Golisano back on the political trail

   Tom Golisano's Responsible New York is back in action.

   The political committee run by the billionaire owner of the Buffalo Sabres has mailed thousands of fliers to the Assembly constituents of Sam Hoyt of Buffalo, Francine DelMonte of Lewiston and Susan John of suburban Rochester assailing recent votes enabling the "sweep" of $500 million in New York Power Authority funds to balance the state budget.

    Steve Pigeon, the former Erie County Democratic chairman, who is Golisano's political point man, said the committee has spent about $50,000 on the mailings -- and there's more money where that came from.

   "Tom indicated when he was in Albany that we will be a year-round organization, and this is just a piece of that," he said. "He is outraged at what is happening in NYPA."

   The budget sweep created a major controversy last week when The Buffalo News reported that the authority was planning upstate rate hikes after the funds were directed to the general budget. The authority has since backed away from the idea.

 Pigeon said Golisano resurrected his political operation to call attention to the move among all voters of the three Assembly districts -- not just Democrats. All three targets of the mailings are Democrats.

   The Buffalo News placed a call to DelMonte seeking her reaction, but she was reported on the floor of the Assembly voting on budget bills and unavailable to comment.

   Golisano spent more than $4 million of hs own money in last year's legislative elections, mostly on behalf of Senate Democrats.

   -- Robert J. McCarthy

Comments

[Jeeves]

Yawn. He helps Dems take over the state senate, then he's shocked - shocked! that they do what they do.

Tell him to just fix the Sabres. Maybe "promote" Larry Quinn to help Steve Pigeon in the political office and not have anything to do with the hockey team any more.

[Ron B]

All the political hacks money can buy..... Why doesn't this jerk just run himself and quit pretending he's doing it for "our good".

[RKT]

Golisano should forget concentrating on NY politics. He would be better off if he wants to do something like this in a state like Florida, Texas, Tennessee, Nevada that have state economies based on no state income taxes and little state and local beauracracies dependent on the high taxing structures in place like NY. For a billionaire like Golisano, I'm surprised he's still hanging around NY.

[peter neglia]

read this-

[Lloyd Marshall, Jr.]

Tommy has since reloc'd to Fla. He cites the high taxes, etc., that led him to do as many other WNYers and go South.

I have a baby brother who did likewise with his family(they live outside of Atlanta). Taxes are less, the cost of living is less, and gas is about 25 cents a gallon less.

Now, despite all this, I still have no regard or sympathy for Golisano. His one shortcoming is that he has failed as Buffalo Sabres owner.

After buying the team in 2003, when it was about to go belly-up, the Sabres went from cellar-dwellers in 2003, to just missing the playoffs in 04. After the lockout, they ended up losing to Carolina in the 2006 ECF in the 7th game.

Afterwards, though, the Sabres started going backwards. They could've kept Jay McKee, Mike Grier, and JP Dumont; and made efforts with Martin Biron, Danny Briere, and Chris Drury as their final contract years were nearing. They also could've brought in some Stanley Cup WINNING free agents to help push the Sabres over the top such as Doug Weight or Brendan Shanahan. But... they made no such efforts, and they brought in Jaro Spacek(and a later trade brought in backup goalie Ty Conklin) from the 2006 Stanley Cup LOSERS, the Edmonton Oilers.

Eventually, Messrs. Drury and Briere were let go, and nobody was brought in to make up the difference.

Now, had the Sabres front office done right after the 2006 playoffs, Messrs. Vanek, Afinogenov, Connolly, Stafford, or Peters(for examples) may not be here now, but the Sabres would likely have won a Stanley Cup or two by now.

However, they prefer to "build for the future," rather than put players and coaches in place who could help them win straightaway.

Put into the mix a flunkie as part-owner named Larry Quinn, who only knows how to develop land as opposed to putting a hockey team together, plus flunkies in the GM(Darcy Regier) and head coaching(Lindy Ruff) positions, and you have the product currently in place.

So, Tom Golisano can cry ne a river for all I care... I say he should pick ONE of the following---

1: FORGET his political dabblings and focus on putting together a WINNER on the ice and bring in players/coaches/management people who KNOW how to get things DONE,

-OR-

2: If he is so bent on wielding political influence, he should sell the team to someone who GIVES A D--N about the fans!