ERIE COUNTY, N.Y. — Incumbent Democrat Kevin Hardwick is facing off against Republican Christine Czarnik in the race for Erie County comptroller.
“We’re running on our record and I think it’s a great record to run,” said Hardwick.
“There’s so much more that the comptroller needs to be doing,” said Czarnik.
There’s a focus on facts and not partisan politics for both campaigns.
“We’ve never called a press conference. We’ve never spiked the football,” said Hardwick. “Instead, we’ve tried to help those departments become better.”
“I really want to get the politics out of the office of Comptroller and restore professionalism,” said Czarnik.
Czarnik says her 30 years as an accountant provide knowledge Hardwick doesn’t have, pointing to an unredacted check he gave to local media.
“Not having a financial background, the comptroller didn’t know that that was a breach of security,” she noted.
Hardwick says that it “was not a huge deal,” but changes were made afterward to prevent it from happening again.
He points to audits, which found counterfeit checks and embezzlement, as a measure of success.
“That’s $600,000/$700,000 right there that we identified for recovery for taxpayers,” Hardwick added.
Knowing his way around the New York government is valuable too.
“You’re dealing with all sorts of civil service regulations and other state impediments to acting efficiently, so you have to know your public administration,” Hardwick said.
Czarnick is confident her “taxpayer watchdog” approach is best.
“You really need to take the time to dig and find where the waste is and where the excessive spending is, and have the courage to call it out,” she said.