Frank C. Smierciak II, the 2020 challenger to Democratic incumbent Monica P. Wallace in the 143rd Assembly District, is echoing a familiar Republican refrain as he chastises his opponent for an "anti-police agenda."
Indeed, just about every Republican candidate for State Legislature this year lists as a priority rolling back new laws making it easier for those who have been arrested to be freed on bail. Smierciak is no exception.
"It's the top issue," he said. "Nobody wants to see our police handcuffed by this law while judges have lost their judicial discretion. This bill needs to be fixed."
Wallace – seeking her third term – sees other priorities ahead, especially for coping with the Covid-19 epidemic. But even if she acknowledges the need for new "tweaking" of the bail law beyond what has already occurred, the former law clerk to U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara says she has seen enough during a long legal career to recognize the need for reform as well as "the right balance."
People are also reading…
She noted the case of a young woman who died in the Erie County Holding Center.
"I understand there are a lot of dangerous people out there," she said. "But some people would benefit from drug treatment or mental health help rather than being kept overnight in the Erie County Holding Center."
Both candidates also recognize other challenges, especially those posed by Covid-19. Smierciak thinks Cuomo was given too many emergency powers for too long.
"We keep taking ourselves out of the system of checks and balances and that's why we have government," he said.
Smierciak, who twice explored running for Congress but never entered a race, holds bachelor's and master's degrees from the University at Buffalo. Laid off by a health care firm, he touts his Conservative backing as evidence of his "Western New York values – not New York City values."
Wallace calls the Legislature's Covid-19 actions "appropriate for the circumstances." But she also notes her efforts to "push back" as she advocated for shuttered bowling centers or for the 4,000 people working at her district's Walden Galleria, even as she assigns high marks to Cuomo for his response to the pandemic.
The usually solid Democratic seat is gaining some attention this year as Wallace airs television ads, financed in part from a campaign treasury benefiting from $20,000 from the Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee (Smierciak reports only about $9,700 on hand). And as she campaigns throughout the district dominated by Cheektowaga and Lancaster, Wallace touts bills that hold manufacturers accountable to municipalities for volunteer firefighting equipment and that protect from eviction residents of mobile home parks purchased by big developers.
As the state faces a multibillion-dollar deficit, Wallace believes "everything should be on the table" for cuts, though she draws the line at health care.
"Cutting health care in the middle of a pandemic?" she said. "I don't see how we can do that."
