Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Erie County GOP Chairman Michael Kracker called the just concluded election, "a great night for the Republican Party" during an appearance on WBEN Wednesday morning.
Kracker cited two victories on Wednesday. In West Seneca, Republicans have full control of the town board, while in Hamburg, Republicans have a majority on the town board.
But in the marquee race in this year's election, Republicans lost by a big margin in the contest for Erie County Executive. Mark Poloncarz defeated Chrissy Casilio, 58% to 40%.
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"I didn't expect her to lose by such a wide margin," said Republican strategist
Carl Calabrese. "I thought she would come in around the same place as Lynn Dixon four years ago (54% - 46%). The size of the defeat was significant."
WBEN asked Kracker, in hindsight, if there is regret in not going with a more experienced candidate?
"No," he said. "We talked to a lot of people about running for County Executive. I'm very proud that Chrissy stepped-up to take on this fight. It wasn't easy. She had to stand toe to toe with one of the most prominent politicians in Erie County and she did so with a certain bravado."
Kracker added that he is proud of Casilio and thinks she has a bright future ahead.
Calabrese, however, pointed to two factors.
"A more seasoned, experienced candidate could have made a difference, as well as a top notch strategy team. The team would be responsible for making sure the candidate is prepared to advance ideas and exploit vulnerabilities."
Calabrese said he was disappointed in the number of times the Casilio campaign failed to exploit opportunities and missed other issues. He thought debate prep was poor as she did not have answers for two issues that they knew the county executive was going to bring up. Her tweets and the Jan. 6 incident.
"If you had a top notch strategy team, you drill this stuff. You prepare your candidate. If he says this, then you say that. When I watched the [Channel 4] debate, I thought there were missed opportunities with the women issue, the COVID issue, the migrant issue and the Jan. 6 issue."
Does Calabrese read anything into Kracker's comment about how Casilio stepped-up? Does it mean that nobody else wanted to run against Poloncarz?
"It's obvious that the A-list candidate, people like Ed Rath, Chris Jacobs, Lynn Dixon, and some town supervisors passed on it because they didn't think it was a winnable race. That changed dramatically in August, which I call the month from hell for Mark Poloncarz."
Calabrese said to beat an incumbent, you have to drive up their negatives. But you also have to give people a vision of what you're going to do differently. "It has to be exciting. It has to be novel. That didn't happen," he said.
2007 was the last time a Republican was elected as Erie County Executive. That happened to be Chris Collins.