Nov 17
2025
A MAGA dream team or nightmare?
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WKBW’s Michael Wooten reports that Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik has recruited what I consider a “rogues’ gallery” of Western New York Republican operatives to help run her campaign for governor next year.
- Michael Kracker is chair of the Erie County GOP and a top aide to state Sen. Rob Ortt of Niagara County. He’s been named chairman of Stefanik’s campaign. Kracker most recently ran James Gardner’s bid for Buffalo mayor — a schizophrenic effort in which Gardner’s often intelligent discussions of policy were undermined by dark warnings against creeping socialism and rampant crime should Democrat Sean Ryan prevail. Ryan won with 71 percent of the vote.
- Chris Grant is the former chief of staff to Chris Collins, the felonious former congressman and Erie County executive. Grant’s consulting firm, Big Dog Strategies, specializes in the kind of slash-and-burn tactics that damaged Gardner’s long-shot campaign. Big Dog was a big part of getting George Santos, another disgraced ex-congressman, elected to office in 2022.
- And finally there’s Stefan Mychajliw, the former Erie County comptroller who was estranged from his party by the end of his tenure. Mychajliw has been making a living as a political operative since he left office almost four years ago, including a stint working for Big Dog. One of his gigs is editing a weekly newspaper in Long Island that published Santos’ columns from prison.
Kracker’s appointment as campaign manager suggests Stefanik thinks she has a crack at winning Erie County. I don’t know about that, considering it’s Gov. Kathy Hochul’s home turf.
Statewide polling is all over the place. September polling by Sienna had Hochul up 24 points. A different pollster last week reported numbers that had the governor up by only 3 points.
Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans across the state by a two-to-one margin. That’s evidenced by Democrats holding all five statewide offices — governor, comptroller, attorney general and both U.S. Senate seats — and controlling both houses of the state Legislature.
Then again, it’s not unheard of for a Republican to prevail. Consider that George Pataki got himself elected governor three times in the ’80s and ’90s.
Donald Trump will loom large in next year’s election and that doesn’t bode well for Stefanik, as big of a supporter as the president has in Congress.
Kamala Harris beat Trump in New York in last year’s presidential election, although by smaller margins than Joe Biden did before her and Hillary Clinton before him.
What’s more, Trump’s approval rating in New York is a negative 15 percent. Hochul’s latest approval ratings are plus 15 percent, although she’s not considered an especially popular governor.
New York Focus reports that progressive candidates won a number of offices in upstate New York. Count Buffalo mayor-elect Sean Ryan among them. Seattle just elected a left-of-center mayor, as well.
The Buffalo News, under orders from its chain owner, Lee Enterprises, has jettisoned four more journalists, Dale Anderson, Toni Ruberto, Natalie Brophy and Jamal Harris Jr. The cost-cutting move leaves the newsroom with about 40 people by my estimate, down from more than 200 back in the day.
Plug Power, hemorrhaging red ink, has stopped construction of its hydrogen plant at the STAMP industrial park near Batavia. We reported back in 2021 that the company had been awarded subsidies with $4 million per job.
Another month, another drop in Canadians venturing to the United States. We’re talking big declines — 30 percent by car, 24 percent by air.
Donate to support our nonprofit newsroomThe New Republic reports on another sign that the American economy is headed for trouble, if it’s not there already.
Americans are falling behind on their bills at rates not seen in years. Car payment delinquencies are at their highest point in decades, credit card defaults have climbed to levels last reached in 2010, and student loan delinquencies have surged since repayment resumed, with nearly one in three borrowers at risk of default. Total household debt has hit an all-time high of $18.4 trillion in the second quarter of 2025, and the average household now owes more than $100,000—a 13 percent jump between 2020 and 2024.
The magazine also reports on moves by Trump to revise the tax code to benefit the rich.
Two stories from ProPublica:
- Distorted and misleading coverage by Fox News of “rioting” in Portland apparently triggered Trump’s decision to send in the National Guard.
- How Trump has used pardons to reward allies and donors.
Two immigration stories of note:
- Trump’s family businesses have sought permission to hire nearly 200 foreign workers this year.
- Migrants shipped off to a notorious Salvadoran prison have suffered all sorts of terrible abuse.
They said they were punished in a dark room called the island, where they were trampled, kicked and forced to kneel for hours. One man said officers thrust his head into a tank of water to simulate drowning. Another said he was forced to perform oral sex on guards wearing hoods.
Movie review: Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere. Powerful. Well crafted. Great acting. Pretty accurate as biopics go. Go see it if you’re at all a fan.
Paul McCartney played Buffalo on Friday. I didn’t go. Tickets too damn expensive. But this listen is free, an under-appreciated tune if you ask me. This one, too.
