By Robert J. McCarthy – One of the fiercest battles of the 2011 election season campaign is taking shape this summer over a Common Council seat in Buffalo’s Fillmore District, which after redistricting, extends from glitzy waterfront condos to some of the city’s roughest East Side neighborhoods.
It pits City Hall’s most durable figure, David A. Franczyk, against an equally savvy political veteran, Laurence F. Adamczyk, who has spent the last 30 years working behind the scenes.
Although it is a race over one Council seat, the contest is attracting names with countywide recognition and has citywide implications.
Dennis T. Gorski, the former county executive; Vincent J. Sorrentino, the former Erie County Democratic chairman; and Maurice L. Garner, the former Grassroots political club president, are among those contributing to Adamczyk, a former aide to Gorski.
The campaign represents the continuing clash between the Common Council, which Franczyk leads as president, and Mayor Byron W. Brown.
The intensity of the contest sometimes creeps into the venomous category.
