CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. (WKBW) — Cheektowaga voters are replacing their traditionally Democratic leadership. On Tuesday, a Republican candidate in both the NYS 143rd assembly district and the town board was elected.
The voters of New York's 143rd district, which covers all of Cheektowaga, Depew and part of Lancaster, elected Republican Patrick Chludzinski, unseating four-term Democratic assemblywoman Monica Wallace.
At the town level, the new seventh member of the town council, Republican Anthony Filipski, won his seat by just around 400 votes.
“Now it seems like they are now, for the first time ever, electing Republicans,” 7 News Political Analyst Bob McCarthy said. “Forever, that’s been Democratic district.”
This happened in a town that gave Kamala Harris about 1,500 more votes than Donald Trump.
We spoke with newly elected assemblyman Chludzinski on Election Day. He told us the ongoing issues with crime, the economy, and what he called a migrant crisis sparked a need for change in the town.
“I believe that the issues that we addressed with the residents resonated with them,” Chludzinski said. “People want good quality of life, they want safe neighborhoods, they’ve lived here their whole lives, they don’t want this in their neighborhoods.”
As for the town, Supervisor Brian Nowak, who is a Democrat, told me this could spark a positive change.
Cheektowaga has been short a town board member since January, leaving them with three Democrats and three Republicans.
“National trends had a lot to do with what happened locally here, when folks win, you congratulate them and you offer to work with them,” Nowak said. “Is it going to help? Absolutely. There have been some things put on the backburner or tabled, not dealt with because of this 3-3 dynamic, we are going to be able to make some decisive decisions.”
Both Chludzinski and Filipski will usher in this new era when their terms begin in January.
