By Sean Gallagher
NIAGARA FALLS — Early voting began Saturday in the race for the open 145th Assembly District seat. Two of Niagara County’s best-known political figures are running for it. Both are drawing on state public matching funds, and they disagree over whether to debate.
Becky Wydysh, a Lewiston Republican and former chair of the Niagara County Legislature, is running on the Republican and Conservative lines. Nate McMurray, a Grand Island Democrat, former Grand Island town supervisor and three-time congressional candidate, is on the Democratic line. That is according to the Niagara County Board of Elections’ certified ballot order. The winner will succeed Angelo Morinello, the Republican who has held the seat since 2017 and is retiring.
The district takes in parts of Niagara and Erie counties, including Niagara Falls, North Tonawanda, Lewiston, Wheatfield, Porter, Cambria and Grand Island. Democrats outnumber Republicans there, 35,956 to 31,141, with 22,687 voters not enrolled in any party, The Buffalo News reported. But the district has leaned Republican in recent elections. President Donald Trump carried it with 55.1% of the two-party vote in 2024, according to precinct results re-aggregated to the current lines by the nonpartisan forecaster 99chambers. Morinello won re-election that year with 61.3%.
Public safety and the cost of living
Wydysh, 50, is Niagara County’s deputy commissioner of jurors. In January 2020 she became the first woman to chair the County Legislature, and she left the chair in December. She has built her campaign around public safety and spending. She opposes the state’s bail changes and its Raise the Age law.
“I think the current leadership in Albany has gotten away from focusing on the victims of crime, and they’re focusing more on the defendants’ side of things,” Wydysh said in an interview with The Buffalo News. “There isn’t that accountability that people used to feel.”
She ties affordability to state budget choices. “A lot of that goes back to some of those policy decisions that are being made in Albany, where money’s being spent for programs and projects that I wouldn’t necessarily prioritize,” Wydysh said, according to the News. On energy, she said “everyone recognizes we need to move toward a greener future, and solar can do that,” but that decisions about solar projects should rest with local governments. She also supports state Senate legislation that would expand the state’s definition of hazardous waste to cover radioactive materials, so more contaminated sites could qualify for cleanup money through the state’s Hazardous Waste Superfund.
Niagara Falls and ‘real representation’
McMurray, 51, consults for international businesses and runs a tourism business in Niagara Falls. He narrowly won election as Grand Island supervisor in 2015 and served one term. He has made the economic revival of Niagara Falls the center of his campaign. He argues that joining the Assembly’s Democratic majority would give the district more influence and “real representation in Albany.”
“We need to figure out a way to make (Niagara Falls State Park) benefit the host community a lot more,” McMurray said, according to The Buffalo News. “Why isn’t it being used to fund the city more and to develop the city?”
He also called for environmental cleanup as an economic strategy. “If we can clean up Niagara Falls, and it could be a job creator, it could be something that actually benefits the region long-term,” McMurray said. He has criticized the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency’s 2022 approval of a $124 million tax break for an Amazon distribution warehouse in the Town of Niagara. He said more money for local government must come with stronger checks and balances, and he described county government as “a system that has fed and re-fed the same people for generations.”
A dispute over debates
The two candidates have not agreed to a debate. McMurray scheduled one for 6 p.m. Oct. 29 at the Falconwood Events Center in Beaver Island State Park and invited Wydysh, the Niagara Gazette reported. Wydysh had already declined a forum at St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute.
Wydysh told the Gazette her participation would depend on the format and the moderators. She said she was not interested in “negativity” or “drama.” She pointed to a videotaped exchange between McMurray and Roger Trevino, the longtime executive vice president of Niagara Falls Redevelopment, at last month’s Niagara Falls NAACP awards dinner. McMurray, a critic of the firm, posted the video himself and has said it shows Trevino as the aggressor. “I have worked too hard in my career and my life as a woman to be on stage and be disrespected,” Wydysh said. “I’d rather be out knocking on doors and engaging in the community.”
McMurray rejected that explanation. “The whole thing is just a scare tactic,” he told the Gazette. “How is she going to stand up for people in Albany if she can’t even debate me?” He added: “The voters deserve to know what she believes and what she thinks.”
The public financing program requires debates in some races, but Assembly candidates are exempt even when they accept public funds, the Gazette noted. McMurray argues that declining to debate, while within the rules, goes against the program’s “spirit.”
The money: public funds and late spending
Both candidates take part in New York’s public campaign finance program. It matches small in-district contributions with state money, up to $175,000 per election for an Assembly candidate.
Wydysh’s committee, Friends of Becky for Assembly, has received six payments since June 30 totaling $175,000, the full general-election maximum, according to the Public Campaign Finance Board’s distribution records. McMurray’s committee, Vote Nate McMurray, received $78,991 on Oct. 5 and $5,800 on Oct. 13, a total of $84,791.
Both committees filed their 11-day pre-general reports with the state Board of Elections on Oct. 23. Those reports cover activity through Oct. 19.
Wydysh reported spending about $101,000 in that period, almost all of it on advertising. About $73,500 went to television ads on WIVB, WGRZ and WKBW, and $19,999.70 went to online ads through Spectrum Reach. Her itemized receipts included $3,000 from the New York State Association of Realtors’ political action committee (listed as RPAC of NYS), $350 from American Environmental and Remediation Corp., and a $2,572.28 public-funds payment. Trevino gave her campaign $150 on Oct. 15.
McMurray reported about $98,600 in spending. The largest items were $49,000 to JHSM Holdings for campaign mailers and $28,000 to Don Turchiarelli for phone polling. He also paid about $12,000 in staff and canvassing wages and $3,000 to a food vendor for a “VoteTober Fest” campaign event. The report lists a $10,000 obligation to Frank Parlato, publisher of the Niagara Falls Reporter, described as “Political Journalism.” The campaign paid $5,000 of it on Oct. 12, and $5,000 is listed as still owed. McMurray’s itemized receipts in the period included about $8,000 from individuals and $1,000 from GDP Consulting LLC. The report was filed as an amended report.
The Buffalo Chronicle has asked both campaigns to comment on the race and on the figures in this story, and will update it with any reply.
How and where to vote early
Early voting runs through Sunday, Nov. 1. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3, when polls are open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. During early voting, residents may vote at any early voting site in their own county.
In Niagara County, the five sites are open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Oct. 24 and 25 and Oct. 28 through Nov. 1, and from noon to 8 p.m. on Oct. 26 and 27, according to the county Board of Elections:
- Niagara Falls Train Station (Amtrak), 825 Depot Ave. W., Niagara Falls
- Cornell Cooperative Extension (Niagara County Fairgrounds), 4487 Lake Ave., Lockport
- Wheatfield Community Center, 2790 Church Road, North Tonawanda
- Newfane Community Center, 2737 Main St., Newfane
- Wendelville Fire Co., 7340 Campbell Blvd., North Tonawanda
In Erie County, which includes Grand Island, all 38 early voting sites are open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Oct. 24 and 25 and Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, and from noon to 9 p.m. Oct. 26 through Oct. 30, according to the Erie County Board of Elections. The nearest site for Grand Island voters is the Grand Island Welcome Center, 1999 Alvin Road. Erie County voters may use any site on the board’s full list, including its main office at 134 W. Eagle St. in Buffalo. Completed absentee ballots can also be dropped off at early voting sites.
Saturday is also the last day to register to vote in the general election, and the last day for a county board to receive a mailed or online application for an absentee or early mail ballot, according to the Erie County political calendar. Voters can still apply in person through Nov. 2.
Featured photo: The New York State Assembly chamber in Albany. Matt Wade (CC BY-SA 2.0), via Wikimedia Commons; cropped.
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