The endorsement was part of the committee’s endorsements for the November General Elections.
State Senator George Borrello received the endorsement to run for re-election in the 58th Senate District. Assemblyman Andy Goodell is the endorsed candidate for the 150th Assembly District. And Chautauqua County Sheriff Jim Quattrone had been endorsed to run for re-election.

Jonathan Penhollow also was endorsed to run for County Legislative District 7. He is currently representing that district following the resignation of Mark Odell in July.

Paul “PJ” Wendel

MAYVILLE – The Chautauqua County Legislature has appointed Lakewood Republican Paul “PJ” Wendel as the new Chautauqua County Executive. The appointment came during the Legislature’s organizational meeting on Thursday afternoon.

From 2012 until Thursday, Wendel had represented Lakewood, northern Busti and a small portion of southwestern Jamestown in district 10 of the legislature and was the body’s chairman for 2018 and 2019.

Wendel’s appointment came after he was recommended to be the next county executive by the Chautauqua County Republican Committee. The recommendation came after the November election victory in the state Senate by former county executive George Borrello.

Under recently amended county law, the party committee of the previous executive who left office is given the opportunity to make a recommendation to the legislature on who shall fill a vacancy, with the legislature then required to formally act on the designation.

According to the Post-Journal, Wendel says he will be running for the special election in November of this year to finish Borrello’s original four-year term, which ends in December 2021. He also said he would run again for the full, four-year term during the 2021 general election.

Meanwhile, members the legislature also elected their chairman for the new term.  Bemus point resident and District 8 Republican Pierre Chagnon will be the chairman for the next two years. Chagnon is entering his seventh year in the legislature and had previously served as the chair of the legislature’s audit-and-control committee, along with other committees and commissions.

Paul “PJ” Wendel

MAYVILLE – The Jamestown Post-Journal is reporting that the Chautauqua County Republican Committee has made its recommendation on who should be appointed to fill the vacant County Executive position.

On Thursday, the committee met in a closed-door meeting to choose between Republican Legislators Paul “PJ” Wendel of Lakewood and Mark Odell of Brocton – who both announced their intention to seek the party’s nomination after former County Executive George Borrello left office to serve in the State Senate.

Following the meeting, it was announced that Wendel was the committee’s recommendation. As a result, that recommendation will now be forwarded to the Chautauqua County Legislature for its consideration, with a formal vote on the appointment likely to take place during the Dec. 18 voting session.

The process of selecting a county executive to fill out the remainder of a term when the position is vacated was updated this past summer, when the legislature unanimously approved a plan to allow the respective party of the previous office holder to make a recommendation. Because Borrello is a Republican, the county republican committee was given the opportunity to make the recommendation.

Wendel is a physical education teacher at Falconer who was first elected to the county Legislature in 2012. He has been chairman of the legislature since January 2018.

Once Wendel is formally appointed by the legislature, then his district 10 seat will be vacant and the Republican committees in both Busti and Jamestown will meet to determine a recommendation for his replacement.

County Attorney Stephen Abdella will continue to serve as the acting county executive until Wendel is confirmed by the county Legislature.

Mark Odell

BROCTON – A Republican who’s represented the Brocton and Stockton areas of the Chautauqua County Legislature for the past four years says he wants to be the next county executive.

On Monday Legislator Mark Odell (R-Brocton, District 7) announced he is a candidate for county executive to fill the seat that was recently vacated by George Borrello after he won the 57th State Senate race last month.

Odell said his decision to run for county executive came after he was asked by county residents and political leaders to consider serving as County Executive.

While on the county legislature, Odell has served as the chair of the the Planning and Economic Development Committee and is also the legislature’s representative on the County Industrial Development Agency (IDA) Board.
Odell – who is a 1989 Cassadaga Valley Graduate – also points to his experience as a private-sector businessman as one of his qualifications for being county executive. He holds advanced degrees/certifications in Economics and Engineering and is the Vice President of Sales Engineering for Econoburn Boilers/Abasco Mfg with manufacturing facilities in Brocton and Hamburg.

It’s also been reported that current county legislature chairman Paul “PJ” Wendel (R-Lakewood) is also seeking the county executive appointment.

Under new rules approved in August, the county legislature will await a nomination from the Chautauqua County Republican Committee for who it wants to fill out the remainder of the current county executive term. The Committee has 45 days from Borrello’s resignation to nominate an individual. Borrello’s resignation was on Monday, November 25 and since then county attorney Steve Abdella has been serving as acting county executive.

