“I think it’s a number of things,” Erie County Legislator Kevin Hardwick said this afternoon of his decision to leave the Republican Caucus in favor of the Democrats. “It’s been smoldering for a long time”
But the impetus was roads.
Hardwick said he’s been hoping to have more money allocated to improving roads in Erie County and thought a budget proposal to do that was worth switching sides for — at least for that one vote. But the reaction from his fellow Republicans pushed him further towards the Democrats.
“I was accused of consorting with the devil” for talking with Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz — a Democrat, Hardwick said. “I just want a place to caucus where I don’t have to have permission to speak to people in the other party … and where compromise does not equal a sell-out.”
Erie County GOP Chairman Nick Langworthy used those exact words: “sold out.”
Kevin Hardwick has notified me that he is leaving the Republican conference. It comes as no surprise after his many secret meetings and back room deals with Mark Poloncarz which got more pork for Kevin and hurt his Republican colleague’s districts. Simply put, Kevin sold out.— Nick Langworthy (@NickLangworthy) December 18, 2018
Hardwick said he had called Langworthy ahead of his planned announcement that he’d caucus with the Democrats because he didn’t want Langworthy to be blindsided by the news. In turn, Langworthy let the cat out of the bag with the above tweet.
“I should have realized that would happen,” Hardwick said. “I don’t hold that against Nick.”
People talk about it being tribal. … it is. It’s us against them. It’s the Sharks and the Jets.” — Kevin Hardwick, Erie County Legislator
“And it just got out of hand with this latest budget thing,” he said. “They (his GOP colleagues) didn’t want to compromise”
Nice meeting with @TimWBEN this morning. I told him that since it would be tough to put shows together before Christmas and New Years and 2019 is my re-election year, yesterday’s #Hardline would be my last for awhile. Very grateful to Tim, @TheJoeBeamer and all at @NewsRadio930.— Kevin Hardwick (@kevinhardwick) December 17, 2018
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