By Sean Gallagher
CLARENCE — The race for the 144th Assembly District is a quiet one, but it asks a loud question: who should benefit from the cheap hydropower generated a few miles from the district line, and who should decide where new energy projects go?
Republican Assemblyman Paul Bologna of Clarence is seeking a second term on the Republican and Conservative lines. His challenger, Democrat Donna Dye Sholk of Lockport, is running on the Democratic and Working Families lines, according to the State Board of Elections ballot certification summarized by The Ballot Brief. Polls open Tuesday, Nov. 3, at 6 a.m. and close at 9 p.m.
The district takes in parts of Erie and Niagara counties. Both candidates are pitching themselves on cost of living. They disagree on how the state got here and what it should do next.
The incumbent: “We cannot spend our way to prosperity”
Bologna was elected in November 2024 after serving as chief of staff to his predecessor, former Assemblyman Mike Norris, according to his official Assembly biography. The biography lists public safety, affordability and “local control for decisions like energy projects” as his priorities, along with lower child care costs.
His sharpest public statement on the state’s finances came after Gov. Kathy Hochul’s 2025 State of the State address. “As a State we cannot spend our way to prosperity, throwing money at self-inflicted problems,” Bologna said in a Jan. 14, 2025 statement. He called the governor’s one-time $500 “inflation rebate” checks “nothing more than a gimmick.”
He argued that surplus sales tax revenue should go to capital projects, paying down debt and easing what he called “the tsunami of regulations that New York State businesses are forced to contend with.”
On energy, Bologna has joined Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt and other Republicans in criticizing the pace of the state’s 2019 climate law. At a September 2025 rally outside a state energy-plan hearing in Buffalo, he warned that the grid cannot carry the load the law assumes. “I don’t care what the hell you have, even if we had a nuclear facility that was up and running, it doesn’t matter, because you can’t get the power from the source to people’s homes,” Bologna said, according to Buffalo Toronto Public Media. “No one seems to be talking about that.”
Hochul herself has since said the state would slow parts of the climate law’s timeline. “I had to take a closer look and realize we cannot reach those objectives there were, back before I became governor, in a time frame that’s going to not hurt ratepayers,” the governor said in July 2025, as quoted by BTPM. “So we’re slowing things down.”
The challenger: Niagara power for Niagara and Erie counties
Sholk spent more than 40 years in business accounting and finance, most recently as controller of the Olin plant in Niagara Falls, according to her campaign website. She is a certified management accountant and says she has fostered children and volunteered with meal programs for decades. She lists the Niagara County Democratic Committee, the Communications Workers of America and the Working Families Party as supporters.
Her central pitch is about electricity bills. “The unallocated power from the New York Power Authority (NYPA) plant in Niagara Falls should be used for the citizens of Niagara and Erie counties,” she writes on her priorities page. “Utility bills are high and residents are struggling to pay them.”
That plant, the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant, is in Lewiston. Its low-cost power is allocated by the Power Authority under state law, largely to businesses that promise jobs. Sholk’s plan would require Albany to change how that power is shared, and her site does not say how she would win that fight in a Republican-held seat in a Democratic Assembly. That is a fair question for her, just as the cost of slowing the climate law is a fair question for Bologna.
Sholk also wants to fix aging water systems, “particularly the City of Lockport,” and promises to “secure state and federal funds to replace the leaking and obsolete pipes.” On health care, she proposes a program to encourage graduates of the University at Buffalo’s Jacobs School of Medicine to practice locally, noting that “rural hospitals are being closed” and emergency-room waits are long.
“What we need right now are not career politicians — we need problem solvers,” her campaign biography says.
Following the money
Both campaigns are running largely on the state’s new public matching-funds program, according to filings with the State Board of Elections in the state’s open campaign finance data.
Bologna for Assembly 2026 has reported about $137,100 in public matching funds this cycle, including $127,786 in a single July payment. It has also reported about $40,400 from individuals, $17,600 from corporations and $14,300 from other sources such as committees. Its largest recent costs were four campaign mailings from QMC Group of about $16,175 each, billed between Oct. 6 and Oct. 13.
Friends of Donna Dye Sholk has reported about $112,800 in public funds, about $16,900 from individuals and about $1,200 from other sources. Its biggest bills went to Threshold Group for literature, mailings and online ads, including a $29,750 literature payment in late September. Her 11-day pre-general report also shows a $15,000 payment to the Erie County Democratic Committee for campaign mailings.
Bologna’s committee has also sent money out: transfers to the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee and to the Niagara and Erie County Republican committees appear in his filings.
What to watch Tuesday
The 144th has elected Republicans in recent cycles, and Bologna has the advantages of incumbency and a larger war chest. Sholk is betting that anger over utility bills crosses party lines in a district that sits in the shadow of one of the country’s largest hydropower plants.
Responses from either campaign will be added to this story if received.
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