David Wilfong

JAMESTOWN – David Wilfong is the winner of Tuesday’s Republican Primary for mayor of Jamestown, defeating opponent Andrew Liuzzo with an election night final of 480 to 271. An addition 61 absentee ballots were left to be counted.

Wilfong currently is in his third term in the Chautauqua County Legislature, representing Jamestown out of District 11. He is also the chairman of the Chautauqua County Republican Committee. He was the endorsed candidate for mayor by the Jamestown Republican Party Committee.  But Liuzzo – a first term City Councilman at large – secured enough signatures on a petition to force the Primary on Tuesday.

“Thank all of you who supported my campaign. America is great because we get to choose. Now the residents will decide in November who will lead the city the next four years. This process has been an honor and I look forward to finishing my term as your councilman at large,” Liuzzo said in a statement on his Facebook page following the announced results.

Of the roughly 3800 registered Republican who were eligible to vote, 751 turned out for the election. In addition to those voters, 61 absentee ballots are also left to be counted. That makes the voter turnout for the GOP mayoral primary at 21% – about double what a local primary typically sees, according to Board of Elections commissioner Norm Green.

Wilfong will go on to face the endorsed Democratic candidate Eddie Sundquist in the November General Election to be the city’s next mayor. The race for the open seat comes after Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi announced in February he was not going to run for a fifth consecutive term in office.

Sundquist has also received the endorsements from the Independence and Working Families parties. Wilfong is also the endorsed candidate for the Conservative Party.

he General Election will be held on November 5th.

Meanwhile in the city’s only other Republican primary race, Jamestown Ward 2 City Councilman Tony Dolce defeated challenger Raven Mason Thompson, 119 to 34.

George Borrello (left) and Curt Crandall

The Chautauqua County Board of Elections says a total of 25,500 Republican voters are eligible to vote in today’s Primary for the 57th NYS Senate District – with candidates George Borrello, the current Chautauqua County executive, and Curt Crandall, the chair of the Allegany County Legislature, squaring off.

The Senate district includes Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Allegany and part of Livingston Counties. There are 64,000 active Republican voters eligible to vote across the district.

Borrello was elected Chautauqua County executive in 2017 after spending eight years in the Chautauqua County Legislature, representing his home area of Hanover. Crandall is a long-time member member of the Allegany County Legislature and has served as its chair for the past 14 years.

Sen. Cathy Young was reelected to office in November 2018, but when she announced she was resigning from her seat in late February of this year, it meant that a special election would have to take place to fill that seat. As a result, the Republican party chairs for each of the four counties that comprise the 57th district (Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Allegany, Livingston) met in early March to select their candidate and it was Borrello, with only the Republican Party chair from Allegany County selecting Crandall.

When Gov. Andrew Cuomo did not set a special election date to fill the vacated seat, the special election date was set for this coming November’s general election. That gave Crandall an opportunity to challenge Borrello’s endorsement and force a primary.

Borrello is also the endorsed candidate for the Conservative Party.

• LISTEN: WRFA INTERVIEWS GEORGE BORELLO AND CURT CRANDALL

Andrew Liuzzo (left) and David Wilfong

REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES FOR JAMESTOWN MAYOR

An estimated 3800 Republicans will be choosing their candidate for mayor to appear on the ballot for the November general election.

The two candidates who will appear on today’s republican party ballot are City Councilman at Large Andrew Liuzzo and Chautauqua County Legislator David Wilfong. Liuzzo was first elected to the Jamestown City Council in the 2017 election, while Wilfong was first elected to the County Legislature in 2013. He’s also the current chair of the Chautauqua County Republican Committee.

In February, Wilfong became the endorsed candidate of the Jamestown Republican Committee. But Liuzzo was able to force a primary by collecting an overwhelming number of petition signatures from registered Republicans living within the city.

Wilfong is also the endorsed candidate for the Conservative Party.

• LISTEN: WRFA INTERVIEWS ANDREW LIUZZO AND DAVID WILFONG

Tony Dolce and Raven Mason Thompson

CANDIDATES FOR CITY COUNCIL – WARD 2

There’s also a Republican primary for Jamestown City Council Ward 2 – with incumbent Tony Dolce being challenged by newcomer Raven Mason Thompson.

Dolce is the city Republican committee’s endorsed candidate, having served on the city council since 1999. This is Mason Thompson’s first attempt at running for public office.

• LISTEN: WRFA INTERVIEWS TONY DOLCE AND RAVEN MASON THOMPSON

OTHER LOCAL PRIMARIES

Other local primaries for the Republican Party include Carroll Town Supervisor and Town Clerk, Charlotte Town Council (Vote for 2), and Kiantone Town Supervisor. Also, Republicans have County Legislature primaries in Legislative District 1 in Dunkirk and Legislative District 18, covering the Mayville area, along with the towns of Mina and Findley Lake.

