“Not so Fast” are the words that Jim Sorrentino is muttering to himself these days. You see on Thursday night the Hamburg Conservative Party Committee Members met to decide on the town endorsements this year. Their were 4 candidates for town board to choose from.
The only Conservative Party Candidate was Tom Best, a former Hamburg Police Officer and Blasdell Village Chief of Police. The others were Democrats “Dicky” Smith and “Vinny” Gugliuzza. The Republicans are fielding Town Committee Member Kevin Smardz.
The buzz around town was whether or not the committee would go with Smith or Smardz. “Dicky” has had a long relationship with the Conservative County Chairman Ralph Lorigo and his right hand man Billy Delmont. He was even supposedly heard muttering that he couldn’t wait for the committee to finish the endorsement so he could run back to his fundraiser and report the good news. But that didn’t happen.
In a surprising move the Hamburg Conservative Town Committee overwhelmingly supported Kevin Smardz. That sent a flurry of phone calls to Lorigo and Delmont. It’s now being reported by Democratic insiders that Jim Sorrentino has been trying to work a deal with Lorigo and Delmont to over ride the Town Committees endorsement and support Smith regardless.
This has the Hamburg Conservative Party Committee in an uproar and rumors of removing both Lorigo and Delmont from the Party Leadership is being discussed by many in the party. The reasoning is clear, if a true fiscal conservative is running then he should be supported. Dicky Smith has supported almost every tax increase placed in front of him in the many years he has served as an elected official. That is clearly not very conservative so the committee went with Smardz.
So as Jim Sorrentino fumes away and thinks “not so fast” to himself he has his work cut out for him. Chances are very good his candidates will lose the Independence Party Endorsement when Orsini gets in front of Judge Marshall. That will only leave his own line and the Working Family line. Also the Hamburg Independence Party Town Committee will be meeting the first week of June to decide if they want to run IP candidates for Town Board and boot the Democrats off the party line if Orsini survives in court.
No matter how you slice it, Jim and the boys are in deep trouble this November!
