Thom Shagla maintains that electing a Democrat to the 150th Assembly District will best benefit Chautauqua County.
The Bemus Point resident is chairman of the Chautauqua County Independence Party, which endorsed Nancy Bargar for Bill Parment's Assembly seat.
In July, before making the endorsement, Shagla told The Post-Journal that he believes a Republican will not be able to bring as much money to the county as a Democrat - such as Parment did when in office.
In a subsequent editorial, the OBSERVER in Dunkirk then criticized Shagla - saying he only cares about pork-barrel bucks and re-electing incumbent candidates and parties.
"I was saying that, in reality, these things are true," Shagla said recently of his comments. "In 2008, Parment got $275,000. The same year, (Joe) Giglio (R-Gowanda) got $107,000. Cathy Young, because the Republicans were in the majority then, got $2,321,000.
"The very next year, though," Shagla continued, "with the Democrats now being in charge of the Senate and always being in charge of the Assembly, Parment still got $275,000 and Giglio got $120,000, but Cathy Young went from $2,321,000 down to $250,000 because she was now in the minority. Now that's a big difference."
Shagla went on to criticize the OBSERVER's criticism of him, explaining that member item money helps local agencies and organizations.
"From fire departments and libraries," Shagla said, "all that money that was being given out by Cathy Young to people was certainly being used for beneficial things."