Republicans, allow me to turn to the local Democratic establishment. You know, the people who gave us 19 years of Byron Brown and were lockstep with Andrew Cuomo during his tenure as governor.
The City of Buffalo is a disaster for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is one-party rule by Democrats for over a half-century. It’s not just the occupant of the mayor’s office, but also the Common Council, which for quite some time has resembled a cast of characters from the land of misfit toys.
Then there’s the party itself. Jeremy Zellner, chair of the Erie County Democratic Committee, double-dips as a commissioner on the Erie County Board of Elections. Talk about a conflict of interest, but hey, it pays well, $150,992, on top of the $64,936 he has pulled down in wages from the party since May 2024, according to campaign finance filings.
Zellner is using his party job to position himself to succeed Sean Ryan as state senator. Zellner’s campaign committee reported nearly $344,000 on hand at the beginning of the month, money he can use if he runs for the Senate. And you can be sure he’s calling in the political favors he’s dispensed during his 13-year tenure as party chair.
All this is to say the citizens and taxpayers of Western New York have been ill-served by both parties. But the vitriol coming from some Republican leaders, starting with Kracker, is beyond the pale.
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