By Eric DuVall<br><a href="mailto:duvalle@gnnewspaper.com">E-mail Eric</a>
A high-profile Erie County Legislature race may only be 24 hours old, but the two candidates are off to a fast start.
Kevin Hardwick, a Republican Canisius College professor and local political commentator, announced on his Sunday radio show that he will challenge Democratic Legislator Michele Iannello for her 10th District seat.
In response, Iannello on Monday sent out a written statement attacking Hardwick for, among other things, voting “to raise his own pay” while a member of the City of Tonawanda Common Council in 2001.
The “Hardball with Hardwick” host swung back Monday, saying Iannello’s charge was “a bald-faced lie.”
Hardwick said he actually received a lower salary when he left the council in 2001 to run for Erie County Legislature than when he was elected. He said he “led the charge” to cut pay for councilmen, cutting his part-time salary from $6,719.88 in his first year (1996) to $6,500 in his last year (2001).
Hardwick said he did vote in favor of raising council pay to $7,000 for the council that would be seated in 2002, but that he never received the raise because he wasn’t seeking re-election.
“I’m in the race for the first day and I’m (thinking) ‘My God, most politicians wait until the last week to lie about their opponents.’ This was the first three hours. It’s going to be a long summer,” Hardwick said.
Iannello conceded that Hardwick did not actually receive the raise, but defended her statement, quoting a newspaper article about the vote that appeared in May 2001. Iannello said Hardwick didn’t announce his Legislature candidacy until June.
“Call it what you may,” Iannello said. “If he were to have run for re-election, yes he would have (received the raise). He did vote for it.”
Asked whether she would support a pay cut for Erie County legislators who make in excess of $42,000 per year, Iannello said she would, “if that was the consensus.”
She would not support a reduction in the staff afforded to Erie County lawmakers for their district offices. Iannello, who has two part-time employees who report to her Kenmore office, said those positions are needed to help her constituents when they call seeking assistance.
“I have two part-timers. Being a full-time legislator, I have not enough staff,” she said.
When weighing the cost of her salary, Iannello points out that she costs each of her constituents 66 cents per year, a small price for the amount of help her staff can provide.
“Unless you’re actually in this position, you don’t know the number of people needing, wanting you at events,” she said. “I do this day, night and on weekends.”
Erie County Executive Chris Collins, a Republican, urged Hardwick to challenge Iannello. Collins has said publicly that he wants to target “obstructionists” in county government who oppose his agenda.
Collins has pledged to back up his words with financial support. While the county executive is limited to a maximum $2,000 personal donation, he can direct his large base of supporters in the business community to help out Hardwick’s campaign.
Despite the financial support of Collins’ political backers, Hardwick said he would be able to raise his own campaign donations through a network of former students at Canisius and based on his reputation in the community.
“He’ll be making a significant contribution to my campaign,” Hardwick said. “But I’ll be able to raise a lot of my own money.”
Iannello said Hardwick will be a “rubber stamp” in the Legislature for Collins, citing Hardwick’s previous claims to support “90 percent of (then-executive) Joel Giambra’s agenda.”
Hardwick responded, saying that, while he supported the now-vilified former political figure in 2001, by the time Hardwick ran for re-election in 2003, the two had a falling out. The result, according to Hardwick, was being forced to run an independent campaign against a Giambra-supported candidate, which Hardwick eventually lost.
Giambra — who was re-elected by a wide margin in 2003, the same year Hardwick lost the 10th district seat —largely fell out of the public’s favor in 2004, during the county’s “red-budget/green-budget” financial emergency. County coffers were emptied after Giambra’s budget relied on a one-penny increase in the sales tax, which lawmakers refused to support.
Hardwick maintains that he “stood up to Joel Giambra” before the budget crisis when it posed a significant political risk.
He pledged that, despite the financial support he will receive from Collins, he could still maintain an independent voice in county government.
“Some people can’t be bought,” Hardwick said. “I don’t have any problem standing up to people.”
Hardwick has taken leave from his Sunday morning radio show during the campaign.
Contact Editor Eric DuVall at 693-1000, ext. 112.
