Joyce Miles of the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal offers a profile of sorts of Alice Kryzan, Democratic candidate for the 26th Congressional District, and suggest that Kryzan has deeper roots in her party than either of her opponents.
In person, Kryzan’s manner is soft-spoken and elegant, yet down-to-earth and steeped with a sense of mission. She’s proud of her Democratic roots — her dad was a mayor of their hometown, Youngstown, Ohio, and was among the first Ohio Democrats to throw in with John F. Kennedy for President in 1960 — and she doesn’t hesitate to point out that her competitors are both former Republicans.
Is being more Democrat-than-thou a virtue in a Republican-leaning district?
As for coverage of her policy statements, it's all about the environment.
She wrote a fairly extensive policy statement linking environmental protection, U.S. energy independence and western New York economic growth opportunities. Among other things, the statement calls for a federal goal of 20 percent renewable-source power generation by 2020; a moratorium on construction of coal-fired power plants; enhanced federal tax credits for renewable energy producers and no new drilling for oil; ramped-up fuel economy standards for vehicles and expanded public transportation; sprawl control and encouragement of “walkable” communities. For western New York, she picks ecotourism and development of “green” industries like biofuels as growth engines.
Kryzan acknowledges the plan is ambitious but she’d argue it’s no more so than President Kennedy’s call to send men to the moon. She figures that got done and so can this.
“All we have to say is say, ‘we’re going to be energy independent in 10 years. We’re going to marshal all of our resources to do it,’” she said. “All we need are leaders who have the courage to do it and people to follow them.”
UPDATE: In other campaign news, the Buffalo News carries an article about Powers neglecting to mention War Kids Relief in his latest campaign literature.
In the campaign’s early days, his charity was mentioned often. But Democratic challengers Jack Davis and Alice Kryzan may have found the Achilles heel.
They’re kicking it at will, and probably will continue to do so until the three-way party primary vote on Sept. 9.
“It was the prominent aspect of his biography when he first started running for Congress,” said Kryzan campaign manager Anne Wadsorth. “And now that some questions have been raised concerning the charity and Jon Powers’ role in it, he has eliminated any reference to it as he talks about his experience.”
Any mention of War Kids Relief on the Jon Powers web site is also hard to find. At least, I couldn't find it without using Google to do a site search. Ooops, I'm blind. There's a button on the upper right of the home page.
