Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Much has been made of social media posts by Republican candidate for Erie County Executive Chrissy Casilio-Bluhm since declaring her candidacy as the Republican for Erie County Executive.
The controversial posts about the January 6th attack on the Capitol and issues relating to COVID and Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin all appeared on her social media accounts prior to announcing her first-ever political run in a race against longtime incumbent and political operative Mark Poloncarz. Most of the posts have since been deleted from her accounts.
"Give me a break, let's move on," said Casilio-Bluhm as she appeared on the WBEN Hardline program Sunday with host Joe Beamer. "It's a little pathetic that this is the only thing that they can really go on," she said, adding, "They can't attack me on my policies or my record, so they've got to kind of scrub and go to the bottom of the barrel."
Casilio-Bluhm tells WBEN she 'owns' everything she said on social media but also says the context is important. "I went on Twitter to post and stir the pot," she said. "Whether I believed them or not, I made comments in order to get reactions out of people, because that's how Twitter works."
The political newcomer now understands the gravity of social media and hopes to shift the race from her non-political self to that of a candidate for county executive. "Had I known I was going to run, maybe I would have been a little bit more reserved in some of the things I said, But I can't take that back, so I'm owning it and I'm moving on."
Casilio-Bluhm is the endorsed Republican candidate in the race and hopes to become the endorsed Conservative candidate in the race in the coming weeks and months.
To achieve that, the Clarence businesswoman and marketing professional will need to shift the narrative to the issues facing the voters of Erie County and away from her lack of political experience and her social media posts.
Among the issues Casilio-Bluhm says she'll focus on is the current leadership of the Poloncarz administration through COVID and the recent December 2022 blizzard.
"It was incredibly disheartening that we had the national and international spotlight on Western New York and on Buffalo and the focus, the story, was not us prevailing, us not getting through it and being the city of good neighbors," Casilio-Bluhm said of Poloncarz' leadership during the storm. "The headline ended up being Poloncarz having a 'hissy fit' at Byron Brown and embarrassing our city, making it all about him, making it all about pointing fingers at other people."
The Republican plans to point to what she describes as the 'outrageous spending' of Erie County government and to what she calls 'terrible COVID policies' and a the lack of leadership in the COVID recovery.
Casilio-Bluhm's social media accounts have been relatively quiet and free of anything controversial since declaring her candidacy.
"I went on Twitter to post and stir the pot," she said on WBEN Sunday. "I'm moving forward from it. I have to say, nice try, I get what they're trying to do."
