The County Executive Urging Democrats to Take Local Politics Seriously

For Mark Poloncarz, all politics is local. 

The New York State Democrat has spent the past 14 years serving as Erie County executive. Before that, he did a six-year stint as the county comptroller. His next mission: giving down-ballot candidates – particularly county-level office-seekers – the kind of strategic and structural support that he says the Democratic Party has too often failed to provide.

Now in his final term as Erie County executive, Poloncarz is launching a national political action committee, Boosting Future Leaders Onward, with the goal of flipping and defending county-level offices nationwide. His pitch is simple: to boost Democratic turnout and build a bench of future state and federal candidates for the party by bolstering local Democrats.

In an interview with Campaigns & Elections, Poloncarz said he wants to level out the playing field for Democrats, who have long struggled to keep pace with Republicans in local and county-level elections. 

“Having seen the impact of local races nationwide, especially on up-ballot races, what I’ve seen for quite some time is the Democratic Party has sort of ceded the local races to the GOP,” Poloncarz said. “They really haven’t had the support from the national organizations as they should have.” 

Poloncarz is soon set to take a turn leading the National Democratic County Officials, the group backing the party’s county-level candidates. He said that for now, his PAC will work in conjunction with the NDCO, but the real goal of starting BFLO is to “make sure something exists once I’m done at NDCO.”

As Poloncarz puts it, local and county races may not be as glamorous as the top-of-the-ticket contests, like Senate, gubernatorial or presidential races. But county officeholders frequently have a more direct impact on the day-to-day lives of Americans than federal officials do. 

And supporting the campaigns of county-level candidates is also more cost effective, he argued. Poloncarz said that he’s aiming to raise seven figures for BFLO. But that money can go a long way, he said.

“We’re not talking about millions of dollars for these races,” Poloncarz said. “In some of these elections, the candidates won’t spend more than $20,000, $25,000, if that. So we don’t need to raise millions of dollars.” 

According to Poloncarz, BFLO is planning to target around 50 county-level races this year in both red and blue states. In the coming weeks, the PAC is planning to roll out an advisory council made up of county officials that will help make strategic decisions. Among those expected to join the council are Harris County, Texas Judge Lina Hidalgo and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley.

Poloncarz also has his eyes set on the future. Democrats nationally are facing demographic challenges in several deep blue states. California, Illinois and New York each lost a congressional seat during the last regular redistricting cycle as their populations declined. Building a successful future for Democrats running in federal races is going to require investing in the local races, Poloncarz said.

“If you look at the demographics and the statistics, I think it’s scaring some people who realize that if we just focus on the shiny object, it’s going to be self-defeating in the long run,” he said. “There’s no way we can overcome demographics by focusing on a handful of swing states.” 

Poloncarz said that he’s been encouraged by the response to BFLO from national Democrats. He said he met last month with Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin, who “understands that we need to build from the ground up.”

For frustrated Democrats, who feel locked out of power and politically helpless in the Trump era, boosting local candidates is a way to help the party and its voters take back a sense of control, Poloncarz said.

“What I find is that a lot of these counties – they don’t have the traditional, consultant-driven infrastructure, but they have volunteers and dedicated people,” he said.  “People who were never involved in politics are getting involved now because they don’t like what they see at the national level. But they also realize we can’t just wait until 2028.”