Poor Bill, after thirty years of faithful service in the State Senate to be unceremoniously dumped by the party that he generally voted with on the issues that count to them. He is the only Democratic State Senator in the Senate now to have voted against both the State Gay Rights Law and same gender marriage. I'll bet he's feeling real sorry for that last vote. The last time I spoke to him I told him that the gay lesbian bisexual & transgender community would have had his back against Tim Kennedy if he had just voted for marriage. I'm sure he was worried about the Conservative Party and we see where that got him.

But then there's the matter of County Legislator Tim Kennedy who together with colleagues Tina Bove and Barbara Miller-Williams flipped control of the Legislature into a coalition they made with the Republicans.

How he expects to sell his candidacy to the Democrats of the 58th Senate District such as myself with that on his resume is beyond me.

There is a really horrible situation that could develop with Tim Kennedy in the State Senate. He says he's wants to go to Albany to "reform" things there. But he's got Steve Pigeon and Tom Golisano controlling his candidacy. You remember how they and their Senators Monserrate and Espada deadlocked the Senate last year, making it a pathetic joke. With Monserrate gone Pigeon and Golisano need another tool in the State Senate to make both parties dance.

At the same time Tim Kennedy was seeking the Conservative Party line, he was going to the GLBT community saying that he was all for same gender marriage and all our other issues which the Conservative Party in its state platform opposes. Now I wonder if Ralph Lorrigo knew that before he and his committee in Erie County decided to dump Stachowski? Or maybe the Conservative Party here is rebelling against their own state leadership as well. Obviously you can't be serving both constituencies.

This guy Kennedy is some piece of work. With Golisano and Pigeon directing his campaign this guy will say anything, do anything to get himself elected. If the citizens of the 58th State Senate district and particularly the Democrats just want to send a Pigeon pawn to Albany next year, then by God Tim Kennedy is your man.

I'm proud of the fact that we at the Stonewall Democrats of Western New York have endorsed a truly progressive alternative to either of these two individuals in the person of attorney Sean Cooney. We need a change in Albany, but one who does not rate the people of district as too stupid to see his inherent flaws and contradictions or care. We have in Sean Cooney a genuine progressive Democrat with a true vision for the badly needed changes that must be made.