There are no primaries scheduled for the Democrats in Chautauqua County. However, a few third party primaries will be taking place in other areas of the county outside of Jamestown.

Polls are open Noon to 9 p.m.

Election officials say the busiest times to avoid will be Noon to 1 p.m. and in the evening during the dinner hour. All county poll sites will be open.

Results for all races will be posted online tonight at the website VoteChautauqua.com for local races and at Elections.NY.gov for 57th Senate district-wide results.

George Borrello

MAYVILLE – Regardless of what happens with a special election for an open state senate seat, Chautauqua County Executive George Borrello (R-Irving) intends to remain focused on county government while he also campaigns to be the region’s next representative in the New York State Senate.

During an interview this week with WRFA, Borrello spent some time offering an update on his election effort. In March Borrello announced that he would be seeking the Republican Party’s endorsement to be its candidate in a special election for the 57th Senate District. The announcement came after former Senator Cathy Young (R-Olean) resigned from the position the first half of March to take a job with Cornell University, less than three months into a new 2-year term in the Senate.  It also came with Borrello in just the second year of a four-year term as Chautauqua County Executive.

Borrello has already received endorsement from the majority of the Republican Committee Chairs of the four counties in the 57th Senate District (Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Allegany, and Livingston Counties). In addition, he’s secured enough signatures to get his name on the ballot, should the special election wait until this year’s November General Election.

“We were able to deliver more than double of what was needed as far as signatures, and in a very challenging environments, in the sense that this was the first year [candidates] were collecting petitions for the November elections in March [due to a new state law]. Typically that is something that had been done in June July,” Borrello noted. “Then you had the timing of Senator’s Young announcement, which came after the petition process had already started. And then [Republicans] went through our own series of meetings to determine who would be our chosen candidate here in Chautauqua County. You add that all up and we had less than two weeks to collect all those signatures.”

With the seat being vacated, Governor Andrew Cuomo has the option of setting a special election date to fill the seat prior to November. If that were to take place, then Borrello would be the Republican Party’s endorsed candidate by way of the endorsement from the majority of the four county Republican committees (a rule laid out in state law).

But if the Governor opts to not set a special date for an election to fill the seat, then the special election will automatically be held at the same time as the local elections in November. That is the likely scenario and as a result, all Senate candidates will follow the same procedure as any other candidate would, which means they are required to get their name on the ballot through a petition process. That’s why Borrello circulated nominating petitions for the Republican Party, and also for both the Conservative and Independence Parties.

In addition to Borrello running, Allegany County Legislature Chairman Curtis Crandall (R-Belfast) is also seeking the endorsement of registered Republicans in the district, should the special election take place in November. If both Borrello and Crandall submit enough signatures on their nominating petitions, then a Republican Primary Race for the Senate seat will take place in June. That means Borrello would have to focus more energy into a campaign during the next couple months. However, he says he wont let that district him from his current job as County Executive.

“First and foremost, being county executive is job number one and will continue to be,” Borrello said. “But this is a process and I’ll be happy to go out there and tell people why I’m the right choice. Mr. Crandall is nice man, I’ve met him before at New York State Association of Counties and he’s done a great job as a county legislator in Allegany County. So we’ll move through this process as needed.”

In addition to discussing the campaign during his interview with WRFA, Borrello also discusses several county issues including the recently completed Chautauqua Lake Consensus agreement, the newly announced county economic development alliance, and the impact the new state budget will have on the county.

The interview will be broadcast Thursday at 5 p.m. on Community Matters, with an encore at noon on Sunday.

Curtis Crandall

BELFAST, NY – Nominating Petitions to run for office in the 2019 November General Election are due this week and besides the numerous local races that will be taking place there will also likely be a special election for New York’s 57th Senate District.

At the end of February former Senator Cathy Young (R-Olean) announced she would be resigning from her position, creating a vacancy in a district that covers Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, and Allegany Counties along with a portion of Livingston County.

Since then three candidates have received endorsements from party officials to run for the open seat in a special election, including Chautauqua County Executive George Borrello (R-Irving), who’s seeking the Republican, Conservative, and Independence Party lines on the ballot.

But Borrello is not the only person seeking the GOP endorsement. He is joined by long-time Allegany County Legislature Chairman Curtis Crandall (R-Belfast) who recently explained to WRFA why he wants to be the region’s next senator.

