By Sean Gallagher
WEST SENECA — The two men running for the 142nd Assembly District have both built their campaigns around something they have already done in office. The district runs from South Buffalo through Lackawanna and West Seneca into Orchard Park. Each candidate points to a different set of public records to show what he would do in Albany, and public matching funds and party money have paid for most of the television ads making that case.
Patrick B. Burke, the incumbent, is running on the Democratic and Working Families Party lines. He points to a state law he sponsored that gives state troopers paid leave after traumatic incidents. Gary A. Dickson, West Seneca’s town supervisor, is running on the Republican and Conservative lines. He points to the town’s budgets. Both sets of party lines appear on the certified general election ballot.
Early voting is under way. Erie County voters cast 23,665 ballots over the first weekend, 13,220 on Saturday and 10,396 on Sunday, the county Board of Elections said, according to WGRZ.
Burke’s record: a trooper leave law, and a habit of voting no on local taxes
Mr. Burke’s main legislative accomplishment this term is the critical incident leave law for the New York State Police. The Mental Health Association in New York State says the law, which took effect Sept. 24, guarantees troopers at least 20 calendar days of paid leave when they are designated a primary member of a critical incident, and at least 10 days if they are otherwise directly involved. Critical incidents include firearm discharges, crashes involving a division vehicle, and actions that cause serious injury or death.
The bill, A.6452, passed both chambers in 2025 and was vetoed by Gov. Kathy Hochul in December 2025, according to the legislative tracker Capitol Lens. Mr. Burke and state Sen. Jeremy Cooney, the Senate sponsor, then got the policy into the 2026-27 state budget, according to the release announcing that it had taken effect. Buffalo Toronto Public Media also covered the launch.
“We passed this with overwhelming bipartisan support, the Governor vetoed it — and we didn’t give up,” Mr. Burke said in the Sept. 24 release. “We fought like hell, kept at it, and got it done.”
Charles W. Murphy, president of the New York State Troopers PBA, credited Mr. Burke’s “persistence in pushing this legislation forward after it was vetoed in 2025.” Mr. Murphy said that work earned Mr. Burke the union’s Legislator of the Year honor.
Mr. Burke has made the law the center of his campaign. “I passed my bill, which I think is considered the most groundbreaking police mental health bill in the country,” he told Spectrum News 1. He also named household energy costs as the district’s top concern. “Utility prices are the biggest thing facing my constituents,” he said. “Prioritizing local control over the utility grid and finding ways for people to save money is my priority.”
His floor record is mostly in line with his party, with one exception that cuts against the usual picture of an Assembly Democrat. Capitol Lens found that he votes with his own party on 92% of party-line votes and with Speaker Carl Heastie on 68% of contested votes, and that he did not vote on 7% of roll calls from January 2025 through June 2026. Its scoring places him among the more liberal members of the chamber. He voted for the 2026-27 budget bills.
Most of the 140 votes where he broke with the Speaker, however, were votes against local tax authorizations: hotel and occupancy taxes, mortgage recording taxes, and extensions of county sales tax rates. On many of these, most Democrats voted yes. They include a May 2025 bill extending Erie County’s additional sales tax rate, an occupancy tax for the Town of Amherst in May 2026, and one for Cheektowaga in 2025. All three passed.
Mr. Burke chairs the Assembly’s Cities Committee. Before his Assembly service he was an Erie County legislator.
Dickson’s record: West Seneca’s budgets
Mr. Dickson has been West Seneca’s supervisor since 2019. He is a retired FBI special agent and an Army veteran, The Bee reported, and the first Republican elected to the job in 50 years. He is campaigning on the town’s tax record.
“I had the promise to treat every taxpayer’s dollar as if it was my own,” Mr. Dickson told Spectrum News 1. “So for five years in a row, we did not increase the town budgets.”
His own budget documents use slightly different terms. In his Sept. 27 transmittal letter for the 2027 budget, Mr. Dickson describes “six straight years of budgets under the statutory tax cap, five years of them with no town tax increase.” The letter’s claim is about the town tax rate, not total spending. It says the 2027 tentative budget appropriates “almost $50 million,” about $657,000 or 1.33% more than in 2026. Mr. Dickson is proposing a 2.77% increase in the town tax rate for 2027, which he called “necessary to maintain our excellent financial condition.” He wrote that the increase is still under the state’s 2% levy cap once a 6% cut in special-district levies is counted.
The letter blames most of the cost growth on employee benefits, which it says rose more than $800,000, or 6.1%, “driven in part by changes implemented in the state’s 2026/27 budget and passed on to local government.” It also says the redevelopment of the former Seneca Mall site, where Costco is planned, should bring in significant new property tax revenue once the property is fully built out.
The town board, not the supervisor alone, votes on West Seneca’s final budget.
In Albany, Mr. Dickson says, he would focus on state policy. “These green initiatives are completely impractical,” he told Spectrum News 1. He also cited “public safety issues that are making us less safe, such as bail reform and Raise the Age.” The Bee reported that he supports term limits for state officials and wants to roll back the state’s electric vehicle and building electrification mandates.
Who is paying for the ads
Both campaigns are in the state’s public campaign finance program, and both are getting help from their parties. Most of the money comes from those two sources. Figures below are from filings with the New York State Board of Elections, using each committee’s most recent version of each report.
Mr. Burke’s committee, Patrick Burke for Assembly 2026, reported $144,440 in public matching funds in three payments from the state comptroller between Sept. 4 and Oct. 8. It also reported $232,000 in transfers from the Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee: $100,000 on Sept. 29, $54,000 on Oct. 5 and $78,000 on Oct. 16. The committee reported $230,000 in television ad buys through Mark Guma Communications. Its two pre-general reports show about $24,700 from individual donors.
Dickson for Assembly reported a single $175,000 public funds payment on July 6 and a $20,000 transfer from the Erie County Republican Committee on Oct. 16. Mr. Dickson also lent his campaign $9,000 in January, and the filings still list that loan as outstanding. His committee reported about $178,700 in television spending, most of it placed directly with WGRZ, WIVB and Nexstar Broadcasting. Its two pre-general reports show about $23,300 from individuals.
Each committee also reported spending on polling: about $26,500 for Mr. Burke and $25,700 for Mr. Dickson. These totals cover reports filed through the 11-day pre-general deadline. Large contributions received after that deadline are reported in 24-hour notices.
A close district on paper
Recent results within the district’s lines show a closely divided electorate. Decision Desk HQ’s race data shows former Vice President Kamala Harris finishing 0.06 percentage points ahead of President Donald Trump there in 2024. In the same election, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand carried the district by about 8 points.
The Buffalo Chronicle has asked both campaigns for comment on the records and spending described here. This story will be updated with their responses.
How to vote
Early voting continues at 38 sites across Erie County. Hours are noon to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, according to the Erie County Board of Elections. Erie County voters may use any early voting site. On Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3, polls are open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. at each voter’s assigned polling place. Site lists and polling place lookups are at elections.erie.gov.
Featured photo: West Seneca Town Hall on Union Road, in the 142nd Assembly District. Andre Carrotflower (CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons; cropped.
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