LOCKPORT — POLITICS: Forget issues, personnel attacks

being leveled by

Maziarz and Grear.

By Mark Scheer

scheerm@gnnewspaper.com

Some old wounds are being re-opened as a pair of political rivals in the state Senate’s 62nd District prepare for the upcoming Republican primary.

Niagara County Sheriff’s deputy and former GOP Sheriff’s candidate Brian Grear found himself this week once again answering to criticism about his on-the-job performance during the search for a missing girl several years ago.

Grear, who will go head-to-head with incumbent state Sen. George Maziarz, R-Newfane, in next week’s primary, fired back with some criticism of his own, suggesting that Maziarz and Niagara County Republican Chairman Henry Wojtaszek are attacking him in an effort to avoid discussion on the issues of greater importance to voters.

“Two weeks ago, George Maziarz questioned my courage,” Grear said. “This week, he alluded to question of my character. In six weeks of campaigning thus far he’s yet to discuss any positions of substance in his desire for re-election. After 13 years in Albany as the chief status-quo senator, people should certainly expect better.”

On Wednesday, Wojtaszek called on Grear to make his personnel record from the sheriff’s department available to the public, suggesting such a move would give voters a better understand of Grear’s “true” record of public service.

Wojtaszek suggested Grear’s file might shed more light on an issue that has been dogging him for years, a situation several years ago in which former Sheriff Tom Beilein criticized the deputy for failing to join in on a search for a missing three-year-old girl.

“Sheriff Beilein publicly criticized Grear for not joining that search, something Grear has never given a clear explanation for, probably because there is no explanation,” Wojtaszek said. “If Grear really is a true public servant as he claims then he should have no problem opening up his personnel record to full public view.”

Wojtaszek also touched on another episode from Grear’s past — a lawsuit he filed against the sheriff’s department he once hoped to run.

“Brian Grear is asking Republican voters to support him over Sen. Maziarz, yet we know very little about Mr. Grear and what we do know doesn’t appear to be very good,” Wojtaszek said.

Maziarz, Wojtaszek and the local Republican party parted ways with Grear years ago when the former sheriff’s candidate had the Republican endorsement in the 2005 race against Beilein.

Maziarz said GOP leaders were prepared to provide their full support for Grear at the time, but found it impossible to continue to back him once the situation involving the little girl surfaced. In the years since, Maziarz said Grear has never fully explained the situation. The senator called on Grear to do so now.

“He’s talking about his record and if he’s going to talk about his record then he should be proud to release all of it,” Maziarz said.

Grear characterized Wojtaszek’s assertions as a “smokescreen,” intended to draw voters away from the state budget, taxes and other issues of concern. He said he a confidentiality clause included in his settlement with the county prevented him from discussing its terms and conditions.

“I signed the agreement and my attorney has always advised me not to say anything except that I did win,” Grear said. “The bottom line is — I was in the right all along and won the case.”

Grear added that he is prepared to defend his record as a law enforcement officer and his qualifications for holding office in the Senate. He questioned whether Maziarz was prepared to do the same, saying if Maziarz chose to go down the “embarrassing campaign of personal destruction,” Grear is prepared to raise plenty of questions about the senator’s involvement in a tax break agreement for AES Corp. in Somerset, his guilty plea to a misdemeanor charge of failing to list the true identity of a campaign contributor following an investigation in the early 1990s, his hiring of staffers Mike Norris and Jim Ward after their involvement in a scandal at the county Board of Elections, his position during the relicensing of the Robert Moses Power Project and other issues.

“You really know what the voters deserve?” Grear said. “They deserve to know that Wojtaszek and Maziarz are bad people who have their own agendas and that Maziarz has failed us during his Senate tenure.”

Contact reporter Mark Scheer at 282-2311, ext. 2250.