Clark, Teixeira win Democratic primary

by Larry Austin
Niagara Wheatfield Tribune, September 14, 2006

Robert A. Clark and Charles F. Teixeira won the two spots on the Democratic line for November’s Town of Niagara Councilman race during Tuesday’s primary election.

In a four-man race for two spots on the November ballot, Clark received 511 votes and Teixeira 475 votes. Candidates John P. Adams received 439 votes, while Robert E. Herman Sr. received 229.

Adams will still appear on the Working Families line and Herman on the Working Families, Republican, and Conservative party lines in the general election.

“I’m very excited about it and I’m glad people came out and voted,” said Clark. He said he went door-to-door campaigning, handing out his election brochure and listening to voters’ concerns. He said his campaign stressed his belief that voters don’t know what is going on in town hall government.

“They want somebody that’s going to be accountable,” Clark said of the electorate. “And I think the vote showed that.”

Clark said, “The town board needs a different point of view on a lot of issues.”

For a different point of view on Clark, one need look no further than Town of Niagara Supervisor Steve Richards, who ridiculed Clark’s campaign during a Town Board work session Sept. 7, five days before the primary. Richards responded to a letter to the editor by Clark published in the Tribune on Sept. 7 and the Niagara Gazette on Sept. 6.

Richards called Clark a “coward” for not addressing his concerns directly with the board.

“Mr. Clark actually attacked the integrity of this board, and I’m not going to stand for that,” Richards said of the Clark campaign letter. The supervisor went over the Clark letter point by point, on issues such as the sanitation department, army base redevelopment and Power Authority relicensing and its host community agreement. On several points, Richards said Clark was “dead wrong as always.”

Though public hearings and board meetings have been held and committees formed on those issues, “At no time has Mr. Clark ever volunteered to do anything,” Richards said.

Later, Richards added: “I personally think we’d be better off to just jump in an airplane, fly to Lower Manhatten, grab the first homeless person and bring him back here. He’d be a better candidate.”

“I do not mean to attack the town board itself,” Clark said Wednesday of his letter. “It’s the ideas that get displayed that I don’t like.”

“The press should be doing more work here,” Richards said. “This guy could write anything he wants, and it’s terrible. He’s writing lies. I’m telling the truth. The press should ask people, and the people of this town have a right to know these people and what they really are.”