| Legislator Tom Loughran has served on the Erie County Legislature since 2006. He was elected in 2005 to that post.
His opponent, Republican Shelly Schratz, sees him as a "career politician." As outlined in the post about EC-10 and the "career politician" label thrown around in that race, this race is more of the same pot calling the kettle black.
Even the Buffalo News, when writing about this story, couldn't help but acknowledge that Schratz - the one calling Loughran a "career politician" - has more years in political office than her opponent.
"Tell career politician Tom Loughran it's time for a change," says Shelly Schratz of Amherst.
But wait. Schratz, a member of the Amherst Town Board, has spent more years in a political office than Loughran. Both have other sources of income. Schratz runs a restaurant in Amherst, and Loughran runs a restaurant/tavern.
In fact, Schratz has served on the Amherst Town Board during Loughran's tenure on the Erie County Legislature. Prior to that, Schratz was still a member of the town board and, according to his bio, Loughran was as well.
But when comparing years of service, Schratz has more.
Confused? So is Loughran:
So what makes Loughran a career politician and not Schratz?
"Shelly has been in office more than I have," Loughran said. "She has run for the Town Board twice. She has run for county clerk, and now she is pursuing a seat on the County Legislature."
While the Republicans in Erie County are using this as a political talking point, they can't seem to find common ground on their definition of "career politician." This is Schratz's definition of what a "career politician" is:
"To me, the whole focus here is the career politician is someone who does not put the taxpayer first," she said. "I listen to my customers because the customer pays my bills. I do not listen to one special-interest group."
When Hardwick gave his definition, it was "people who have no other career, who have no other life outside of politics."
The only common ground in either is this claim about "special interests." That is a usual, worn out argument. Special interests are groups that focus on one issue (or multiple issues) and lobby a government body on these issues. Special interests will impact the debate no matter who is in office. So trying to use the special interest argument against the incumbents is weak. It's tired politics. We are all part of some special interest group, whether it's wanting our trash picked up, our parks clean and so on.
But calling your opponent a career politician when you, in fact, are a career politician?
Kevin Hardwick couldn't help himself. Neither could Shelly Schratz. They are trying to fool Erie County.
Do they really think the citizens of Erie County are that stupid? Apparently so. |
