TMCnet News
Ex TV reporter seeks office [Tonawanda News, North Tonawanda, N.Y.](Tonawanda News (NY) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) June 03--Former television reporter turned pundit and public relations consultant Stefan Mychajliw is running to be the next Erie County comptroller. Mychajliw, prominent in the WGRZ-Channel 2 coverage of the Erie County "red-green budget" crisis, obtained the Republican Party endorsement to run this fall. Mychajliw will also have the support of the Conservative and Independence parties. He enters a race that includes interim Comptroller David J. Shenk, who was appointed by the Democratic-controlled Erie County Legislature this year to take the place of former comptroller Marc Poloncarz, who vacated the office after defeating Chris Collins to become the Erie County executive. Another Democrat, West Seneca businessman George Hasiotis, sought the interim post in February and said at the time he plans to mount a primary challenge. There are no other announced Republicans in the race. Nominating petitions will be circulated for both parties starting next week. The winner of November's general election will fill out the final year of Poloncarz's original term and would then have to seek re-election to a full, four-year term in 2013. For his part, Michajliw said he wants the county's top money job to serve as a check on the Poloncarz administration. "People deserve an independent watchdog as their comptroller," Mychajliw said. "I've demonstrated that when it comes to holding people in power accountable, I'll do what's right for taxpayers regardless of politics." Mychajliw has been in the public eye since joining the region's NBC affiliate in the late 1990s. He left the station as an on-air reporter in 2007 to become the spokesman for the Buffalo Public School System. He served in that capacity for two years prior to leaving for a similar post with the Ken-Ton school district in 2009. In 2011, Mychajliw left Ken-Ton's payroll to found Profit Media Group, a private PR company servicing a number of public and private entities including the Ken-Ton district, which he still maintains as a client. Mychalijw was also the spokesman for Collins' failed re-election bid last year. Most recently, local TV viewers saw him as the conservative voice on WGRZ's noon hour political talk show "2 Sides" -- a position he formally vacated Friday after becoming an official candidate in the comptroller's race upon receiving the Conservative Party endorsement. Mychajliw said he plans to continue running his PR consultancy during the campaign. Should he win, Mychajliw said he would keep his hands in the business "after 5 p.m." Though he has no educational background in accounting, the former investigative reporter said his time spent in media has prepared him to be the county's top fiscal watchdog. "I know the Erie County budget like the back of my hand," he said. Mychajliw was born on Buffalo's East Side. The Syracuse University graduate maintains ties to that neighborhood, with 25 percent of the profits from his PR firm benefiting the Seneca-Babcock Community Center. The formal kick-off to his campaign will be held at the center today. Contact managing editor Eric DuVall at 639-1000, ext. 4112. ___ (c)2012 Tonawanda News (North Tonawanda, N.Y.) Visit Tonawanda News (North Tonawanda, N.Y.) at www.tonawanda-news.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |