William O. Nye will stand in for the late David A. Leible on the Democratic line in this year’s Pendleton highway superintendent election.
Nye’s substitute candidacy was authorized by the Niagara County Democratic Committee earlier this week, according to county election commissioner Lora Allen.
Leible, the longtime Pendleton town council member undertaking his second run at the town highway supervisor’s post, died Aug. 10.
Nye, a member of the Working Families Party, said he’s honored to run in his longtime friend’s place.
“It’s my pleasure to carry this nomination for Dave,” he said. “I do thank the Democrats for reaching out to me.”
Nye actually was already in the race, unintentionally, as the Working Families Party candidate via write-in votes cast in the June primary election. He said Leible, a registered Republican who was endorsed by the county Democratic committee, had sought the Working Families line as well but due to a misunderstanding of the rules was unable to secure it outright. While trying to help Leible secure the minor line through write-in votes, Nye said he ended up the winner by four write-ins.
Leible’s designated committee on vacancies — that’s a panel appointed by a candidate to select their successor in certain scenarios including the candidate’s death — nominated Nye, and after he accepted, the county Democratic committee authorized candidate substitution, according to county committee chair Chris Borgatti.
Nye got the Democratic nod because he’s well known around Pendleton, has a track record in local politics and was already in the race, Borgatti said.
“We wanted to make sure we had a serious candidate,” he said, adding, “I think he’d do a good job.”
The Republican-and-Conservative candidate in the race is incumbent highway superintendent David I. Fischer.
Nye said his campaign will be low-key as he’s healing from a flare-up of a recurring back problem.
Asked whether that health condition would prevent him taking the job if he won the highway post, he said it would not. The longtime member of the Teamsters union added that if he was the superintendent, he’d “look out for” the highway department workers first and foremost, “no kowtowing to politicians.”
The odds of Nye winning in a solidly Republican district are slim, of course. Realistically, he said, his candidacy is about ensuring voters have a choice. In 2015, Nye was the Democratic committee-backed candidate for 12th district Niagara County legislator, and while he lost the race, he’s not sorry he ran.
“We just don’t want incumbents to keep taking seats automatically,” Nye said. “They should have challengers every election.”