TOWN OF LEWISTON — Ed Lilly and Nate McMurray represent opposite sides of the aisle in terms of their political affiliations.
During a public forum on Tuesday, where they were invited to discuss issues in their respective election races, Lilly, a conservative Republican, and McMurray, an endorsed Democrat, found common ground on several areas, including what they view as the need to shake up the local political scene and improve the quality of leadership at the local and state levels.
Lilly is attempting to oust incumbent town Supervisor Steve Broderick and the two will face off in the June 23 Republican primary. Lilly defeated Broderick in last year’s primary but lost the general election.
McMurray is squaring off against Republican and former Niagara County lawmaker Rebecca Wydysh in a bid to replace incumbent 145th District state Assemblyman Angelo Morinello, a Republican from Niagara Falls who is retiring when his term ends at the end of this year.
Neither Broderick nor Wydysh attended Tuesday’s forum at the Lewiston Fire Co. No. 1 firehall.
Broderick declined multiple invitations to participate, saying he had no desire to debate Lilly in a public forum due to lawsuits he has filed against the town and threats of legal action he has made in the past.
Wydysh was unable to attend due to a scheduling conflict.
During his opening statement, McMurray took issue with the non-attendance, describing it as a “problem” when candidates don’t show up to discuss the issues or to address the public or the local press.
“People should show up to these debates,” he said. “I think we have a situation in Niagara County, whether you are Republican or Democrat, where you have a group of people who have been in control for a long, long time and they feel like they don’t have to show up to these events and they don’t have to talk to the newspaper and they don’t have to have any kind of public accountability because they have the votes locked in because their team votes and everybody is too busy or too apathetic to vote. It’s a situation that has to stop.”
Lilly filed a federal lawsuit against the town for violating his civil rights more than a decade ago. His case is ongoing and is scheduled to return to court in March.
On Tuesday, Lilly said he did not understand why his decision to defend his rights in court prevented Broderick from explaining his actions as town supervisor in a public forum.
He also noted he’s not the only one with active litigation involving the town, which he said is now facing lawsuits from more than 40 people, including the owner of a local pumpkin farm who has been involved in a high-profile legal fight over the use of land.
“No citizen should have to sue the town because the town is violating their property rights or their civil rights,” Lilly said. “In my case, it was my civil rights, but there are other people; it is their property rights that the town gets involved in that they shouldn’t be involved in. That needs to stop.”
Lilly has positioned himself during the campaign as a more fiscally responsible substitute for Broderick, whom he’s frequently criticized for spending too much public money on projects he believes the town doesn’t need.
In a series of videos posted to his YouTube channel in recent weeks, Lilly has been highly critical of the amount of public dollars spent on town recreational projects, including:
• Hundreds of thousands of dollars spent at Lewiston Riverfront Park, which included a new pavilion costing $600,000, a $500,000 boardwalk, a $200,000 kayak launch, $100,000 for other miscellaneous costs and $60,000 for engineering.
• The town’s purchase of camping land formerly owned by the Greater Niagara Frontier Council of the Boy Scouts of America for $675,000.
• The $750,000 effort, supported by the village and the town using Niagara River Greenway money, to install a total of six pickleball courts, including four at Richard F. Soluri Park and two behind Lewiston Fire Co. No. 2 on Saunders Settlement Road.
“The purpose of the Lewiston government is to take care of the infrastructure,” he said. “It is not to provide endless entertainment at very high costs to the taxpayers.”
Lilly said he believes the town needs better fiscal management than what it’s received during Broderick’s tenure as supervisor. He also believes the town would be better served if it spent public funds to address basic infrastructure needs, citing sewer upgrades in areas of the town dealing with sewer service concerns as an example.
“With all these expenses, you can easily see where our taxes are going,” Lilly said. “The City of Buffalo is facing a 19% tax increase. We don’t want that to happen in Lewiston.”
Both Lilly and McMurray have prior experience serving in public office.
Lilly held a seat on the Lewiston-Porter Central School District’s Board of Education for a total of 12 years.
McMurray served as supervisor for the Town of Grand Island for four years from 2015 to 2019. He also ran two unsuccessful congressional campaigns, losing to Republican Chris Collins in the 2018 race and to Republican Chris Jacobs in the 2020 contest.
Both candidates acknowledged they are considered “outsiders” among establishment members and leaders of their respective political parties in Niagara County. They also said they believe voters should view their lack of loyalty to political regimes as a positive because it shows, unlike their opponents, they’re capable of making independent decisions that put residents and taxpayers above party insiders and bosses.
During Tuesday’s forum, both Lilly and McMurray were asked what motivated them to run again.
Lilly said his goal is to stop waste, fraud and abuse in the town and to defend the rights of town residents.
“I like this community. I live in this community. I want to preserve this community,” Lilly said. “Any community you go to, there’s going to be a group of people who are benefiting from the waste, fraud and the abuse and they will do just about anything to maintain it.”
McMurray said he’s not interested in being a career politician and supports term limits for state legislature candidates. He said he’s running because he believes the region needs more “common sense” leadership and because he wants to help communities in the 145th Assembly District, which includes the Town of Lewiston and the cities of Niagara Falls and North Tonawanda, build off the area’s many distinct advantages, which “no one else has.”
If elected, he said he’d push for communities in the district to receive more local control and more of the benefits they deserve from state-run entities like the New York Power Authority and Niagara State Parks that benefit financially from public resources in the Falls and in Lewiston.
“This is an almost unbelievably blessed location, but we lose population every year. Niagara County loses population every year. Niagara County continues to have businesses closed. The City of Niagara Falls, by itself, in the last few years has lost more than half of its population and you have people in office saying it’s fine. As long as my pension is padded, I don’t have to talk to anybody; I can just talk to the people I like and stay in my echo chamber and it’s going to be fine. I don’t think it’s good enough.”