If you haven’t heard yet the big political news is about the Erie County Independence Party and the fight that’s about to begin. This could become one of the epic political battles of this decade and you will have a front row seat. For those of you who haven’t been looking at Illuzer’s or Gramigna’s site the IP situation is heating up to a full boil.
The battle is between Tony Orsini and every other IP player in the area. Even his formerly loyal Executive Board is gunning for his Chairmanship. Orsini knows the cards have turned against him and he is scrambling for anyone to help him, he is even up to his old tricks threatening this years state candidates and their possible endorsements. What happened is pretty simple to understand, Tony took all the fundraising money for himself and left his closest supporters out. Then he turned against them again and supported Paul Clark for County Executive forcing his former supporters to go after his chairmanship.
Make no mistake about this, it’s still a play by the Democrats in control of the county to remove a minor party chairman that they can no longer control. That’s the bottom line! Orsini in turn has run home to the Republican Party asking for their help and they are playing, at least temporarily, for now. Orsini needs a lot of help though. He does have a significant number of family members registered in the IP that he can run for committee members but he doesn’t have a single IP member willing to work the petitions for these people.
So Tony is telling the RP that if they help him, then they are back in his good graces and they will get any and all endorsements this year. The RP wants that help since they are on the verge of losing the State Senate and WNY could be the place the dominoes fall towards the Democrats in the State Senate. Orsini is testing the waters right now by holding a “Friends of Orsini” fundraiser on April 30th at Romenello’s South in Hamburg. He is basically telling all the RP candidates to show up or lose their IP endorsements this year.
In response the remaining IP Captains are forming a picket line outside Romenello’s to force the candidates to turn away. The word is that anyone who attends this fundraiser will kill their parties chances at local endorsements next year after Orsini is defeated and gone. This will also be a big test for the Democrats because if they cross the picket line then how do they tell their union supporters they are with them when they walk out the door?
Let it be known right now that Orsini is standing completely alone in the IP. He has absolutely no support outside of his family. Ever other faction has joined forces to remove him. Deals are being made every day and Orsini’s only hope is that the RP garners enough IP committee members and then have then support Orsini in the end.
I say turn about is fair play and I expect the RP to get committee members on the ballot in the IP, but send those to someone else in the end solidifying their place in the new IP leadership. After all Orsini did stab the RP in the back six years ago and it’s time that he gets it back. If anyone is wondering, I’m all for removing Orsini. I just don’t want to sell off one tyrant for another. More to come.
