Primary Night: 'Voters wanted a different model'

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN).....In a trio of local, major primary races, endorsed Erie County Democratic Party candidates had a .333 batting average.

That may work in baseball but in politics, it makes for a long night and that's what happened with surprise loses by Erie County Democratic Party chairman Jeremy Zellner, who lost in his bid to retain his 61st District State Senate seat - losing by nearly 10 percentage points to Assemblyman Jon Rivera.

Endorsed Democratic Party candidate Karen Hoak lost in a three-way race to replace Rivera in the 149th Assembly District to attorney Adam Bojak. Kevin Deese finished third in the race.

Bojak gained nearly 50% of the vote.

But, the true stunner was Zellner's lose to Rivera and the wide margin of the Assemblyman's victory. Rivera garnered 10,076 votes to Zellner's 8,270 votes in what was a bruising and expensive primary race where more than $2 million was spent by the two candidates.

"It was a tall task and Jon knew he would be going at it almost all alone," said Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan.

Rivera's strength came from a dedicated pool of volunteers from the Working Family Party, "No Kings" supporters and labor unions. Rivera also worked hard in the district that covers portions of Buffalo and the Town of Amherst plus all of Grand Island, City of Tonawanda, Town of Tonawanda and Villages of Kenmore and Williamsville.

Even on primary night, at 8:30 p,m. - 30 minutes before polls closed - Rivera said he was still out going door-to-door.

Bojak, also drew heavy support from the same pool of volunteers.

"Maybe we do need to really re-look at how to run the (Erie County) Democratic Party," Ryan said.

Last year, Ryan drew heavy support from many of the same groups that this year backed Rivera and Bojak.

Ryan, who opted not to endorse either Zellner or Rivera in the primary, did give Rivera a big vote of confidence on June 25th.

"I have high confidence in Jon," Ryan said.

Poloncarz said the State Senate race between Rivera and Zellner was decided by less than 20% of the more than 91,500 registered Democrats in the 61st District.

County-wide, just 12.,7% of 276,000 eligible registered Democrats voted in the various races.

"Personally, I just want people to get out and vote," Poloncarz said. "I'm concerned that the numbers are so low."

The low turn out may have favored the non-endorsed candidates, something Poloncarz say first hand when he won his first primary in 2005 for the Erie County Comptroller's Race.

"I wasn't totally surprised (of the primary results)," Poloncarz said. "Going into it (the primary) I had a feeling it may not be the endorsed candidate's night."

And, will Zellner be re-elected, this September, as county Democratic Party chairman?

Poloncarz thinks his track record of winning many elections for the Democratic Party may help.

For now, Zellner is keeping a very low profile and has made no public appearances or responded to repeated interview requests since the primary.

"I think Jeremy is going through a period of reflection," Poloncarz said.