Column: 10 days before the election, politicians tentatively start to campaign (in public) – Buffalo News

When Gov. Andrew Cuomo and company sat down to develop the states Covid-19 reopening plan, we aren't sure into what phase they inserted politicians return to campaign trail.

Were also not sure if state regulations will require pols to wear masks and follow social distance rules, though we are certain the campaigner-in-chief wont abide by any of them.

But it is clear that after almost three months of politicians constrained from all the hand-shaking and baby-kissing requirements of successful campaigning, New Yorks Democrats and Republicans are returning ever so cautiously to the public arena.

Weve been doing road rallies and our parades through towns, said Nate McMurray, the Democratic candidate in the June 23 special election for the 27th Congressional District. I dont want to bring 100 people into a crowded room, but well be doing stuff outside.

Like every other aspect of life in America since mid-March, the business of campaigns and elections has taken a hit. Fundraising was relegated to computer screens instead of the up close and personal affairs you get for $50 (photo op with the candidate for $500, of course).

Many observers believe President Trump would have ventured into the 27th for one of his patented rallies just to prove that Republicans are alive and well in deep blue New York. But the coronavirus nixed that scenario, too.

So for most of 2020, campaigning has been relegated to social media and television, since rallies and personal interaction have become politically incorrect.

Thats not the way our politics works, nor should it. More than anyone, Trump recognizes that gathering about 12,000 people into a hockey arena as he did in Buffalo in April of 2016 works. Such events create an energy a buzz and thats why last week he returned to the rally business, too.

All of this will prove especially interesting in the 27th District, where the campaign is entering its home stretch. Democrat McMurray faces Republican Chris Jacobs in the June 23 special election for the vacancy created by the 2019 resignation of Republican Chris Collins. In a simultaneous GOP primary, Jacobs must run once more against Stefan Mychajliw and Beth Parlato. (Everyone got that straight two elections on the same day?)

During the campaigns last days, the four contenders will at least attempt to personally connect with voters in the time-honored traditions of American politics.

Many of the restaurants arent open, but well go to town parks, Parlato said, adding she will offer coffee and doughnuts to potential voters at one event and hot dogs and ice cream at another.

Its opening up, she said.

Mychajliw has campaigned for the last year, so he is already a familiar face throughout the district. Jacobs, meanwhile, is also tiptoeing back into traditional mode.

I went to Livingston County the other day and talked to about 15 people all while socially distancing, he said. Thats the most people Ive seen in awhile. I would love it to continue.

Still, Covid-19 hovers over this most fascinating pair of elections. Voters remain wary of very public polling places, despite the super-sanitizing procedures planned by county boards of elections. So they have turned to absentee ballots, eschewing another American tradition of greeting their neighbors in the local school gym or fire hall.

More than 100,000 voters in Erie County alone have requested absentee ballots for June 23. Unprecedented.

Another tradition free-wheeling debates in which the candidates show their true colors appears lost this year, too. Though Jacobs and McMurray squared off in a lively session last week over Channel 4s airwaves, the three GOP primary contenders at last report will not debate. WBBZ-TV had hoped to stage what would have been a rip-snorter, but station officials could only get Mychajliw to agree. Cant blame that development on Covid just cold feet.

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Column: 10 days before the election, politicians tentatively start to campaign (in public) - Buffalo News