The 26 the Congressional Seat and You

Much to the chagrin of many in our community, Mayor Byron Brown recently announced he would not seek the U.S. 26th Congressional seat after the retirement of Congressman Brian Higgins. Brown’s decision is disappointing, but totally understandable. The rigors of uprooting his family at this time in his life would be a burden not worth of the effort and expense.

So now it looks like State Senator Tim Kennedy appears to be the heir apparent to the 26th Congressional seat, considering he recently received the Democratic Party endorsement and evidently has a boatload of cash that has saturated the airways with endless campaign ads. It’s odd Kennedy has so much in his campaign coffers to run such an expensive full on media blitz.

There are those who believe Kennedy has been eyeing and preparing for this move for a long time. Others speculate he received a heads up on Higgins retirement from his Southy brethren long ago, which gave him the inside positioning to get his campaign bag together to step into bigtime politics. He will join a long line of South Buffalo Irishman to hold that seat.

A check of the records shows Kennedy has inexplicably been the leading political fundraiser in the area for several years. Experts don’t have a clear explanation why Kennedy has become a fundraiser favorite since 2021 when he out fundraised the President of the State Senate that year by hundreds of thousands of dollars, and he did not have a race that year.

The real surprise in this race is the lack of contenders thus far. Nate McMurray, Grand Island town supervisor and multiple-time congressional candidate, has thrown his hat into the ring, but it does not appear he can overcome the head start Kennedy has, considering the short time before a special election that will be called 10 days after Higgins officially vacates his seat in February.

The absolute reality of modern politics is it’s all about the Benjamins. It is an established well-known fact of life that the candidate that spends the most usually wins the race 90% of the time. (The one exception is when Hillary Clinton outspent Trump and lost).

I fully expect there will be others that will jump in the race. The question will be can Kennedy and the Democrats hold that seat that was previously held by the Republican (before Higgins was elected), in the November General Presidential year election?

But before I support any Congressional candidate, I have only one question. The answer will definably communicate to their constituencies if they have any sense of morality and human empathy. Can they say, “Cease fire?” If they don’t have the gonads to demand a cease fire in Israel and call for a halt to co-signing and financing the mass slaughter of Palestinian people; if they can’t stand on a moral high ground before entering office – then they will be morally bankrupt, and useless sock puppets for Zionism their entire careers.