NY-27: Dan Humiston Speaks To The Buffalo Bean About The McCain Fundraiser
by Matt at Jul 22nd, 2008
Dan Humiston, the Republican-endorsed candidate for Congress in the 27th congressional district, attended the John McCain fundraiser last night at the Albright-Knox Gallery. He was kind of enough to answer a few questions I had about the fundraiser, since the media and local liberal bloggers seem more interested in talking about the high price of admission.
“Senator McCain focused his remarks primarily on the important issues facing our nation including the economy, price of gas and the war,” Humiston told me.
So, what is the media missing about McCain’s fundraiser? Not just the money he raised, according to Humiston, but the support that is clearly there. “Senator McCain raised a lot of money in a very short period of time,” he explained. “Clearly there is a lot of support for him in Western New York. The media should ask what kind of message this sends to Democrat candidates in this part of the state and how it will affect their campaign strategies.”
Even the Buffalo News wrote off McCain’s efforts by leading their story about the event saying that McCain left Buffalo last night with, “no new hope of carrying New York in November.” So, I was curious if Humiston got any indication that the McCain campaign sees New York as a potential battleground in the presidential election. Humiston said that Western New York “has a large percentage of conservative Democrats who consistently support moderate Republicans over liberal Democrats.” He asked, “Will the Democrat candidates publicly back their the man at the top of their ticket and his views or will they attempt to distance themselves from him?”
Since Humiston is a newcomer to politics, I wanted to know what he got out of the event with McCain. “I am overwhelmed by the excessive amount of money that is necessary to wage a successful campaign,” he told me. “Incumbency comes with many perks and one is the ability to raise large sums of money from Washington’s special interests.” In November, Humiston will face incumbent Brian Higgins, who was first elected to Congress in 2004.
Humiston added, “The candidate who raises the most money usually wins and that’s too bad. If we want to elect a new breed of leaders we need to change the system so it rewards skills other than fundraising.”
Despite the influence of money in politics, Humiston got some encouraging words from John McCain about his race. “I had a good talk to McCain about my race; he said that this year is setting up perfect for a candidate like me (an Independent, business owner who hasn’t been in politics) to knock off an incumbent.”
A friend of mine is an “Independent” voter (you know, the crew that is led by that paragon of virtue, Tony Orsini). My friend was called by Humiston earlier this year and was asked for his support. During the conversation, my friend asked Humiston how he felt he would do in the area of fundraising.
Humiston said, “That’s one area of the campaign that I’m not concerned about. I’m fairly shameless about asking people for money, and I know that I’ll have whatever I need to get my message out.”
This is hilarious! Now Mr. Tanning Guy is whining about how he’s running against the big, bad incumbent who sucks in all the special interest money and is beginning to set the stage for the excuses he’ll be parroting out about the electoral system.
Checking out the financial filings again, I looked at their fundraising totals. Higgins has a lot more individual donors than PAC donors, so I’m not sure where all the complaints about “special interest money” are coming from (especially since Humiston took $5000 bucks from the king of the special interest money - Tom Reynolds. Makes you wonder where that money came from doesn’t it — tobacco, big oil and other, you guessed it, special interests). Also, Humiston seems to have a lot of support in places like Tennessee and Las Vegas, but not much here at home. Looks like his campaign is being bankrolled by the — yeah, you know it…say it along with me — special interests in the indoor tanning industry. Lots of big donations from the owners of other tanning joints — looks like his campaign is being funded solely by SPF 30.
As for McCain’s idea that Humiston is a perfect candidate to knock off an incumbent, that’s just talk. Humiston couldn’t knock off Higgins if he had $5 million. He’s still the only guy getting anything done in this community.
While I cannot verify your story I can say that Brian Higgins is by no means the only person “getting things done” because he can’t legitimately claim to gotten much done during his tenure. He may be good at showing up for ribbon cuttings and other photo ops, but just because he likes to take credit for things doesn’t mean he actually contributed to making them happen. There’s a huge difference between talking about getting results and actually getting results, and Higgins sure does a lot of the talking… but not the getting. The idea that Higgins gets things done is laughable, and I thank you for your amusing humor.
How about I list just 5 of these…we’ll keep it nice and simple for you…
The list of things going nowhere under Jack Quinn/GOP leaders that have happened or are happening under Higgins:
Buffalo’s Inner Harbor Waterfront
Buffalo’s Outer Harbor Waterfront (including transportation improvements)
A new Peace Bridge
A new Federal Courthouse in downtown Buffalo
Thruway tolls on the I-190
Like I’ve been saying, this blog is a joke.
Plans for the courthouse were first unveiled in 2003. Higgins was first elected in 2004. Higgins apparently wasn’t very quick to get funding for the job, which was originally scheduled to open in late 2006/early 2007. If Higgins deserves credit for anything, it’s for not getting funding quick enough to meet it’s originally intended opening date.
The Peace Bridge is going nowhere and fast. Nothing has changed since Higgins was elected. And I can tell you with confidence you’re not going to see any real movement on that for years to come. Have you heard the joke, “Which will happen first, tearing down the Skyway or a new Peace Bridge?”
You know as well as I do that the waterfront project was a long term project involving the efforts of political leaders. Brian Higgins does not deserve credit for that project.
The I-90 tolls? The I-90 tolls were taken down mostly because of the lawsuit by developer Carl Paladino. Higgins merely jumped on the bandwagon and later tried to claim some credit for it.
If you believe Brian Higgins deserves credit for these then you must believe Al Gore invented the internet, too.
Dude, if you’re going to tell lies, at least make them credible. Your entire last post was BS. Good thing that people know better.
Wow, you’ve convinced me.
The sad thing is, you know everything I said was true, and there’s nothing you can say in response to it.
Good one. Next time pass a note to a fellow neanderthal in study hall to make your point.
1. Plans for the courthouse were unveiled in 2003, and the Bush Administration suddenly dropped it from its list of priorities after the 2004 election, since this state remained bluer than blue. It was thanks to the efforts of the local delegation that it was put back on track. The delay for the courthouse rests with the Bush Administration and GSA.
The Peace Bridge was all set to go until a federal agency decided the Common Tern couldn’t figure its way around, and the DHS has completely destroyed any chance of there being shared border management while Bush remains in office. That, unfortunately, is due to idiotic short-sightedness. Higgins and even Reynolds have come out swinging against DHS for this debacle.
Higgins has done more for the Buffalo waterfront, in city government, state government, and federal government, than just about any politician you can name, local or otherwise.
The tolls were brought down as a direct result of the lawsuit you cite, but Higgins did put pressure on the Thruway Authority by threatening to withhold federal funds. That sounds like something.
Alan,
All courthouse projects were put on hold — not just the Buffalo courthouse. It had nothing to do with this being New York, it had to do with the federal budget. Just because you don’t like President Bush doesn’t mean you’re right in blaming him for everything.
And, while I fully support the efforts of the GSA’s Public Buildings Service program to promote high quality architecture in federal buildings, it’s unfortunate that such prime real estate is going towards a government building.
The new Peace Bridge has long long ways to go before ground will broken… even without that nonsense about the common tern… Higgins neither deserves credit or blame over the peace bridge business.
For someone who has been in government as long as Higgins has, he’s hardly accomplished as much as he should or could. The only thing that moves under Higgins is his legs… when he’s running towards a camera for a photo op. He loves doing nothing and taking credit for everything.
Being a camera whore and not accomplishing 100% of what one sets out to accomplish is not unique to any politician of any party.