Buffalo attorney Peter Savage III handily defeated the only substantial challenger, Michele Iannello, at a meeting of Democratic committeemen last Saturday, convened to recommend a replacement to fill the vacant Erie County Third Legislative District seat. Following interminable foot dragging and unnecessary delays by Erie County Democratic Chairman Jeremy J. Zellner, Savage polled 62% of the votes on the first ballot. Zellner had intentionally delayed calling the meeting for months, wailing about situational "gridlock" and claiming that it would somehow be disastrous to have a vote with no leading candidate in sight. "Nobody controls this endorsement," he said. "There is going to have to be a consensus to put this together." See BNews When he finally complied with the party rules and convened the committee members, Savage dispatched all challengers with ease. More details on the meeting have been reported previously.
Amazingly enough, most of Savage's supporters were women, blissfully unaware of the Alan Bedenko mandate to select a female legislator. It's likely they were led astray by the fact that only Savage and Kenmore Mayor Patrick Mang had any real grasp of the functions, scope and economics of county government. Or perhaps they had heard vacuous phrases like "helping the community", "forgetting the divisions of the past and working together" and "Democratic values" so many times that they just wanted to run out of the room screaming. Maybe they were just overwhelmed by Peter's rugged good looks and animal magnetism?
Amazingly enough, most of Savage's supporters were women, blissfully unaware of the Alan Bedenko mandate to select a female legislator. It's likely they were led astray by the fact that only Savage and Kenmore Mayor Patrick Mang had any real grasp of the functions, scope and economics of county government. Or perhaps they had heard vacuous phrases like "helping the community", "forgetting the divisions of the past and working together" and "Democratic values" so many times that they just wanted to run out of the room screaming. Maybe they were just overwhelmed by Peter's rugged good looks and animal magnetism?
Who knows. Women are such frail and fickle creatures, Miss Scarlett.
