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<\/a>\n\t\t\t\tNews and analysis by Geoff Kelly<\/a>, Investigative Post’s political reporter<\/p>\n
Get more Investigative Post reporting in your Google results.<\/p>\n
The main event at Saturday\u2019s meeting of the Erie County Democratic Committee was the election of Jeremy Zellner to an eighth term as party chair. Zellner, facing two challengers, won that contest with more than 85 percent of the weighted vote.<\/p>\n
It took hours to to collect and tally the votes, however.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Well over half the party\u2019s 1,000-plus committee members showed up at Classics V in Amherst for the meeting, according to several accounts of the proceedings. Doors opened at 8:30 a.m. and the meeting began an hour later. The results of the vote for chair, which was conducted by secret ballot, were not announced until around 12:45 p.m.<\/p>\n
By then, committee members were filtering out of the hall, even though there was one more election on the agenda: Cheektowaga Supervisor Brian Nowak\u2019s long-shot bid for treasurer<\/a> against incumbent Olivia Owens, who was the only candidate on Zellner\u2019s slate of party officers who faced an opponent.<\/p>\n There was some talk in the room that the dwindling number of committee members in the room improved Nowak\u2019s odds of pulling an upset, one attendee told me. On top of that, another said, the party had only rented the room until 2 p.m., leaving little time to conduct another secret ballot.<\/p>\n Chuck Eaton \u2014 former chair of the Amherst Democrats, previously chief of staff to former Congressman Brian Higgins, currently chief operating officer of the Erie County Water Authority, an agency rich in patronage jobs \u2014 moved to suspend party rules in order to forgo a vote by secret ballot and proceed by voice vote instead.<\/p>\n That would mean those who supported Nowak over the newly reelected chair\u2019s pick for treasurer would have to make their apostasy public.<\/p>\n Jennifer Hibit, the party secretary who also works for the water authority, called a voice vote on Eaton\u2019s motion to suspend the rules. Several people present told me the voice vote seemed sufficient to carry the motion, but Hibit also asked for a show of hands \u2014 and took pictures with her phone of who voted for and against.<\/p>\n She then called for a voice vote for treasurer, followed by another show of hands. One person who attended told me a quarter of the room raised their hands for Nowak; another person told me it was closer to a third. Both believed Nowak would have received more votes by secret ballot.<\/p>\n Nowak\u2019s supporters again had their pictures taken, which didn\u2019t sit well with the democratic socialist from Cheektowaga, who feared retribution against those who\u2019d voted for him.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to apologize to all those that may be punished for raising their hands in support of me today,\u201d he posted on Facebook<\/a> after the meeting.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one will be punished. That\u2019s not what our side does,\u201d Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz, a Zellner ally, posted in reply.<\/p>\n \u201c[T]hey took pictures of us,\u201d Nowak replied. \u201cIt was wildly inappropriate. The Water Authority decided the treasurers\u2019 election.\u201d<\/p>\n Most of the commenters on Nowak\u2019s post seemed to think retribution was a real possibility. Among these was former Brant town chair Debra Ritz, who Zellner successfully targeted for defeat in a committee race two years ago. Another was former Erie County Legislator Betty Jean Grant, who said the \u201cDemocrat machine pushed the hell out of me.\u201d<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Disinformation-Event-Graphics-IP-article.png\"\/)
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