“We all know friends, family and neighbors that have left this state. The population is decreasing. And if you look at the reasons why they’re leaving and where they are going to, it has to do with the property taxes and the cost of doing business and living in New York,” Crandall said. “I really think that there could be a better way of doing business in New York. Reduce those costs and get more in line with some of the other states that people are moving to.”

• RELATED: WRFA March 28 Interview with Curtis Crandall

Crandall said that during his time on the Allegany County Legislature he’s also seen first-hand how unfunded mandates on local governments have put pressure on local taxpayers, which is something he would work to remove if elected.

“A lot of the issues that we have to deal with at the county level are pushed down from the state,” Crandall said. “Several mandated programs, as a county we have to carry out and provide for, takes up a large portion of our revenue just for the state programs.”

Crandall also says that if he is elected, he’s not worried about working in a legislative Chamber that will be controlled by a majority of Democrats. He said his years of leadership experience in the Allagany County Legislature has prepared for dealing with lawmakers from both sides of the aisle.

“If you have a good idea or proposal that is good for the 57th District, it’s obviously good for New York State,” Cranadall said. “As long as I’ve been in the legislature – and I’m currently the longest-serving chairman and that’s only a year-to-year designation. You don’t get there by not getting along with others across the aisle or your colleagues.”

Crandall was first elected to the Allegany County Legislature in 2000 and was appointed as chairman of the legislature in 2006. Unlike Chautauqua County, Allegany County doesn’t have a county executive position, meaning the legislature chairman as viewed as the head of county government. Prior to serving in the legislature he was also a member of the Belfast Town Board.

In addition to public service, Crandall is a businessman with memorial companies in Allegany, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties. He said that’s allowed him to regularly travel the district, making him very familiar with the various communities across the western half of the Southern Tier, from the shores of Lake Erie in Chautauqua County to the county line Allegany County shares with Steuben County.

Crandall has been endorsed as a Senate candidate by his home county and he says he has received enough support to get a nomination for the Republican Party. As a result, he will likely square off against Borrello in a party primary, scheduled for June 25.

The winner of the likely primary in June will go on to face Democratic candidate Austin Morgan of Cattaraugus County in November.

George Borrello

MAYVILLE – Chautauqua County Executive George Borrello (R-Irving) has now been endorsed by all four county Republican committees in the 57th State Senate District.

Borrello is vying for the vacated seat previously held by Cathy Young (R-Olean), who left office earlier this month after announcing at the end of February she was taking a job with Cornell University.

If a special election is to take place to fill the seat, the party committees from each county have to choose their candidate.

On Wednesday the Post-Journal reported the Republican Committees in Cattaraugus, Allegany, and Livingston Counties have all come out in support of Borrello, in addition to his receiving the Chautauqua County Republican Committee’s endorsement earlier this month.

Meanwhile the Democratic Committees from each county have selected 22 year old Austin Morgan of Freedom NY.

If the governor does not schedule a special election to fill the remainder of the vacated senate seat, then it will automatically occur during the November 2019 general election. In that case the candidates for the senate race will have to circulate petitions in order to get their name on the ballot. If more than one candidate from the same party gets enough signatures of support then a primary will take place in June.

Austin Morgan

MAYVILLE – Regional Democrats are taping a young resident to serve as their candidate in a special election for state senate.

According to a media release sent out by the Democratic Committee of Chautauqua County, political newcomer Austin Morgan of Freedom in Cattaraugus County is the choice by party leadership to replace former Republican Senator Cathy Young as the 57th State Senate District representative in Albany.

The announcement comes after the County Democratic Chairs of Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Allegany and Livingston met and interviewed candidates this past week.

Morgan is 22-year old Cornell University Spring of 2019 candidate for graduation with degree in Human Development. He is currently the co-president and former client manager of Cornell Productions, a student run company that employs 40-student workers.

“Morgan is 22 going on 40,” said Chautauqua County Democratic Chair Norman Green.

“Morgan will immediately have power and access as a new majority caucus member in the New York State Senate. It makes great economic sense for our region in the new reality of New York politics to elect a young man who will gain seniority in the majority over the coming
decades,” added Livingston County Democratic Chair Judith Hunter.

Green said the next task for County Democratic Committee members to circulate a qualifying designating petition to get Morgan on the ballot.

The media release also stated that the special election to fill senator young’s seat will take place on November 5 during the local general elections. The Governor has the option of choosing an earlier date for a special election for the seat but so far he has not done so.

The seat was vacated by Young earlier this month after she announced she was leaving office to take a position with Cornell University.

Chautauqua County Executive George Borrello is currently vying for the Republican Party’s endorsement and has already been tapped by the Chautauqua county Republican Committee.