Thanksgiving preparations are underway, the 2026 elections are shifting into gear, and the Bills are wondering if they might not make the playoffs.
Here are some facts, observations, and heard-on-the-streets:
- There seems to be some problems in MAGAland. Affordability and the cost of groceries, inflation, rising medical and other insurance costs, threats to SNAP coverage, etc. And lest we forget: the Epstein files – what will actually be released?
- And then there are some MAGA political problems: was Majorie Taylor Greene forced out and is she taking some of the following with her? We just watched a revolt in the House about the Epstein files; the Senate refuses to end the filibuster rule; gerrymandering may be tanking in Kansas and Indiana; and what about Texas?
- Donald Trump’s poll numbers are dropping everywhere on the economy, inflation, immigration, foreign wars plus gaudy displays of opulence with state dinners, the $300 million ballroom, and gold piled upon gold everywhere in the White House.
- And then last Friday Trump and New York City Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani had a buddy-buddy meeting in the Oval Office. Congresswoman Elise Stefanik was already carrying Trump’s baggage on the policy issues that are going south. She was passed over for vice president, had her nomination as UN ambassador yanked with no House leadership position to return to, and now her favorite gubernatorial campaign talking point – Mamdani – is shredded. Her campaign attack meister Chris Grant is going to have to charge twice – once for the Mamdani attacks that won’t work now and then for a whole new batch of attacks. Ca-ching, ca-ching!
- Nobody expected Carl Paladino to defeat Rick Lazio in the 2010 Republican primary for governor. Maybe Bruce Blakeman has a chance against Stefanik.
- Activities in the special election in state Senate District 61 are moving fast. The four party executive committees that will select the candidates may be acting in the next four to six weeks. The election will be in late February.
- Jeremy Zellner will be the Democratic candidate. Who will run under the Republican, Conservative, and Working Families lines remains to be seen.
- Assemblyman Jon Rivera will run against Zellner in next June’s Democratic primary. The Democratic Committees in the Tonawanda’s, Amherst, and Grand Island, representing 80 percent of the district’s registered voters, are solidly for Zellner.
- Rivera will be giving up his Assembly seat to run for the Senate. Five or more candidates have expressed an interest in the 149th Assembly District. Fifty-six percent of the district is in the Town of Hamburg. Buffalo Common Councilmember Mitch Nowakowski could clear the field if he decides to run.
- Lawyer/political activist Peter Reese is committing $800,000 in personal funds to defeat Zellner. Who his efforts are intended to help is not clear but it would seem that Rivera would be Reese’s candidate. Over the past 20 years Reese has made nearly $759,000 in political contributions to candidates across a wide political spectrum.
- Many county legislators and town officeholders who you just recently heard from will be back at your doors as the state transitions most local offices to an even-numbered election year cycle. With elections for Congress, statewide offices, state legislators plus the local offices the ballots will be very long. The gubernatorial election will increase voter turnout. It was just 29 percent in Erie County in 2025.
- Go Bills!? The AFC Eastern Division Championship is gone and the team’s on again off again performances make me wonder if they could fall from a wild card team, to “in the hunt,” to home watching the playoffs in January.
- Meanwhile the main news out of the Buffalo Sabres is still that Kevyn Adams is general manager and Lindy Ruff is the coach. The team is once again sinking to the bottom of their division and conference.
- Wasting away again in Pegulaville, searching for…
- Happy Thanksgiving to all!
Bluesky @kenkruly
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